Tampa Bay Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

Sara Lou Kenny, 20, of New Port Richey, needed some clean urine to pass a drug test so, authorities say, she tried to smuggle the urine from her friend's 4-year-old son past a probation officer and pass it off as her own.

It didn't work!!!

Kenney was arrested Friday at a substance abuse program office on Little Road in New Port Richey, according to the St. Pete Times.

Her friend and roommate, 26-year-old Amber Tobeck, was also arrested at the same office for giving her son's urine to Kenny, according to the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

Both women are on Felony Probation - Kenny for Drug Offenses and Tobeck for Fraud and Theft convictions - according to the Florida Department of Corrections. Kenny's two-year drug court probation sentence began Feb. 1st. An arrest report said Kenny had methadone that was not prescribed to her.

Kenny and Tobeck are being held without Bond at the Pasco County jail on charges of Violating their Probations. Kenny is unemployed. Tobeck told authorities she is a waitress at the Cracker Barrel restaurant in New Port Richey. Gotta love their chicken-n-dumplings!

Continue reading "NEW PORT RICHEY: Pasco Woman Tries to Beat Drug Test With Toddler's Urine" »

The culmination of a 10-month drug investigation called "Operation Pill Poppers" was impressive: 74 suspects were identified, 150 counts of Doctor Shopping, otherwise known as "Withholding Information from a Practitioner," were filed and 55,006 pills, with a street value of approximately $750,000, were seized. For the complete story, check out the article in today's St. Petersburg Times.

However, by the end of Monday's six-hour roundup, staged at a closed Egg Platter restaurant on U.S. Highway 19 in Pinellas Park, dozens of suspects remained at large. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) and the St. Petersburg Police Department (SPPD) arrested eleven (11) suspects that day, plus nine (9) from the week before.

"Operation Pill Poppers," announced to the public as it was happening, was designed partly to raise awareness of the growing prescription drug problem in the Tampa Bay area (which this author has written extensively about over the last year). But it also highlights how tricky it is to curb such crimes when the addiction is so powerful, the drugs aren't illegal and the law hasn't caught up with the problem.

Law enforcement agencies throughout Florida have been gradually shifting their focus from the "more traditional" drugs like marijuana and cocaine to a completely different animal that bears little resemblance to yesterday's Drug Offenses. During "Operation Pill Poppers" 10-month Pinellas County investigation, narcotics detectives relied heavily on intelligence gathered from pharmacists and doctors.

Putting aside the thousands of lives that have been shattered by this recent wave of prescription drug abuse, the most sobering statistic lies in the number of recent deaths in Pinellas County.

Just last month (January 2010), three (3) women and one (1) man who had cases in Pinellas County's Drug Court died from prescription drug overdoses, said Shannon Loveday, who manages the Drug Court.

A 2008 St. Petersburg Times investigation found that prescription painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs kill about 500 people a year in the Tampa Bay area, triple the number killed by illegal drugs such as Cocaine and Heroin.

Moreover, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) narcotics division has doubled from four (4) detectives to eight (8), with two (2) added supervisors. The hope, according to authorities, is to prevent Pinellas County from turning into Broward County, which is known as a magnet for out-of-state prescription drug buyers.

Because a statewide prescription computer system does not yet exist in Florida, as it does in several other states, Doctor Shopping and prescription fraud is rampant. Doctors still use handwritten paper prescriptions, which are easy to forge, and law enforcement agencies must primarily rely on pharmacists to report suspicious customers.

Last year, Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives wrapped up a 10-month investigation called "Operation Bad Medicine" with more than 100 arrests. A doctor, two (2) nurses and three (3) medical assistants were among them.

After years of debate, the Legislature approved a bill last year creating a database to track prescription drug sales in an effort to curb Doctor Shopping and illegal Drug Trafficking. But the details of the monitoring program still need to be worked out before it is implemented.

Right now, Florida is the largest of sixteen (16) states without such a program.

And, in the eyes of this author, law enforcement will not make major strides in curbing our County's prescription drug abuse problem until such an electronic database is created to notify doctors, pharmacists and law enforcement officers that someone is obtaining and/or filling multiple prescriptions, for the same or a similar drug, in the same month. Until then, we will see more crime, more overdoses and unfortunately - more needless deaths.

Continue reading "PINELLAS COUNTY: "Operation Pill Poppers" Cracks Down on Prescription Drug Abuse" »

Sometimes, good police work requires that you get down and dirty.

Earlier this week, in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Rene Valencia, a 24-year-old entrepreneur (i.e., "drug dealer") charged with Attempting to Sell Heroin and Cocaine near Weston Park allegedly swallowed his drugs rather than face the consequences of getting caught red-handed. However, the police in this small northeastern town (known for being the home of the world's busiest Dunkin' Donuts) one-up'd the hungry suspect when they obtained a Search Warrant for his bowel movements!! How's that taste, Mr. Valencia?

"He did not think that the detectives would go through the difficulty of getting a search warrant to retrieve the drugs from his bowel movement," Lt. Rick Fuller said on Feb. 3. "He was wrong."

Fuller said that detectives recovered seven (7) bags of heroin, eleven (11) bags of cocaine, and two (2) bags of crack cocaine from Rene Valencia, following a surveillance operation on Washington Street in Weymouth.

Valencia was arraigned in Quincy District Court on Feb. 3rd for Possession of Heroin with Intent to Sell, Possession of Cocaine with Intent to Sell, Conspiracy to Violate Massachusett's drug laws, and committing drug violations near a park.

According to Lt. Fuller, Valencia arrived near Weston Park to sell the drugs at 11:50 a.m., when undercover detectives approached him. "Upon approaching his vehicle, the suspected drug dealer began swallowing several small bags of drugs," Fuller said.

Detectives arrested Valencia and took him to South Shore Hospital where the drug contents were recovered.

Valencia later told the detectives that he has swallowed drugs on many occasions when pulled over by the police. According to police, this case shows the extent that drug dealers will go to not get caught. It also shows the extent that creative police officers will go to in order to make a case against them.

Continue reading "WEYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS: Search Warrant Obtained for Drug Dealer's Bowel Movements" »

A 20-year-old St. Petersburg man was sentenced to three-and-a-half (3 1/2) years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge stemming from a fatal wreck that killed two (2) people - his 23-year-old cousin, who was a passenger in his car, and a 59-year-old woman, who was a passenger in the other car. For the complete story, check out the TBO.com story.

Joshua Malone's prison term will be followed by twenty-four (24) months of community control (aka: "house arrest").

Last December, Joshua Malone pleaded guilty to Driving a Motor Vehicle Without a License - Involving Death. Earlier this week, he was sentenced at the Pinellas County Criminal Justice Center.

An unrelated case involving the Sale and Possession of Cocaine was also resolved and included in Malone's 42-month prison sentence.

Malone, who was only eighteen (18) years-old at the time of the Feb. 9, 2008 wreck, was sentenced as a "Youthful Offender," which limited/reduced his maximum exposure to six (6) years in prison.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO), Malone was driving a Ford Focus east on the Treasure Island Causeway when a Lexus turned in front of him to go south on Paradise Boulevard. Malone's Ford Focus T-boned the Lexus.

Because Malone was under 21-years of age at the time of his Sentencing Hearing, along with the fact that he had never been previously sentenced as a "Youthful Offender," it was within the Court's discretion to "depart" from the sentencing guidelines.

Continue reading "PINELLAS COUNTY: "Youthful Offender" Sentence for 20-Year Old Involved in Fatal Car Wreck" »

Christy Lynn Martin, a former Azalea Middle School teacher, was sentenced to five (5) years probation Tuesday for "sexting" an eighth grade student, according to the St. Pete Times.

Martin, 33, pleaded guilty to Transmitting Pornographic Images through an Electronic Device and Transmitting Material Harmful to a Minor. In exchange for her guilty plea, she was sentenced to probation, will have to register as a Sex Offender, wear an electronic monitor and undergo therapy.

The charges stem from Martin's relationship with an eighth-grade boy. According to authorities, they called each other "husband" and "wife," kissed each other and sent each other cell phone photos of their private parts.

They did not have sex and did not see each other outside of school, according to information contained in a search warrant related to the case.

"I realize how wrong I was," Martin said in court Tuesday, wearing a pale pink sweater, hair pulled into a ponytail. "I accept full responsibility for my behavior.... I am extremely ashamed and remorseful for my actions."

Martin was arrested in March and had been out of jail on bond.

According to the search warrant, the boy, then 14, said he took two photos of himself on his silver Samsung Messenger cell phone, and the teacher admitted taking three photos of herself on her red Sprint cell phone.

The boy sent his photos to Martin, and Martin acknowledged receiving them. She also admitted sending the photos of herself, but officials deleted the name of the recipient. Photos of a woman's genitals did appear on the boy's cell phone.

Martin did not admit to calling the boy her husband but did say she threatened him with "divorce," because he had "too many little girlfriends."

The document also says the boy touched Martin on her buttocks outside her clothing, but that she did not touch him in that way.

"You done messed up my son's life," the victim's mother told Martin in court Tuesday. "He thinks it's OK to go with the wrong kind of women.... You destroyed my son, you destroyed my family. I don't feel sorry for you one bit. If it was up to me, you'd get life. I mean that from the bottom of my heart."

At Azalea Middle, Martin taught five computer classes and one "life choices" course, which involved teaching students about positive relationships, self-esteem building and conflict resolution. The boy was not a student of her's this year. Martin has been placed on administrative leave.

As a condition of her probation, Martin can no longer work anywhere with children, including daycare centers, malls, theme parks and schools. Martin said she was working toward a master's degree.

She asked Judge Cynthia Newton if she could have permission to transport her two children to school. As a single mother, Martin said she had no one else to take them.

"I'm going to allow you to take the kids to school and pick them up from school," Newton said.

But she could do nothing else on school property.

Continue reading "PINELLAS COUNTY: Guilty Plea in Case of 'Sexting' Middle School Teacher" »