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CLEARWATER - Carlie Brucia's mother rejected drug treatment Monday and pleaded no contest to cocaine and prostitution charges. Susan Schorpen, mother of the slain 11-year-old, has been in jail since she asked for money to perform sex acts on an undercover St. Petersburg police officer Jan. 19. Schorpen, 36, was unable to attend a court hearing last week in Sarasota at which Joseph P. Smith was sentenced to death for abducting, raping and strangling her daughter. The abduction was caught on film by a carwash surveillance camera. Schorpen will serve what remains of a 90-day jail sentence for possessing a...

Two days after the arrest, Department of Corrections officials said Rapkin had two opportunities to have Smith arrested for probation violations before Carlie's death, but let the violations go unpunished. Rapkin contends that the probation officers never said they wanted Smith arrested in the first case, and did not make a case for his arrest in the second case. "I did the best I could," Rapkin said at the time. He quickly became a symbol for people who complain that the criminal justice system is a revolving door for repeat offenders. In the days after Carlie's death, he would not...

Posted on Tue, Mar. 09, 2004 Donations from across the nation have poured in for the Carlie Brucia Rescue Fund. The 11-year-old Sarasota girl was kidnapped and murdered last month. Inmates offer to build memorial for Carlie AIMEE JUAREZ Herald Staff Writer Special report: The Carlie Brucia abduction and murder MANATEE - Saying their hearts had been broken over the abduction and slaying of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, about 70 inmates at the Manatee County jail offered to honor her memory by building a butterfly garden at her Sarasota school. "It (the offer) spoke to me in a very personal fashion,"...

A grand jury indicted Joseph P. Smith on first-degree murder, kidnapping and capital sexual battery charges today.Smith, 37, is being held in the Manatee County Jail without bond in connection with the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. A camera recorded Carlie being led away by a man in a uniform-like outfit and tattoos on his arms from a car wash in Sarasota Feb. 1. Her body was discovered near a church east of Interstate 75 on Feb. 6. Smith was arrested that same day as he sat in jail on a Feb. 3 probation violation and drug charges....

The man charged in Carlie Brucia's death had a knife and tried to trick a woman into leaving a parking lot with him, police records show. By Associated Press Published February 15, 2004 SARASOTA - The man accused of kidnapping and killing an 11-year-old girl tried to lure a woman outside a grocery store in 1997 while he carried a knife and pepper spray, according to a police report. Joseph P. Smith had a knife tucked in his shorts and pepper spray in his car when he approached a 32-year-old woman outside a Kash N' Karry and lied about having...

<p>February 7, 2004 -- The 11-year-old Florida girl whose kidnapping was caught on camera put up a desperate fight against her abductor before being killed, a source close to the investigation told The Post yesterday.</p> <p>Carlie Brucia, whose body was found yesterday just a few miles from where she went missing, was kidnapped and brutally murdered by tattooed ex-con Joseph Smith, 37, police said.</p>

Impact Segment: Raging Rapkin Judge Harry Rapkin of Sarasota, FL refused to send Joseph Smith back to prison on a parole violation. Now, Smith is under arrest and the principal suspect in the brutal murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia. In 1995, Rapkin refused to send Richard Lee Walker back to jail for a probation violation - and now, Walker is the principal suspect in the murder of another young girl, 14-year-old Kristy Degg. Degg's mother Sandra and sister Kristy are guests tonight on The O'Reilly Factor. The judge has declined repeated offers to appear on The Factor - but he...

SARASOTA - Joseph P. Smith won't stand before an unfamiliar name this March when he is expected to enter a plea before a judge. Facing charges in the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Carlie Brucia and two drug-related charges, Smith, 37, is scheduled to face Sarasota Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin at an arraignment hearing March 12, according to the Sarasota County Clerk of Courts' records.The two have never met, but their histories are intertwined.Rapkin crossed paths with Smith's case as recently as December when state corrections officials tried to put Smith back in jail on a probation violation. Rapkin said...

How kidnapper-murderer was caught Posted: February 9, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The nation's attention was riveted last week to the case of an 11-year-old girl, Carlie Brucia, whose kidnapping was caught on a car-wash surveillance camera. Carlie was later found dead. There are several things to be learned from this tragedy. As we all know, the tattooed mechanic, Joseph P. Smith, charged with kidnapping and killing Carlie, had been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993. Thirteen times. Think about that. A 13-time loser. In 1997, in Bradenton, Fla., north of Sarasota, he was charged with kidnapping and...

SARASOTA, Fla. - The two parties responsible for supervising the man suspected in the slaying of an 11-year-old girl pointed fingers at each other Friday for not putting him behind bars in December. Joe Brucia, the father of victim Carlie Brucia, called for an investigation into how Smith's case was handled. "As far as this individual being out on the street, I really find the decisions made by some of these judges very questionable," said Joe Brucia. "He should never have been out on the streets." Both Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin and the Florida Department of Corrections denied wrongdoing in...

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) - A tattooed mechanic with a long rap sheet was charged with murder Friday after authorities found the body of an 11-year-old girl whose kidnapping was captured on a carwash surveillance camera. Police said Joseph P. Smith told a witness that he had kidnapped and killed Carlie Brucia, and authorities used that information to find the sixth-grader's body in a church parking lot a few miles from the carwash. Investigators refused to say how the girl was killed or whether she had been raped. The arrest report said only that she died "as a result of...

<p>February 9, 2004 -- Suspected Florida child killer Joseph Smith borrowed a car from his roommate the day he allegedly kidnapped and murdered 11-year-old Carlie Brucia and handed the vehicle over 16 hours later - with signs of a violent struggle, according to a new report.</p>

I've had requests to get this safety list out there. It's just some quick notes so any additions and comments are welcome. Admin can move it as they wish. Smith, who murdered Carlie Brucia, had once before been up on attempted kidnapping charges on a young woman. Miss Stinson escaped due to quick thinking.SARASOTA --- Stinson, who was 20 at the time, struggled, lost her footing and fell down, then offered Smith $50 to leave her alone. He jumped on top of her. "If you don't quit screaming, I'll cut you," Smith said, according to records. Smith pulled her up...

SARASOTA - Authorities may never finish explaining why a drug addict who was twice accused of attacking women got so many second chances, most recently from a judge with a reputation for leniency. The blaming began even before the shock and heartbreak surrounding the discovery of Carlie Brucia's body started sinking in Friday. Judicial officials came under close scrutiny for putting Joseph Peter Smith, the 11-year-old's suspected murderer, back on the streets after he violated the terms of his supervised release late last year. Among those questioning that decision is Carlie's father, Joe Brucia, who called for an investigation into...

Just heard on WCBS newsradio NY that CNN reports Carlie Brucia found dead in Sarasota.

<p>FOUR YEARS AGO, private investigator Paul Ingels thought Death Row inmate Kevin Cooper might not be guilty.</p> <p>A former Pomona cop, Ingels was involved in the hunt for Cooper when he was wanted for the 1983 Chino Hills murders of Douglas Ryen, Peggy Ryen, their 10-year-old daughter, Jessica, and 11-year-old houseguest Christopher Hughes, as well as the near fatal attack of Josh Ryen, 8. Later, when Ingels was hired to investigate the case by Cooper's defense lawyers, he was skeptical, but signed on clear in the conviction that it was his job to follow the facts wherever they led -- guilty or not guilty.</p>

Abduction Suspect Has History Of 2nd Chances By MIKE SAEWITZ Sarasota Herald-Tribune Published: Feb 7, 2004 SARASOTA - On more than one occasion, the drug-addicted man accused of abducting Carlie Brucia stood before a judge who could have given him maximum penalties of five years in prison. Time after time, Joseph P. Smith received second chances. He was put on probation and sent to treatment programs instead of jail. Smith's arrest record includes charges of false imprisonment, aggravated battery and carrying a concealed weapon. But most of his convictions are for obtaining controlled substances by fraud or possession of drugs....

SARASOTA, Fla. -- If a Florida probation officer had been successful -- Joseph Smith could have been back behind bars more than a month ago. Instead, he's suspected of being the man who kidnapped an 11-year-old girl on Sunday. According to an official at the Florida Department of Corrections, a probation officer had asked a judge to declare Smith in violation of his probation on Dec. 30. That's because Smith hadn't paid all his fines and court costs. But the official says a judge refused to find Smith in violation, which could have returned him to jail. Carlie Brucia hasn't...

Carlie Brucia has been found by police. 610 WIOD has verified the information. The parents were notified last night and the story is breaking exclusively on 610 WIOD. The news department has confirmed this over the phone. WIOD's Phone number is (954)862-2000