Free Republic

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg police are investigating after a person was caught on camera using a flamethrower to torch a Pan-African flag flying on a pole outside the headquarters of a Black international socialist group based in Florida. Authorities were called to the Uhuru house Saturday around 10:15 a.m. to investigate the incident which happed near the intersection of 13th Street South and 18th Avenue South, in St. Petersburg. Security video released by the Uhuru Movement showed the driver of a white sedan park outside the group’s St. Petersburg headquarters before they pulled a flamethrower from the...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A New Port Richey man was arrested on a felony charge Saturday after authorities said he threw a hot dog at an officer who was warning him of violating a city ordinance, arrest documents said. Officers said Jason Stoll, 47, of New Port Richey ignored the warnings and continued to sell hot dogs in the roadway Saturday around 12 a.m. after his street closure permit ended. Stoll was asked to put the hot dog down but authorities said he continued his attempt to sell it.

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A Florida man was arrested Wednesday after deputies said he was caught on camera setting his boss’s house on fire in early May because “spirits” told him to. Deputies said Thanh Ha, 54, was caught on multiple surveillance videos approaching the newly constructed St. Petersburg home around 11:50 a.m. on May 3 while riding a bicycle. Ha then locked the bike to a nearby stop sign and walked to the home while attempting to cover his face with his shirt, arrest documents stated. Five minutes later, Ha was captured on camera running from the home...

On January 6, the media was chock full of stories about the events at Capitol Hill on the day of the riot. One potentially big event that could have overshadowed what happened at the Capitol building was a couple of pipe bombs planted near the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee buildings. Fortunately neither bomb went off, but the mystery remains of who was the pipe bomber that still remains at large. Because of the January 6 anniversary, several media outlets were speculating about the mystery of who the pipe bomber was and why the FBI has not...

Authorities in Florida arrested 22-year-old Garrett Smith Thursday morning after finding him with a homemade explosive device at a rally in support of a suspect in the January 6 Capitol riot, police said. Describing Smith as a "sleeper," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the incident is particularly worrisome. Detectives said they don't know what Smith intended to do with the explosives. He has no criminal history, there is no intelligence from other agencies and he has no social media... ...He was wearing "all black clothing, a face covering, and carrying a black backpack," according to the sheriff's office... ..Gualtieri...

A 22-year-old Oldsmar man was arrested early Friday morning after being found with homemade explosive devices near the site of an anniversary rally for Jan. 6, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. Garrett James Smith was arrested on charges of making and possessing a destructive device and loitering. He remains in jail on a bond of $300,000. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Smith was seen running away from a political assembly supporting an arrested Oath Keeper on the anniversary of Jan. 6, Thursday night. Smith did not detonate or place the explosive device he made. Gualtieri said Smith...

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Florida authorities said they found cocaine and methamphetamine wrapped around a man's penis during a traffic stop, but the man denied the drugs were his. Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said they stopped a vehicle driving without its lights on at 4 a.m. last Saturday. WFLA-TV reports the driver was arrested on charges of DUI and marijuana possession....

NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) — An attorney for the family of Brian Laundrie tells 8 On Your Side the sister of the now-missing 23-year-old did see him after he returned to Florida alone from his cross-country trip with fiancée Gabby Petito. Laundrie returned to North Port in the van he and Petito had been traveling in on Sept. 1, according to law enforcement. Attorney Steve Bertolino says Brian’s sister, Cassie Laundrie, saw him twice after his return – including on the family’s camping trip to Fort De Soto in Pinellas County. “Cassie saw her brother Brian on September 1 when...

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney William M. McSwain announced that Archie Kissling, 25, of Aston, PA, was sentenced to 35 years in prison, 10 years of supervised release, and $39,000 in restitution by United States District Court Judge Jan E. DuBois for multiple child exploitation offenses, stemming from his sexual abuse of a young child for months, and his extensive collection of horrific child pornography. Kissling’s sentence also requires him to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.In July 2019, the defendant pleaded guilty to six counts of manufacturing child pornography, and one count each of transportation and...

A Florida woman who reportedly spent three months in jail for battering her boyfriend in October attacked the man with a hamburger Monday night, according to a Pinellas County arrest affidavit. Tanya Cordero, 47, denied that she’d “smashed hamburger” into the alleged victim’s face, but police say that when they arrived at the couple’s trailer park, the 39-year-old man “had hamburger in his ear.” The conflict began when the pair argued about whether a window in their mobile home that they share with the victim’s mother, should be open or closed. The victim’s mom owns the trailer. Cordero and the...

Reuters) - Having his morning coffee and cigarette outside a Starbucks in one of the most politically contested counties in the United States, Richard Sibilla recoils at the memory of President Donald Trump's election. But impeach him now? Sibilla can see little upside. "After this he has a much better chance of winning another election, as scary as that sounds," said Sibilla, 39, a resident of Pinellas County, Florida, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. "It's not even worth following because it's all going to help him." Among the public, interviews with more than 60 voters across four of...

Air Force veteran and former Turning Point USA spokesperson Anna Paulina Luna has just announced she is running for the U.S. Congress against Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist in Florida’s 13th congressional district. In her announcement video filled with pro-America, pro-Military images, the Mexican-American Luna tells her family’s story of addiction and her personal story of perseverance and personal accomplishments. “This community deserves to be served by someone who isn’t afraid to stand up and fight for its future. Throughout my life, I’ve been knocked down, underestimated and told I wasn’t enough. But every time, I picked myself up and came...

Long before President Donald Trump exposed media corruption by popularizing the term “fake news,” my family was subjected to a battle of deceptive reporting about my sister, Terri Schiavo. One-sided “journalism” continues today, as demonstrated by a recent Tampa Bay Times article titled, “Inside the Terri Schiavo case: Pinellas judge who decided her fate opens up,” by Leonora LaPeter Anton. Ms. Anton writes about Judge George Greer of Pinellas County Florida Circuit Court, who ruled that Terri’s estranged husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, could remove her food and water (via feeding tube). Greer’s decision was enforced on March 18,...

A Florida Chick-fil-A franchise owner was arrested Wednesday on two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a 15-year-old, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said. Heather Matuszek, 32, was the alleged victim’s youth leader at Clearwater Community Church in Pinellas County in 2014 and 2015 when the incidents allegedly took place, The Tampa Bay Times reported. The alleged victim, who is now 19, told deputies Matuszek touched her inappropriately two times, the report said. She reported the allegations last March. The investigation is ongoing and the sheriff’s office says they believe there could be more victims. The alleged victim also...

This hands-on suspect wasn’t hard to catch. A Florida man busted for disorderly conduct in a bar upped the ante by groping the fingerprint technician at his booking. Jack Dylan Evans started his Wednesday afternoon by harassing the female owner of a watering hole where he’d been asked to leave, according to court papers obtained by the Smoking Gun. He then accosted the officer fingerprinting him in Pinellas County, Fla., because "she was sexy.” The 44-year-old perp was apprehended afternoon after shouting obscenities inside Down the Hatch bar, then telling the proprietor he wanted to have sex with her, according...

CLEARWATER, Fla. (FOX 13) - Three syringes were found in a Pinellas County man’s rectum, which he claimed didn’t belong him, deputies said. A warrant was out for 40-year-old Wesley Dasher Scott on a drug charge, and deputies took him into custody on January 4 around 4:30 a.m. During his strip search, deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said he removed three syringes from his rectum and handed it to them. Scott said he found them, and they weren’t his, deputies said. Additional drug charges were added during his arrest.

Michael Drejka, the 47-year old shooter of 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton over a July 19 dispute about a handicap parking spot, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, reports the Tampa Bay Times and other news sources. He is being held on $100,000 bail in Pinellas County Jail.We previously covered this case immediately after it occurred here:Law of Self Defense VIDEO: Just because it's lawful to present the gun doesn't mean it's lawful to press the triggerand here:Law of Self Defense: VIDEO: Shove-Shoot Case Sheriff's StatementDrejak has a potential, if marginal, justification claim of self-defense here. The key issue is whether...

Troublemaker: The “Rev.” Al Sharpton, like all of his race-baiting colleagues, long ago ceased to be a useful force for change in America. That’s because long ago — in the 1960s — our country adopted a series of civil rights laws and regulations cementing the Constitution’s promise of equal treatment and justice for all. But in 2018 Sharpton continues to pretend like our country has made no progress at all when it comes to civil rights, so every time there is an incident involving a black man killed by a white person, he has to show up and needlessly stir...

The last thing Keondrae Brown remembers before he blacked out is lying in shattered glass on Tampa Road, next to the burning wreckage of a stolen car, lucky to be alive after a high-speed crash that killed his brother and two of his friends. Now Keondrae and two other boys in a second stolen car could face murder charges in the deaths of Keontae Brown, 16; Jimmie Goshey, 14; and Dejarae Thomas, 16. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri suggested the more serious charges against the surviving teens at a news conference Monday, a day after the Palm Harbor crash once again highlighted...

The Tampa Bay Times reported on Thursday that a Democrat is “crying foul over Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections Deborah Clark's decision to hold voter registration drives at nine Chick-fil-A locations.” “Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain known for putting faith ahead of profits, supports conservative causes,” the Times reported. […] In Florida, Susan McGrath, leader of the Stonewall Democrats and head of the Pinellas Democratic Party, said the decision to use Chick-fil-A would be similar to a Democratic supervisor of elections holding the event at Planned Parenthood, according to the Times. …