South Florida Criminal Attorneys Blog

As the headlines were dominated by the Boston Marathon bombing that claimed the lives of three and injured scores of participants and bystanders last month, a Fort Lauderdale cab driver is being held and charged with assisting his younger brother in the planning of a terrorist attack aimed at New York City.

Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, of Oakland Park, is being held in the Federal Detention Center located in downtown Miami after U.S. Magistrate Chris M. McAllen denied his request for bond last Tuesday. He and his brother were both arrested in November. His wife has been identified as an “unindicted co-conspirator” who had complete knowledge of the alleged plot.

Last December, well before the Boston bombing, a federal magistrate ordered 20 year old Raees Alam Qazi, the younger of the two brothers to be detained citing he was a flight risk and a danger to the community. At that time, the older Alam Qazi agreed to voluntary detention after his brother’s and his arrests. It wasn’t until last Tuesday that the older brother’s request for bond was denied in Federal Court.

Although it is thought that Sheheryar Alam Qazi was not going to participate in the actual attack, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert said that he “played a significant role” by financing his younger brother’s living expenses, providing his meals and purchasing a computer for him with full knowledge that he solely needed it to perform research in the capacity of the making of a bomb. As it turned out, the computer was purchased from an FBI informant.

Gilbert stated at the older brother’s bond hearing that “He paid for everything so his brother could concentrate on his plan for the attack in New York. “He fully knew what his brother was intending to do.”

There were also recordings introduced where the older Alam Qazi spoke with undercover informants as well as recordings of him speaking with his wife in reference to the alleged commencing conspiracy. His defense attorney, Ronald Chapman argued that the recordings could have been “interpreted in an innocent way.” and suggested a $20,000.00 bond for the defendant. Prior to being denied the bond, he went on to say that his client could live with his wife, son and parents, in their Sunrise home and wear an electronic ankle monitor pending trial.

Both brothers are now charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. In a parallel to the Boston bombing it was found that they are both naturalized U.S. citizens coming from a country that has been asserted to align and sympathize with terrorists. In this case, Pakistan is their country of origin. The two brothers also lived together.

If convicted of the charges, the penalty for the material-support charge is a confinement of up to 15 years in prison while the weapons charge can sustain a potential life sentence.

According to the FBI, the plot came to light when on Nov. 23, of last year Raees Qazi left South Florida with one of his friends, driving in a van to New York. Once in the city, Qazi rode a bicycle through Manhattan, gauging possible targets that included the theater district, Times Square, and the Wall Street area.

When he returned to the Fort Lauderdale area at the end of November both he and his brother were arrested in Oakland Park. During interrogation, Raees initially denied all charges, but later confessed to the bombing plot, according to Gilbert.

During a search of their home, the FBI found and seized the chemical peroxide, cords of Christmas lights, and batteries that were all taken as evidence. Gilbert said that it was believed that these materials were going to be the main ingredients to be used for a suicide bombing or possibly a remote detonation somewhere in the New York metropolitan area
The Prosecutor also said that in August 2012, in a recorded conversation, Sheheryar expressed to a FBI informant that his younger brother was “hooked up with al-Qaida.” He was also recorded labeling his brother as a “lone wolf,” comparing him to the 2010 Times Square bomber who was foiled and arrested.

He supposedly learned how to assemble the bomb by reading the al-Qaida online magazine, “Inspire.”

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Last month, police arrested Roman Thomas III, 26, of Miami for his involvement in a human trafficking investigation. At present, Thomas was on probation after he was incarcerated for four years when he was convicted of having sex with a minor. He was released from state prison prior to this latest arrest, and was wearing a Florida state corrections Department GPS monitor when Miami police again took him into custody on March 18.
Thomas has an extensive criminal past. He was charged with attempted murder and felony battery, as well as other assorted charges in 2008, and wound up pleading guilty to the battery charge and four counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a minor child g aged between 12 and 16.

After the completion of his prison sentence, Thomas was released in September, and placed on five years’ probation with the attached ankle monitor.

The monitor was inspected lastly on March 1 by state probation officers who found no problem with its functionality. But the court was notified that the officers in charge of the oversight of the device received a “bracelet gone” alarm on March 10.

Police charge that Thomas, who goes by the street name of “Suave”, forced a 13-year old girl to have both of her eyelids tattooed with his street name.

According to The Miami Herald, Thomas, who has an extensive criminal record, allegedly forced the underage girl to go with him to a flea market tattoo parlor, located in Liberty City; after she threatened to leave him. Inking the girl with his mark was punishment for her threatening to leave, and apparently his attempt to break her down and completely dominate her.

The runaway girl, nicknamed “Sparkle,” who supposedly ran away from her home to escape a muddled family life was pimped out by way of the classified advertising section of backpage.com, a website that allows the posting of escort services, police say.

Thomas and another woman, Shanteria Sanders, 23, also of Miami, taught the girl how to solicit johns and gave her condoms, provided her with marijuana, alcohol, and the drug known as “Molly” to loosen her up in preparation for having sex with men at the Miami Shores Motel.

Investigators first found out about the abuse after the victim’s mother tracked her daughter to the Miami hotel. Police then took the youth from the hotel and placed Thomas and Sanders under arrest.

The two suspects allegedly convinced the victim to work as a prostitute. Ms. Sanders, who also displays Thomas’s “Suave” tattoo across her chest, was also charged in the offense.

The drug “Molly”, indicated by its most common name “Ecstasy”, is a stimulant, considered to be an illegal recreational drug. It was originally used as a treatment used in psychotherapy. It is said to be safe in doses up to 75mg, but has exhibited that it can cause neurotoxic effects in higher doses. It’s one of the most popular recreational substances used by a multitude of people on a yearly basis.

“It’s outrageous that this girl would be branded for life at such an early age, on of all places her eyelids,” said Miami Lt. Jose Alfonso, who was the lead investigator in the case laid out by the State Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit.

Thomas will be formally charged in the new case on April 13. The charges include the delivery of a controlled substance to a child, human trafficking, lewd and lascivious exhibition and false imprisonment. As previously mentioned, Ms. Sanders faces the same charges as a collaborator in the crime.

The victim is now getting treatment and rehabilitation caused by her ordeal in a program known as Project Gold.

Project Gold is a group that is dedicated to assisting abused victims, and is operated by the Miami Kristi House, a private, non-profit organization, devoted to the therapy and elimination of sexual abuse of children.

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Two men were charged in a tax refund ploy relating to a massive identity theft scheme this past October.

On October 5, 2012, Charlton Escarmant, 29, of Miami and Arthy Icart, 25 of North Miami were charged in a five-count federal indictment aimed at their involvement in the scam.

In excess of three thousand names were found on Escarmant’s computer which was stolen from the Tallahassee Community College’s financial aid office; it was revealed when evidence was presented during court testimony.

The swindle was initiated when Escarmant used the stolen identification information to file tax returns. He also fashioned bogus W-2 forms in his own name with fabricated employment material. His personal W-2 deceptively demonstrated that he worked as a veterinarian at the Central Broward Animal Hospital. The prosecution proved that he never worked at that facility.

At the time of their arrest, Escarmant and his co-conspirator Icart criminally possessed roughly 22 pre-paid tax debit cards designated in other person’s names. They submitted roughly 400 falsified tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service, pursuing in excess of $3 million in tax refunds during the period that the scheme evolved.

In January, Icart pled guilty to charges of aggravated ID theft, conspiracy to file fraudulent tax claims, and access device fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Lenard in early April.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, late last Tuesday, it was announced by U. S. Attorney Wilfredo A. Ferrer that Escarmant was convicted by a jury of two counts of aggravated identity theft, one count of conspiracy to submit false claims to the Internal Revenue Service, as well as one count of access device fraud. Sentencing for his part in the case has been scheduled for June 17, in front of U.S. District Judge Lenard as well. The penalty that Escarmant faces is a possible 24 year maximum sentence of incarceration based on Florida statutory guidelines.

Subsequent to Escarmant’s conviction, at the press conference held, Ferrer applauded the investigative determinations of the South Florida Identity Theft Tax Fraud Strike Force and acknowledged a special commendation to the IRS- Criminal Investigation unit as well as the work done by the North Miami Beach Police Department He also praised and gave his thanks to Tallahassee Community College for their help and support during the course of the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elina Rubin-Smith and Michael B. Nadler.

Based on figures collected by the Federal Trade Commission reported cases of identity theft in the United States were led last year by the state of Florida. The city of Miami has proved to be the biggest loser with a rate of approximately 324 identity theft complaints per 100,000 residents which is an incident rate that is highest in the country. The state as a whole has been attributed for 178complaints per 100,000 residents which is also the highest in the nation.

74,496 possible falsified returns filed in Miami alone resulted in excess of $280 million in fraudulent refunds; according to a report compiled last September by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Per capita, the City of Miami’s amount of false returns founded on identity theft was 46 times the national average and stolen income tax refund fraud monetary value exceeded the national average by 70 times.

It is expected that tax return identity theft in the United States will increase significantly over the next five years. A TIGTA report notes that the I.R.S. estimates it is likely that they will pay more than $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over that period of time.

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A civil suit filed on behalf of Anthony Caravella, now 44 was thrown out by U.S. District Judge James Cohn against the city of Miramar and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, leaving four former Broward County sheriff’s department detectives as the sole residual defendants. He also discharged an allegation that the accused four officers conspired against the mentally challenged minor.

However, allegations still stand that the detectives conspired to coerce a confession from Caravella who was subsequently convicted and jailed for the rape/murder of Ada Cox Jankowski in November 1983.

Caravella was arrested for failing to appear in juvenile court on a grand theft charge in December 1983. During his time in custody, he was interrogated by police in reference to Jankowski’s murder. Caravella, who was tested to demonstrate that he maintained an IQ of 67, eventually provided four separate statements that were recorded by police. None of them apparently contained the same facts but they did lead to implicating him in the murder.
The statements were so dissimilar, that they conflicted with the evidence and in some cases contradicted themselves. At first, Caravella told police that the crime was perpetrated by three other youths. He then changed his story completely admitting that he had committed the crime, hitting the victim over the head with a soda bottle and killing her. In truth, she had been raped, stabbed and strangled. He made reference to the victim as being a “girl,” despite her age being much older than him, and also said that she was taller than he was when she was actually approximately eight inches shorter. He went on to say that the victim’s pants were wholly off, when they were only partially pulled off. He further went on to say that the victim’s shoes had both been removed, when one of them was still on one of her feet.

Caravella was convicted by a jury, after he turned 16, on August 3, 1984, almost exclusively on the foundation of his declarations to the police. There was never any physical evidence linked to him found at the crime scene. His attorneys argued that he was pressured into giving fabricated admissions by making him believe that he could get another female teenaged friend, Dawn Simone Herron, out of trouble if he voiced to them what they sought to know about the murder of Jankowski. His attorneys also implied that he had been threatened and even beaten by police up until the time he confessed to the crime. At the conclusion of the trial, Caravella was sentenced to life in prison.

Seventeen years later, in May 2001, Caravella’s attorneys’ swayed Broward County prosecutors to agree to again test the physical evidence recovered from the crime., These items included numerous hairs found on the victim’s body, a steak knife, T-shirt, as well as a vaginal swab that was taken. In November, the authorities conveyed that tests were inconclusive on the fingernail scrapings as well as the results of the rape kit. There wasn’t any sperm found according to Broward County lab analysts.

Despite the inconclusive results of the Broward County lab analysis, the evidence was later sent to Dr. Edward Blake, a DNA expert in California, who was able to isolate sperm and in September 2009, authorities said that Caravella was eliminated as the source of sperm found in the victim’s body.

In a separate finding, in 2002, during the prosecutor’s review of the evidence, they stumbled upon a recording of a telephone conversation made to a detective in the case from one of Caravella’s friends. The content of the tape revealed that the friend said that he took part in the crime along with Caravella. At that time, the friend was grilled further but denied any involvement. Defense attorneys argued that the tape, which was of great importance, was never turned over to the defense preceding Caravella’s trial.
Caravella was finally released from prison after being excluded by DNA evidence as the source of any physical confirmation in the case. The Broward Circuit judge who presided over the case apologized to him in open court on behalf of the state of Florida.

Recently, all the attorneys involved in the civil action declined to remark on the judge’s ruling due to the fact that the trial is still going on. The judge established that the agencies involved in the case had not been notified that there were ever any problems with any of the officers’ conduct before or during the case.

At last week’s hearing, attorneys representing the detectives played the four audio-taped statements for the jury before bringing forth an expert witness who expressed to the jurors that in his opinion, the officers handled the entire murder investigation “in a very professional way”. He also went on to testify that the handling of the questioning “followed the traditional guidelines of 1983.”

Joseph Matthews is a former homicide investigator for the city of Miami Beach and now, a police instructor. He has also been a frequent commentator on FOX News and has worked as a cold case homicide investigator for the popular television show “America’s Most Wanted.”

Matthews testified that he saw no problems with the questioning of Caravella by police, or the way other suspects in the homicide investigation were examined.

“He was a normal, well-spoken 15-year-old,” Matthews said, referring to Caravella, and also stated that the police would have had no reason to believe that Caravella had a below average IQ, and could be considered mentally challenged.

When asked to explain what he meant by his statement by Caravella’s attorney, he said that Caravella was more articulate than most people who commit crimes and suggested that the majority of inmates currently in the Broward County Jail have an IQ below seventy.

When Caravella’s lawyer went on to ask him for the basis for his opinion, he replied: “I was basing my opinion on my opinion, not that I did an IQ test or anything” on the inmates in jail. He further commented in reference to the questioning that it was done “in a very professional manner” and that officers “selected the right technique” to question him. He said that he saw “no improper or inappropriate questions” used on Caravella, and any so called leading questions were appropriate. Officers had the right to speak to Caravella without reading him his rights when they were under the impression that he might have witnessed the slaying instead of being involved in the murder.

Detectives also had the right to question him without having a parent present, Matthews said, specifying that Caravella’s mother was present for three of the four taped statements. She also testified that her son had also confessed to her the details of the murder. Matthews went on to say that the detectives went “out of their way” to respect Caravella’s rights and “above and beyond” in reading him his Miranda rights.

Addressing the jury Matthews said he thought Caravella’s statements, which included a lot of incorrect information and many erroneous details were credible. He also stalwartly suggested that Caravella committed the murder.

Closing arguments in the case are slated to begin after a DNA expert, called by retired Sheriff’s Major Tony Fantigrassi, finishes his testimony. The expert previously advised that the testing on the old DNA evidence was not reliable.

Caravella’s attorney is expected to ask jurors to find that the retired Sheriff’s Major and retired Miramar detectives George Pierson, William Mantesta and Bill Guess coerced her client into falsely confessing to the 1983 murder.

She is also expected to ask the jury for compensation and punitive damages against all four officers. No monetary settlement has been mentioned thus far. Caravella’s lawyer also made what has been taken as a tactical decision dropping assertions of intentional infliction of emotional distress which was a part of the original lawsuit.

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On May 1, 2010, a black male, dressed in royal blue surgical scrubs, and wearing a dark masklike nylon covering his face, entered the Bank of America located at 7215 W. Atlantic Boulevard in Delray Beach, Florida. Wielding a dark colored handgun he forced customers at gunpoint to lie on the floor and herded bank employees to the vault area where he made the bank manager open vault drawers. He also grabbed cash from numerous tellers’ drawers and then removed the dye packs before leaving the bank. Once calculated, the amount of the money stolen turned out to be in excess of $30,000 in cash.

Delray Beach Police were called and given the description of the suspect but were unable to find anyone in the vicinity who matched the appearance.

As their investigation continued, just three weeks later on Monday, May 21, 2010 at approximately 9:30 a.m., an individual who appeared to be the same man entered a Plantation BB&T bank branch located at 450 Pine Island Road. Demonstrating a similar method, he forced a customer of the bank down to the floor and covered his face with a black beanie. He then pointed his gun at a bank teller and ordered her to open the entrance to the tellers’ area. After gaining access, he filled a cloth sack with nearly $14,000 in cash and subsequently fled the bank.

This time he didn’t get far.

Plantation Police captured Bryan Whitehead, 32, of Miami, in a nearby gas station parking lot. Searching the suspect’s vehicle, the police found the firearm used during the commission of the robbery as well as the suspect’s disguise, and a police scanner. The stolen money from the most recent robbery was also recovered.

According to Sargent Al Butler, of the Plantation police department “One of our sergeants shut off the exit to the gas station and was checking each car individually when he came into contact with the person that fit the description. “One thing led to another and he ended up being positively identified by the bank personnel and the witness.”

After the conclusion of Whitehead’s trial he was recently sentenced before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch for bank robbery, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2113(a), and the use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of Title 18, United States Code: section 924(c). Zloch sentenced Whitehead to 471 months in prison (over 39 years) to be followed by five years of supervised release after his term of imprisonment is concluded.

In a FBI press release the terms of Whitehead’s sentencing was announced in conjunction by Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; Michael B. Steinbach, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; W. Howard Harrison, Chief, Plantation Police Department; and Anthony Strianese, Chief, Delray Beach Police Department.

The press release can be read in full on the FBI’s Website by clicking here

Department of Justice (1349 Bank Robbery – General Overview): Click Here

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