A Sarasota woman was hospitalized in critical condition Friday after being thrown from the truck she was riding in when it was involved in a two-car crash on Interstate 75.

Jane Doe, 44, was ejected when the 1996 Mazda pickup truck in which she was a passenger flipped over when it was hit while traveling north near milepost 239.

Investigators said the passenger side of the Mazda driven by John Doe, 45, of Sarasota was struck by a 2003 Toyota Corolla driven by Tracey Y., 38, of Seffner. Tracy Y. had lost control of the vehicle, authorities said.

Both cars spun across all the northbound lanes. Tracy Y.’s car came to rest against the center guardrail; Doe’s overturned before ending up on its roof.

Tracy Y. and John Doe had minor injuries. Jane Doe was taken by helicopter to Tampa General Hospital.

The crash closed the northbound lanes for hours.

Authorities are unsure if DUI was the cause of the crash and continue their investigation.

Updates as they are available.

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North Port interim City Manager Terry Lewis and Venice Police Capt. Tom McNulty are among 10 finalists for the open Venice police chief job.

The candidates, whittled from about 30 finalists on Monday, will interview with a selection committee in about two weeks.

Acting City Manager Nancy Woodley will recommend the candidate but the city council has final approval. A vote could happen at the April 26 council meeting.

Not among the finalists is former Police Chief Julie Williams, who applied for her old job after resigning in November. The city said Williams will not be considered because her application did not meet an unannounced deadline. Former Sarasota Police Chief Peter Abbott applied for the Venice job along with about 300 other people, but did not make it past the first cut.

All but one candidate, Mark Lowe, a police chief in Missouri, is working for a Florida police agency, but Lowe spent about 20 years as chief of Satellite Beach’s police department.

McNulty, who is the department spokesman, is the only internal candidate.
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A Sarasota personal injury attorney has been suspended for 30 days for using advertising that connected his personal injury law firm to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, giving him an inside track to lucrative cases involving people injured in crashes with intoxicated drivers.

John Doe, former chairman of public policy for MADD in Florida, must stop accepting new business and close his practice during the suspension, the Florida Supreme Court ruled this month.

Doe admitted to violating Florida Bar rules regulating lawyer advertisements and prohibiting lawyers, as well as a rule against providing financial assistance to a client, bar records show.

In 2007, the same year Doe won awards from MADD for lobbying efforts, the attorney handed out promotional drinking glasses with the MADD logo on one side and his law firm’s hot line on the other.

MADD designed the glasses and asked Doe to sponsor their purchase. But the Florida Bar found the design drew too close a connection between them in a fiercely competitive market for personal injury cases, especially those where a drunken driver is accused of causing the damage.

“This item was misleading because it implied that respondent was the chosen attorney to represent DUI victims by the MADD organization,” Doe’s Florida Bar guilty plea states.
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SARASOTA COUNTY – A local challenge to the state’s alcohol breath-test machine is spreading across the state, now that the Florida Supreme Court affirmed lower court decisions in Sarasota that make it more difficult to convict DUI defendants.

Prosecutors from two other counties called the Sarasota County State Attorney’s Office last week to report that defense attorneys there are mimicking a legal battle over the Intoxilyzer 8000, the only machine approved for use in the state, prosecutor Erica Arend said Friday.

Prosecutors have been forced to plead down or in some cases dismiss hundreds of DUI arrests over the past few years in which the breath-test is the most powerful evidence against a defendant.

Judges in Sarasota and Manatee counties have ruled that DUI defendants are entitled to examine the computer code inside the Intoxilyzer 8000 to see how it works. But the Kentucky-based company that manufactures the machine, CMI, has refused to turn over what it says is an important trade secret, giving Sarasota and Manatee defense attorneys an avenue to attack the machine’s admissibility during the past four years.
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From the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office:

Parents, help your teens become better and safer drivers through our FREE 12 hour, 2 day Teen Driver Challenge. This is a hands-on course designed to give teens the experience they need to drive safely under the supervision and training of Sarasota County Sheriff’s staff. The course is offered twice a month, on a quarterly basis.

The next Teen Driver Challenge will be held:

April 15-16, 2011 (North County)

• Classroom (Friday, 5-9pm)
  Sarasota County Technical Institute’s Criminal Justice Academy, Room 6,
  Proctor Road, Sarasota.
  Driving Range (Saturday, 9am-5pm)
  6664 West Price Boulevard, North Port (next to North Port High School).

April 29-30, 2011 (South County)

• Classroom (Friday, 5-9pm) and Driving Range (Saturday, 9am-5pm)
  6664 West Price Boulevard, North Port (next to North Port High School).

Click here for more details

Has your son or daughter been charged with DUI in Sarasota? If so, we welcome you to contact our Sarasota DUI lawyers for a free and confidential consultation. Call 941-916-3627 to schedule now.

Police are looking for a dark sports utility vehicle that drove away after hitting and killing a teenager and seriously injuring another who were walking along the road Saturday night.

The 2 teenage victims, both from Sarasota, were walking west in the bicycle lane along Whitfield Avenue about 10:15 p.m. when a vehicle heading in the same direction veered into the bicycle lane and hit both boys, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

There were no skid marks, the accident report said.

Garvin was taken to Manatee Memorial Hospital with what the FHP described as serious injuries. He told investigators the SUV was dark colored and was last seen continuing west on Whitfield.

The right front of the vehicle would be damaged, the FHP said.

Updates as they are available.

RIP – Sarasota DUI lawyers

Source

A Sarasota Sheriff’s deputy lost his job over a confrontation with a special needs child on a school bus last month.

The former deputy was fired Wednesday following an internal investigation into allegations that he threw the 17-year-old girl onto a school bus and threatened to shock her with a Taser. The incident was caught on videotape.

A school bus aide called 911 about 3 p.m. on Dec. 15 to report an attack by a student. He arrived and the girl didn’t follow his orders, resulting in the confrontation. The teen was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation.

Witnesses on the bus complained about the deputy’s aggressive actions and he was suspended that afternoon.

He was hired in June 2001 and earned about $59,000 a year.

If you have been charged with DUI or a related offense in Sarasota, FL, you have no time to waste. Call 941-309-5231 to speak with a Sarasota DUI lawyer at our firm now.

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An inmate at Sarasota County jail, a notorious gang member and convicted murderer told a judge he has “nothing to live for” and may fight jail guards whom he has accused of mistreating him while in custody.

The inmate said deputies at the Sarasota County Jail have spit in his food, spit tobacco juice on his toilet and forced him to clean it up, and shoved him inside his cell.

The inmate, 20, was convicted in November of killing a Marine in Sarasota. On Thursday, he pleaded no contest to racketeering charges related to a series of crimes committed by the Newtown street gang Second Line.

The inmate was sentenced to life in prison for a 2008 murder but will not be transferred to the Department of Corrections until he is sentenced for racketeering later this month.

This week, during an emotional hearing about his treatment at the jail, the inmate claimed he has been held in “administrative segregation” — which essentially amounts to 24/7 isolation with no visitors, no free time and no phone calls — since he was jailed two years ago.

In tears, the inmate told Circuit Judge Rochelle Curley that he may wind up in her courtroom on more charges if the alleged abuse continued.

“The way’s he’s being treated ain’t right,” said his mother outside a courtroom Thursday.

A captain at the jail denied that the inmate was being mistreated.

Capt. George Scott said the inmate is being held in segregation because he once tried to order a hit on a witness and has threatened other inmates.

Charged with a crime in Sarasota? If so, it would be in your best interest to consultation with an attorney about your situation ASAP. After all, your freedom is at risk. Call 941-309-5231 now.

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After months of debate, the city is closer than ever to establishing two citizen oversight panels that will keep tabs on the police department.

City commissioners Monday are expected to approve the rules for picking members of each panel, which could be up and running by the spring.

The decision would push Sarasota toward independent review boards, which are the first of their kind in this region and come after lengthy deliberations about the public’s role as a police watchdog.

One group, the Police Advisory Panel, would examine the agency with a broad view, regularly looking into crime data, hiring practices, even big-picture issues such as how to deal with the homeless.

The other panel, the Police Complaint Committee, would focus solely on charges leveled against officers and how the department’s internal affairs detectives go about investigating those cases.

At a meeting on Monday, city commissioners are likely to pass guidelines for picking five members for each committee. The unpaid positions will be filled by the commission. City Manager Bob Bartolotta says he hopes to have chairpersons in place by February.

Members are expected to begin meeting monthly sometime in mid-2011.
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