South Florida Criminal Attorneys Blog

Miami Federal Judge gives International Sex Trafficker/Rapist 27 years

October 30, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

His reign of terror which operated Internationally including Australia, the Mid-East and the United States finally came to an end when Miami Federal District Judge Cecilia Altonaga sentenced Jamaican born Damion St. Patrick Baston to twenty-seven years in federal prison.

For years, the smoothing talking former nightclub dancer enticed women into a life of prostitution that spanned numerous continents by making them believe he was a hip hop music producer, later bragging to them that he was a member of Bloods, the violent West Coast street gang based out of Los Angeles. Once under his influence he repeatedly raped them and used tactics of verbal abuse, threats to their family and savage beatings to keep them under his control.

It appears that his venture into the sex for sale and sex trafficking trade began around the time he married an 18-year-old woman of Australian descent only identified as TJM on Queensland’s Gold Coast in an Islamic ceremony. He met her at a party in 2009 and married her the following year. She would be one of many women from outside the borders of the United States to testify against him.

According to court testimony his next Australian victim, identified as KL met him in a restaurant also on the Gold Coast. He told her he was a music producer seeking talent from Australia. After beginning a passionate relationship with her he let her believe that he was interested in opening a new restaurant and would let her in on the action but instead, as he did with his first conquest he threatened her and used acts of violence to bully her into working for him as a prostitute. He posted her pictures in local newspapers offering escort services as well as on the Internet along with her contact information using known “escort service” Web sites. He drove her to “dates” and kept all the proceeds she earned. He also opened a strip club called the Bachelors Club that KL was listed as owner/operator. According to Baston’s testimony she kept the books and he split all profits from the venture with her. KL denied his statement and testified that she only allowed him to use her name because she was in fear of him due to him threatening to hurt her and her family.

By 2011 he was peddling both women out of various rented dwellings on the Gold Coast and flew to Dubai with KL and the woman from New Zealand where he did the same in that middle-eastern country. He reentered the United States and settled in South Florida in 2012 with two of the women.

Six women in total of which three were flown in by the prosecution testified against him including three Americans, two Australians, one from Lithuania and one New Zealander. All six of the women testified that he forced them to work as strippers in Australia, in Dubai and South Florida and then coerced them into working for his various escort services.

This past June at trial, a federal jury of twelve, including Baston’s ex-wife heard testimony of how he forced them into a life as sex slaves and prostitution after beating and raping them.

Evidence presented in court disclosed that Baston was convicted of possessing stolen property in the late 1990s. That conviction led to an order to deport him to his native Jamaica by a U.S. immigration judge. During his own testimony he denied the deportation and said it was a “touchy subject.” He first turned up in Australia in 2009 under a stolen identity of a man that lived in Iowa. He used the passport and identification cards of a man named Rayshawn Bryant who was the victim of the identity theft.

In addition to the oral testimony, a transcript of a recorded conversation between Baston and the woman from New Zealand (flown in by the prosecution) identified as GP was heard by the jury which was made up of five men and seven women. In addition to the transcript, when making her original complaint she told the New South Wales Police Department that at one point in 2010 Baston hung her upside down, from a fire escape by her feet while he verbally abused and threatened her. She also testified that he forced her into a shower with scorching hot water running and wouldn’t let her out for hours as he beat her without mercy. The female detective that took GP’s statement testified that she was the most terrified victim she had ever interviewed throughout her twenty-five year career, most recently working for the sexual battery division.

One of the South Florida women testified how he ruined her life by getting her pregnant. She also disclosed that she subsequently had given birth to his child.

The twenty-one charges against him included importation of an alien for prostitution, sex trafficking by force, coercion and fraud, transportation for prostitution, money laundering and aggravated identity theft.

When Baston took the stand he told a completely different story. He said he was educated in New York City studying for the fashion industry, became a master in karate and weight lifter. He then worked as a dancer in nightclubs before becoming a talent agent in the music business. He said that he never forced or intimidated any of his numerous girlfriends into prostitution or his escort services, and never took their money.
“I am not a pimp… I was always nice and kind… It was love. It was romantic. It was fun.”

The presiding federal judge didn’t buy his story.

The arrest and conviction came as a result of a joint effort among Australian and United Arab Emirates law enforcement agencies along with United States federal authorities that stemmed from a 2008 law to combat international sex trafficking.

The mandatory minimum sentence for the self-described entrepreneur’s crimes was fifteen years in federal prison.

Declaring that a “sentence of life (in prison) would not provide just punishment,” Miami Federal District Judge Cecilia Altonaga sentenced Baston to twenty-seven years in federal prison. The reason given by the judge for what would appear to be a light sentence based on testimony that convicted him at trial was only that nobody was killed by his actions.

Lighthouse Point Man Sentenced to Lesser Charge in First-Degree Murder Case

October 17, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

It was more than twenty years ago when Lynne Friend went to meet her estranged husband to pick up a check that was due for child support. After that evening, the then thirty-five year old Lynne Friend vanished.

For eighteen of those twenty years, her ex-husband, Clifford Friend lived his life as a free man and continued with his life. He remarried in 1995 and together with his new wife they raised his son Christian the product of his first marriage. He opened a pawn shop and the couple bought a home in Pembroke Pines. Although he was the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance, charges against him were never filed.

But in March of 2012, a Grand Jury indicted Friend for the charge of first degree murder in his wife’s death. Over the years, the case had gone before Grand Juries three previous times but it wasn’t until the latest review that an Indictment was returned.

Back then, after making his first appearance before a Miami-Dade judge, the Lighthouse Point man was denied bail. At the time, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office introduced new evidence that apparently made the difference although Lynne’s body was never found.

Investigators asserted that they had new evidence that was gathered during the course of their investigation stating that they had confirmation of Mr. Friend and Alan Gold (one of his former friends) throwing an oversized bundle from Gold’s boat that was drifting off the coast of Miami Beach in the area of Government Cut. The information was provided by U.S. Customs officials who told investigators that they witnessed the act on the last night Lynne Friend was seen, approximately one hour after Friend spoke with his wife about picking up the payment.

The boat was later searched revealing a quantity of light gauge rope and two cement blocks. However, in spite of a considerable search of the area, no human remains or evidence of a large package or container of any type was ever found in the water or neighboring area.

The prosecution’s case hinged on Gold’s testimony who until recently remained silent. He was offered immunity in the case in exchange for becoming a witness against his former friend. He stated that he promised Mr. Friend that he would never reveal the episode that transpired that night and had no intentions of doing so. But his fear of being prosecuted as an accessory to the crime caused him to accept the immunity deal. At trial, in his own words when he was asked why he decided to testify he told the prosecutor: “Only because you put me in a box and I don’t have any choice.”

Prior to making that statement, during questioning the prosecutor asked Gold if he helped Friend on the night in question by throwing a parcel off a boat into the water. His answer was in the affirmative. The prosecutor’s then asked if he suspected what was in the bag that was thrown overboard to which he responded definitively and without hesitation “His wife, Lynne.”

During further questioning Gold stated that Friend told him that he strangled his ex-wife during a heated argument and he only agreed to help his friend get rid of his ex-wife’s body to keep him from getting arrested and sent to jail leaving their son, Christian without either parent. His son Christian was five years old at the time of his mother’s presumed murder. Gold went on to say “I basically didn’t want to see the kid fatherless.”

Friend had previously lost a long bitter custody battle and his ex-wife was preparing to leave the state with their son. This apparently infuriated Friend.

The two week long first-degree murder trial that concluded in July resulted with the jury deliberating for five hours before returning a verdict of guilty of the lesser charge of second degree murder.

Before the sentence of life in prison was announced last month, Friend’s current wife Janet told the judge that her husband was a good man. “His smile, his guidance and his presence as a father will be missed. I’m requesting you to consider that he had no criminal history and was an outstanding citizen, phenomenal father and wonderful husband.” The couple had been married for nineteen years.

His son Christian, now twenty-five also stood by his father saying that his father was innocent of the crime. “He raised us to know the difference between right and wrong. I know he loved me. He loved too much to hurt me by taking my mother from me. After sitting here for weeks, I have never been more sure of his innocence.”

But Lynn Friend’s former fiancé, Ed O’Dell had a completely opposite viewpoint. After the sentence was imposed he told reporters that he though Friend should have received the death penalty.

South Florida Corrections Officer Sentenced for Federal Charges

October 3, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Former Corrections Officer Jerry St. Fleur, 26, was sentenced to over four years in a federal prison after agreeing to a plea deal for charges of identity theft and wire fraud. Over sixty thousand dollars that was proceeds from his scheme will also be forfeited. He faced up to twenty years in federal prison before submitting to the guilty plea.

But in 2014, St. Fleur was not alone when it came to officers from Florida’s Department of Corrections being arrested, accepting guilty pleas and being sentenced for their crimes.

St. Fleur was the third employee of Florida Correctional Institutions to be sent to federal prison for their transgressions. Just one month earlier, former juvenile probation officer Corey A. Coley was sentenced to more than seven years for identity theft and filing false tax returns and just two months prior to that resolution, former federal corrections Officer Michael J. Garland was sentenced to two years after he pleaded guilty for charges of bribery and smuggling contraband into a federal prison.

In this latest case St. Fleur’s guilty plea was established based on charges that he stole the identities of existing and former inmates who either served or were serving time at the Zephyrhills Correctional Facility. He used the data to file more than one hundred eighty bogus tax returns requesting refunds in an amount that exceeded one half million dollars

St. Fleur was arrested this past May on five separate counts of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by using his authority to acquire birth dates and Social Security numbers that he matched up to the names of inmates currently serving their sentences at the facility. He was also charged with using the FDOC database to acquire the same information for inmates who previously were incarcerated there. He would use the former and present inmate’s personal identifying information (PII) to file the phony returns

After filing the fraudulent tax returns he directed payment to be deposited to debit cards that was held by accomplices who took part in his scheme.

The charges against St. Fleur of identity theft and wire fraud are both federal crimes which were investigated by the FBI and IRS. Locally, the investigation was assisted by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office leading to St. Fleur’s arrest and subsequent guilty plea and sentence. It was prosecuted by Matthew Jackson, Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

The Coley case resulted with him receiving a sentence of more than seven years in federal prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, as well as conspiracy. He was also ordered to return $671,023. That amount was the minimum monetary quantity calculated to be what he and his three accomplices obtained through the scheme. His co-conspirators also received significant punishments.

Albert E. Moore, Jr. was sentenced to more than six years, Tigi Moore received a four year sentence and Mattie Philon received the shortest sentence of two years in federal prison.

The case against Garland concluded with a two year prison sentence and the forfeiture of $4,200 which was the amount traced as being the financial proceeds of his crimes.

South Florida Businessman Pleads Not Guilty in Baseball Star Human Smuggling Conspiracy

September 17, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Gilberto Suarez, a 40 year old businessman from South Florida pleaded not guilty after he was arrested for his part in a smuggling ring that allegedly helped Yasiel Puig, a star player for the Los Angeles Dodgers enter the country in 2012. The not guilty plea was in answer to an Indictment which gave away few details other than seeking forfeiture of any proceeds Suarez received from the illegal business deal that brought the baseball player, his girlfriend and spiritual adviser here from Cuba. Other than those details the Indictment was sealed.

Specifically, the forfeiture demand recorded in the Indictment seeks recovery of any funds that changed hands between the two, which were proceeds of a seven-year $42 million dollar contract that was negotiated for him by his agent Jaime Torres when signing with the west coast team. It further goes on to separately list almost three million dollars of cash, two properties and two late model luxury vehicles. The stellar outfielder was only identified as YP in the Indictment

In Miami, after a short hearing earlier this month in federal court, Suarez who was accompanied by his brother and wife at the bond hearing was released on $120,000 bail. His formal release occurred later in the day after he posted 10 percent of the compulsory amount. The arrest was carried out by Homeland Security Investigation’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (HIS-ICE). The primary charge was conspiracy to introduce aliens to the United States.

The Indictment stemmed from a civil lawsuit that was filed in federal district court in Miami against Puig that revealed how he eventually arrived in the states. Miguel Angel Cronbach Daudinot, a Dominican National filed the lawsuit while still in custody in Cuba claiming the court has jurisdiction under the Torture Victim Protection Act which sanctions civil cases to be heard in the United States versus persons who “commit torture while acting in an official capacity for a foreign nation.” Cronbach Daudinot maintained that the inhuman mistreatment he received while being in jail qualified as such.

The civil suit seeks monetary damages of $12 million dollars for “prolonged arbitrary detention and torture,” that resulted in a seven-year prison sentence. He now contends he suffers “poor mental and physical health” as the result of his imprisonment.

In 2010, Cronbach Daudinot was jailed after Puig and his mother testified against him as being a member of a human trafficking ring. Although he denied the claim in court he was convicted of basically attempting to plot Puig’s latest escape from the Island Nation.

Cronbach Daudinot repudiated the allegations stating that Puig made false statements against him so he would gain favor with the government to be reinstated to again play baseball for the Cuban National Team. Puig had previously been suspended after previous attempts at defection to the U.S. Cuban officials’ justly believed that he would attempt it again.

After over three years in prison Cronbach Daudinot was released into a “provisional liberty” program where he will serve the balance of his sentence. The probationary program limits his travel as well as requiring him to check in with authorities on a pre-specified timely basis.

According to documents filed in that case Suarez was named as one of the men that put up the money to transport Puig from Cuba to a small fishing village located near Cancun, Mexico. Initially, $250,000 was paid but the smugglers known as lancheros raised the rate to $400,000 before the crossing was concluded to Isla Mujeres, the village in close proximity to Cancun.

Yunior Despaigne, a Cuban boxer who had a hand in setting up the transaction also made the trip with Puig and his group signed an affidavit stating that the men who paid the smugglers to arrange the trip eventually hired others known as “fixers” to move them out of the smuggler’s custody where they were being held captive in a boardinghouse, unable to leave the premises without a chaperone as well as being under constant observation by guards.

They were finally transported to Mexico City via a cigarette boat where the outfielder was introduced to eager baseball scouts. It was later learned that the “lancheros” that finally liberated them from Cuba had deep ties to the Los Zetas cartel and were the actual leaders of the alien smuggling and boat theft ring. He also stated in the affidavit that it was conveyed to him that Suarez and others involved in the deal would be receiving a substantial percentage of Cuban National’s contract.

From Mexico City, entry into the United States for Puig and his party was simple after first landing in Texas allowing them to make use of the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy.
They walked across the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande International Bridge between Mexico, and Texas, entering the Immigration and Customs patrol station on the U.S. side. Able to prove Cuban citizenship with their National ID cards they were allowed to stay and declare asylum.

Florida Man Acquitted of First Degree Murder Charges

September 1, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Cesar Limas made his living by selling cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. Yet he became the prosecutor’s key witness in a first degree murder trial that led to fourteen months of jail time for Carlos Hiracheta Perez, 29, of Dade City pending trial.

Limas told police that he and another man wrestled a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol away from Perez outside an abandoned house in Dade City after two shots were fired inside the house.

Within the residence lay the motionless body of Arturo Escamilla. Limas told Sheriff’s deputies that after he grabbed the gun away from Perez, the suspect ran from the scene. Perez was apprehended afterward, and detained by Dade City police officers. He was later charged with attempted first degree murder and held without bail at the Pasco County Jail. The charges were elevated to first degree murder when Escamilla died the following day at Bayonet Point Hospital as a result of his injuries that took place in mid-May of last year.

Based on the arrest affidavit, Perez got into an argument with Escamilla inside the house leading prosecutors to contend that Perez was the person who gravely injured Escamilla when he shot him twice in the head.

However, at trial, the advocate for Perez placed doubt on Mr. Limas’s testimony pointing out contradictions in his original statement to police, as well as a lack of any evidence directly attributing Perez to being the shooter.

The assistant public defender argued that at the time of the shooting there were five men inside the abandoned house including Perez and Limas. Perez maintained that he was sleeping on a couch and ran when two gunshots rang out, believing he was running for his life. After Perez sprinted out of the house first, four more men followed and hopped into a vehicle and raced away. This was corroborated by neighbors who witnessed the events unfold. This contradicted Limas’s original statement to police that he and another man disarmed Perez.

A photograph of Limas was also revealed in possession of a .45-caliber handgun that was taken a few days prior to the shooting which more than likely could have been the gun that killed Escamilla. Additionally, members of Escamilla’s family stated that he never had any problems with Perez, but often had battles and heated disagreements with all of the other men in the group who all rushed out of the previously vacated dwelling after the shots were fired, including the prosecution’s central witness.

Perez’s court appointed attorney described to jurors that based on the presentation of the prosecution’s case it appeared they had more evidence against their star witness than they did against his client, and placed doubt in their minds by establishing that any of the other four men could have been the actual trigger-man.
The jury’s deliberations took a little more than an hour when they returned to their seats with a unanimous verdict. Judge Pat Siracusa cautioned Perez and his family to remain passive and quiet regardless of what the results were prior to the reading of the verdict. And they did as instructed, because the silence was deafening when it was revealed that the finding of all jury members was not guilty.

When the outcome of the verdict became apparent to Perez’s mother, with the speaker of her cellphone activated she was overheard excitedly repeating the word “libre”. Translated from Spanish, the word libre simply means “free”.

She next saw her son walking down the corridor that led out of the courthouse, exiting through the sliding glass doors into the lobby where she, his sister and niece came together around him in a mutual hug ending Carlos’s fourteen month ordeal this past July.

In Pasco County, a not guilty outcome in a first degree murder case is uncommon. It had been almost four years since it previously occurred when Anthony Harris was exonerated for the first degree murder charge of killing a drug dealer in 2010.<!–

Jessie Lee Miller Freed After 15-Year First Degree Murder Acquittal

August 1, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Otto Wright’s first trial for felony first-degree murder ended in a mistrial when a jury couldn’t come to a unanimous decision. But his second trial ended with a guilty verdict when the previously self-proclaimed “look out” admitted that he participated in the robbery of a West Palm Beach Chick-Fil-A restaurant.

Nicholas Megrath, the 18-year old manager of the restaurant that was located at the now non-operational West Palm Beach Mall was shot and killed by one of the other culprits. But Wright’s taped confession stated that although he watched the robbery unfold and was a part of it he didn’t fire the fatal gunshot. There was no physical evidence placing him at the scene but after a seven hour interrogation by police Wright confessed to the robbery naming two of his accomplices as Terrance Watson and Darrell Howard. Watson and Howard were never accused by police or charged with the crime. A little more than five-hundred dollars in total was stolen from the store.

Wright’s lawyer argued that the confession obtained by police was given under duress and they manipulated his client by lying to him when they told him that they had physical evidence implicating him which was found at the crime scene. They also played a good cop, bad cop routine by utilizing the help of an officer who knew Wright for many years and had previously assumed the role of a father figure to him in order to a coerce Wright into confessing to his role in the robbery.

Boynton Beach Man Beats Prior Manslaughter Charge Walks Free Again

July 8, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

David Muringer appears to live a charmed life.

The Boynton Beach man was acquitted last month of misdemeanor battery and felony false imprisonment charges just short of a year and a half after he virtually walked away from manslaughter charges that could have cost him fifteen years in prison.

In this latest case against him his girlfriend, Robin Green, 26, told police that Muringer began to strangle her after the two of them had an argument and she tried to leave his apartment. She was able to get away from him and called 911. In this new case if convicted of both charges he would have faced to up to six years behind bars.

Although Muringer’s records show him to be a habitual offender based on Florida criminal records with over 80 arrests and eighteen felony convictions since the late twentieth century, the jury returned not guilty verdicts for both new charges after just a few hours of deliberations.

In October of 2010, patrons of a Delray Beach mall called police when they noticed a car parked behind a pizzeria leaking fluids and emanating an exceedingly bad odor. When police arrived at the scene they found the body of a woman crammed in a cardboard barrel in the back seat of the vehicle. Upon searching the car, a sales receipt for the purchase of a cell phone was found that was traced back to Muringer.

Muringer who worked as a carpenter was picked up by police and when questioned by them changed his story on a variety of occasions during his interviews regarding his girlfriend Doris Lopez who was the woman identified as the deceased.

He first told investigators that a man named Chile gave his girlfriend a half kilo of cocaine that the two of them were going to process and sell. He went on to tell them that the processed drugs were eventually determined to be of unsaleable quality causing Ms. Lopez to dump it. He supposedly remembered that later that week an unidentified man stopped by their apartment asking for her car keys.

However, investigators had little regard for his account and ultimately found the story to be false. He later admitted that the story he told them was indeed fictitious.

During further course of the investigation, Muringer then told detectives that Lopez went on a four-day bender, ingesting booze, coke and prescription drugs. After leaving her at the apartment and returning after approximately an hour he found her dead. He then told the investigators that he panicked because of all the drugs present in the apartment. He went on to tell them that after leaving her in bed for two days he placed her in the cardboard barrel and dumped her remains in Delray Beach, taking a bus back home after the deed was done.
As the investigation continued, detectives debunked his latest tale as well, and Muringer came up with a final alternative scenario, telling them that she was killed during an episode of rough sex.

This time he admitted to choking her during a sexual episode until she was out cold. He went on to say that he then went out for a while, only to return to find her lifeless body. He maintained that the part of his previous tale, when he told them that he left her in her bed for two days was true; before moving the body to where it was found by police.

But during the week-long trial, testifying on his own behalf Muringer said that it was another man that was responsible for his girlfriend’s death. He admitted to disposing of and the removal of the body but blamed the actual killing on a man named Thomas Byrd who he said was a friend of his.

During closing arguments, Muringer’s court appointed assistant public defender pointed suspicion on Byrd, who testified that his friend originally asked him to dispose of Lopez’s body. The defense lawyer also said the discovery of Lopez’s body alone wasn’t enough for them to convict his client of manslaughter. He was quoted as saying “To convict a man of manslaughter, you have got to bring more than this. Because this is how innocent people get convicted.”

After deliberations were concluded the jury told Circuit Judge Charles Burton that they were divided on the prosecution’s appeal for a conviction for manslaughter. But they did find Muringer guilty of the two misdemeanor counts of unlawful disposal of human remains as well as the charge of culpable negligence. Those convictions are punishable by up to sixty days in jail which literally let him walk out of court a free man as he spent more than that amount of time in jail awaiting trial. As previously pointed out, a conviction for manslaughter carries a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison as a second-degree felony.

The two prosecutors in the case told the judge that Muringer could still possibly face other charges before his release but the judge let Muringer know that if the prosecution does not bring forth any other charges deputies would be setting him free shortly with his only punishment being time served.

Deported Gay Honduran Man Fights to Return to the US to Gain Asylum

July 1, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Italo Morales had lived in Hollywood, Florida for nearly ten years after he fled his native Honduras in 2005. Morales, now 27 years old is gay. He left Honduras nearly ten years ago, following his partner who also bolted from the country due to the violence against the small gay community that survives there on a daily basis.

As a country, Honduras can boast to being the murder capital of the world. The homicide rate is an alarmingly high ratio of almost one individual per every one thousand annually; earning this reprehensible label and nearly doubling its closest rival in this tragic classification, according to the United Nations. Venezuela stands at number two with a murder rate which is still at a chilling 0.5 persons per thousand. To put the above statistics into perspective, the United States has approximately one twentieth the total amount of annual homicides compared to Honduras, according to the FBI’s annual Uniform Crime Report.

Over the past five years, nearly one hundred gay persons have been murdered in the Central American Country. But nobody knows exactly how many actual murders of LGBT individuals have been committed, as being openly gay only adds to the possibility of a death sentence causing most of those with that sexual orientation to live there in the shadows.

When Morales entered the United States ten years ago it was shortly after the US changed policy in 1994 to allow people to seek asylum based on their sexual orientation. Morales took advantage of the change in policy leaving his homeland and entering the U.S. He has been seeking legal asylum ever since and was allowed to remain here under the condition that he wore an ankle bracelet.

After his arrival he found work at a Colombian restaurant in the neighboring area and had no work-related problems reported. Over the past ten years he lived a quiet life as explained by his partner Santos Quintilla.

Quintilla reportedly told the New Times “Basically what his life consisted of was going to work and coming back home and maybe the occasional weekend outing.” He also told the publication that when Honduras constitutionally barred same-sex marriage as well as adoptions by same-sex couples that was personally enough to make him leave the country.

Italo left soon after he did seeking asylum and a better life. He also mentioned during the interview, which was given in Spanish that “People like Italo don’t do well in places like Honduras. They get beat up and sometimes killed.”

Violence against gays specifically has accelerated since a coup d’état in 2009 which led to the ouster and exile of then-president Zelaya. The coup directed a suspension of many civil liberties as well as the imposition of curfews. The torture and killing of persons living in Honduras, within the LGBT community vastly increased since the change in regime. It has been alleged that some of the murders have even been committed by the nation’s police.

Morales’s wearing of an ankle bracelet was the effect of a federal pilot program that was initiated in 2003 to diminish the ongoing problem of the nationwide overcrowding of prisons and the cost to taxpayers that went into the millions while ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was holding undocumented immigrants who were awaiting asylum cases to be heard. The program continued and is still active today.

In Morales’s case, he was living what’s been termed “a regular life” when he was summoned to appear in Immigration Court this past March. The reason for the call was to check his ankle bracelet that appeared to be malfunctioning due to its battery running low. After his appearance in court, he was deported to his native country within a few days. News reports were sketchy at best for the reasons he was sent back to Honduras.

Right now, Morales is said to be in Mexico after journeying north in an attempt to re-enter the United States. He is trying to gather enough funds to acquire assistance for finding a way to get across the border, according to informed sources. Latest reports establish that at the time of the writing of this article, he could be found just south of El Paso, Texas.

But even if he does make it across, with or without help, he intends to continue his journey until he reaches his ultimate destination of Hollywood, Florida. However, when also interviewed by the New Times his lawyer explained that as an officer of the court, he’d have no choice but to hand him over to immigration officials if he came to his office.

But, the attorney believes that his client has a solid case. He was quoted as saying “It’s a very good case, according to case law,” and believes that if he can prove that it’s likely his client could face injury or death if again sent back to Honduras, there’s a good chance asylum may be granted. He also stated that proving those facts shouldn’t be too difficult.

To find out more about this topic, and read more about it, click here to go to the Immigration page on my Website.

Owner/Operator of South Florida Home Health Firm Pleads Guilty to Paying Health Care Kickbacks

June 24, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Nestor’s Health Services, Inc. is now non-operational. This seems to be the story with most articles I’ve featured on my blog dealing with Health Care Fraud that’s taken place in the South Florida area over the past year. The word “defunct” seems to come up a lot.

With this latest article, the total amount of money I’ve reported which has been reimbursed by Medicare for fraudulent billing is fast approaching the $100 million dollar mark. But in all fairness, one of the stories posted here involved a reimbursement of $33 million by itself. So when Cruz Sonia Collado, the owner/operator of Nestor’s admitted to swindling Medicare out of $6.5 Million it seemed to be a small portion of the overall pot.

And that’s just a minuscule cut of the more than $100 billion (with a B) dollars in fraudulent claims paid out by Medicare to the dark side of the health care industry on an annual basis. And those in the know say that the actual total may be three times that amount.

But even looking at the big picture, the government still doesn’t take kindly to instances of finding owners of Home Health Care Companies ripping off the federal health insurance program.

This particular case handed down justice rather quickly. It was only three months ago when federal authorities, in a nation-wide sting charged fifty residents of the Sunshine State for various Medicare fraud swindles. The total amount of persons charged across the country added up to ninety, of which sixteen were doctors, leaving South Florida Health Care Executives and associated workers as the area with the most, accounting for more than half of the suspects that were rounded up in May.

Tallying it up, twenty-six individual criminal cases were files with a total of close to seventy- million dollars in fraudulent Medicare claims involved. Cruz Sonia Collado was one of the many caught in the widespread net.

Yesterday, Collado pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to offer and pay health care kickbacks and offering and paying health care kickbacks in front of U.S. District Judge Robert N. Scola in Florida Federal Court. The sum of the submissions to Medicare by Collado’s company totaled $6.5 million of which $6.1 million was paid out over a five year period between 2009 and this current year.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in tandem with the Office of Inspector General, Department of Health & Human Services (HHS-OIG) and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Locally, it was under the direction of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Since the Medicare Fraud Strike Force was sanctioned seven years ago, it has charged more than 1,800 suspects who have as a group fraudulently billed Medicare for over $6 billion.

To find out more about this topic, and read more about it, click here to go to the general Fraud Cases page on my Website.

To read about my qualifications and what you should do if you are arrested and charged with this or any other crime, click here.

There are a myriad of fraud cases which can be bought in both the State and federal Courts for instance, fraud can be charged as a simple third degree felony in Florida for which a defendant can face up to five years maximum in jail or the fraudulent conduct involved may be charged as an organized scheme to defraud and depending on the amount involved may result in a statutory maximum punishment of 15 or 30 years in jail

In the federal courts fraud can be brought under the mail fraud, wire fraud securities fraud or bank, mortgage or housing fraud statutes. The elements of such crimes can be based upon a scheme to defraud where the wires (i.e. telephone computers and the like) are used or mail fraud (where the mail is used to perpetuate the fraud). Securities fraud charges can result from pump and dump schemes where based on false information an individual may circulate fraudulent news on the internet about a stock to “pump” up its value and then dump it after he has purchased the inflated stock at a discounted value well before the majority of investors are hurt while the fraudulent actor makes out “like a bandit” with the profit from the grossly inflated stock price.

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South Miami Man Sentence to 20 Years for DUI Vehicular Homicide

June 15, 2014 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

A Coral Gables man who worked as a physical therapy assistant was sentenced to twenty years in prison after a week-long trial when a jury found him guilty of all three charges against him. His blood alcohol level was more than triple the legal limit when his car crashed into a 2002 Chrysler Town and Country minivan killing a thirteen year old girl as well as injuring her father and sister.

According to police, Kaely Camacho, 13, was killed when Sandor Guillen’s 2010 Range Rover slammed into the minivan she occupied while he was speeding southbound at more than 80 miles per hour near the intersection of SW 184 St. and South Dixie Highway. His car was tearing down the bus lane (Busway), where the posted speed limit is 40 mph and is not open to typical vehicular traffic. The impact virtually carved the minivan in half. Kaely’s father: Kirk, 47, who was driving the minivan and sister: Bree Ann, 16, were also injured which non-life threatening injuries in the crash which occurred on April 13th, 2012. All family members were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital where Kaely was pronounced dead at the Ryder Trauma Center a short after arrival.

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police said “You can see from the damage of the actual mini-van, it’s missing the second half; the impact was very severe,” and went on to observe that in his opinion, the tragedy was unquestionably Guillen’s fault.

According to witnesses, upon impact, Guillen’s SUV ran into a tree, gyrated five times and finally came to a stop almost fifty yards away from the van. He made no attempt to alert 911 and then staggered away from the scene, discarding his identification in a thicket of underbrush. He was spotted by a Miami-Dade Police Officer that was informed to the accident in an adjacent area, apparently listening to music from his cellphone.

When questioned, his actions and responses seemed guarded according to the officer and told the investigator that he had been at a get-together with some friends where he had a few drinks just before getting into the wreck.

He was arrested shortly after being questioned by police and taken to a hospital to have his own injuries addressed. He was then booked and held pending trial after a judge set his bond at one million dollars. The arrest report specified that he reeked powerfully of alcohol and was acting intoxicated when the arrest took place. The charges against him were DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide in addition to leaving the scene of an accident.

The ensuing investigation showed that Guillen’s DNA was a perfect match to the blood found on the airbag of the Range Rover that collided with the Camacho family’s vehicle leaving minimal doubt that he was the driver according to forensic experts.

He remained locked up until the amount of his bond was lowered to just over $200,000 which is still substantially higher than the $45,000 which is the norm for the type of charges Guillen would face.

At trial, Guillen asserted that he’d been “jumped” by nameless attackers as reason for him being covered with blood. But the prosecutor explained to the jury that the DNA evidence found on his vehicle’s airbag isolated Guillen as the only possible driver of the SUV; shooting down that claim.

After acknowledging that his client was in fact the driver his defense attorney claimed that Mr. Camacho was at fault because it was he who went through the red light at the intersection and asserted that the chief detective destroyed vital evidence in the course of his investigation. But both of those claims were dispelled by witnesses including the leading detective when called by the prosecution.

First, Hiram Hernandez, a traffic engineer for Miami-Dade testified that the sensors located on the Busway will not offer a bus or any other vehicle traveling on it a green light if it’s moving at a speed of more than fifteen miles per hour. He continued by saying that doing so would cause a fifty five-second delay before the light will turn green. “The reason was to force the bus drivers down before they get the green,” he said. He went on to say that the once collision-plagued Busway system was redesigned to diminish the incidence of accidents. Additionally, when the prosecutor asked him “are civilian vehicles allowed to use the Busway?” Hernandez replied “No they are not.”

When Detective Oscar Perez was put on the stand and responded to the defense attorney’s claim of him destroying important evidence at the scene of the accident he argued the allegation, admonishing the accusation by explaining that he merely transformed his original notes to that of a diagram format which was drawn to scale, to demonstrate a much more precise appearance than the rough sketches that were written by hand at the scene of the crash.

The detective’s believability appeared to be taken at its word by the jurors and the challenge to his testimony by the defense attorney only seemed to visibly annoy the assemblage.

But most importantly, Dr. Lisa Reidy, an expert in the field of Toxicologist affirmed that the defendant’s blood alcohol level was in excess of three times the legal limit at a staggering 0.26. The legal limit in most states including Florida is 0.08.

In early March of this year, after a scant three hours of deliberations, the jury found him guilty of all charges alleged. In early June he was sentenced to twenty years behind bars.

Upon delivering the sentence, Miami-Dade County Judge Ellen Sue Venzer admonished Guillen by declaring that “The fact is, Mr. Guillen, when you chose to get drunk that night and get behind the wheel of that car, you set off a chain of events that led us all here today.”