Michael Cohen

Elderly Miami Man Convicted of 2003 Homicide

March 28, 2020 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Circumstantial evidence can only take investigators so far in a crime when speculating whether a suspect is the actual perpetrator. This was the case in the 2003 murder of Gladys Jorge who was savagely beaten to death in her home in mid-July.

At the time of the homicide, Jorge shared a home with her boyfriend Eugenio Fariñas. According to her family their relationship was rocky to say the least, but they still coexisted in the same residence for quite a long time.

The victim’s body was found by Jorge’s mother, who lived door during the summer of 2003. According to police records she had a key to her daughter’s house. When officers were dispatched to the residence where they were met by Jorge’s mother and sister, they were advised that she was inside and unresponsive. Paramedics quickly pronounced her dead after entering the home.

Three Suspects in Custody for Robbery/Murder of South Florida firefighter

November 29, 2019 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

It appears that an off-duty Coral Springs firefighter was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was a warm balmy Florida Saturday evening when Christopher Randazzo decided to visit one of his old haunts where he previously tended bar for close to twenty years.

The Aruba Beach Café, right off the water’s edge has been a fixture in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea for many years, catering to those who enjoy tropical drinks, excellent American-Caribbean cuisine and live nightly music. The popular establishment is accessible by both land or by aquatic means.

Coral Springs Special Victims Unit Solves another Cold Case

October 29, 2019 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

After watching coverage of local police solving a rape case that occurred in 1987, a woman (whose name is being withheld) decided to ask the same exclusive unit to take a renewed look at her case which occurred over thirty-five years ago. She decided it was time for someone to pay for the knifepoint atrocity she experienced at her Ramblewood home in Coral Springs, Florida so long ago. The woman had just moved into the area with her family a few months before the alleged assault occurred.

This Facebook post among other reporting in local newspapers and a substantial amount of TV coverage gave her the hope and belief that what happened to her on Aug. 22, 1983 should be revisited.

Last month’s article posted on this blog highlighted the story of the arrest of Frank Montoya along with other victories of cold cases which were dug up and solved by the Coral Springs Special Victims Unit after many years of them seemingly being forgotten.

21-Year-Old Involved in Two Broward County Bank Robberies Surrenders

August 25, 2019 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Bank robbery has been a federal crime in the United States since 1934. This includes National banks, state member banks, savings and loans, credit unions, armored cars and related institutions that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Company (FDIC).

It was in the 1930’s when the John Dillinger gang also known as The Terror Gang caught the country’s attention wreaking havoc with their daring robberies of twenty-four banks. Since that era the FBI has become the leader of all investigations relating to any assault on the Federal Reserve System.

Dillinger became a folk hero to some when the press ran embellished accounts of his swagger and flamboyant personality, equating him to a then day Tony Soprano figure.

Newly Appointed Gregory Tony Cleaning up Broward Sheriff’s Office

July 27, 2019 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

Recently appointed Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony has been working tirelessly to change what has been charged as an existing culture of unnecessary violence that has recently gripped his department.

The department has been heavily criticized going back to the Parkland shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Tony who was a previously retired Coral Springs police sergeant was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis in January replacing then Sheriff Scott Israel.

Opiate Epidemic Assaults South Florida

August 20, 2017 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the opioid epidemic became a campaign issue with overdose deaths hitting a peak of 28,000 nationally the previous year detailed by the latest current available data.

It was just a few weeks ago that the President of the United States declared the opioid crisis a National emergency. More than a year earlier, the Governor of Florida stated that opioid abuse was a public health emergency in the state.

Locally, a Miami man was arrested this past June for heroin trafficking and possession of Fentanyl. He was coordinating transactions of the opiates with what turned out to be a police informant.

South Florida Man and New Wife Charged with Sexual Assault of Her Sister

July 30, 2017 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

July 29, 2017

Dale Leary, of Cutler Bay had been married to his now ex-wife Claudia for more than 10 years when the couple decided to take in a high school exchange student from Spain.

They employed CCI Greenheart, a Chicago-based nonprofit that cleared students to live in the United States from numerous foreign countries.

Florida Man Seeking Asylum Faced Deportation Due to Past Misdemeanors

April 27, 2017 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

APRIL 27, 2017
Marco Aurelio Coello was tortured in Venezuela before he left that country to seek asylum in the United States.

Coello is an activist who took part in a protest in 2014 in opposition to the regime of Nicolás Maduro when he was a high school student.

In due course the protest he attended became violent.
Coello was tear-gassed and arrested on charges of inciting violence before being tortured according to his lawyer. He was subsequently released due to what was labeled as psychological problems.

While awaiting trial in Venezuela the 19 year old student recognized the fact that he had no choice but to flee the country; the alternative could be facing a decade or more in prison because of his participation in the political demonstration.

In 2015 he told a local journalist that he knew he had no choice but to leave his homeland.
Continue reading ›

Florida Case Interrupts the Statute of Limitations

February 21, 2017 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

A crime that was committed more than a specific quantified number of years ago may be subject to a statute of limitation which is basically a clock making sure prosecutions don’t move forward in an attempt to prosecute a crime based on physical evidence or eyewitness testimony that may have deteriorated in its reliability over the passage of time.

After the time period of the particular statute has run out, the accused, for all intents and purposes cannot be prosecuted for the alleged crime.

Certain crimes do not have a statute of limitation. A criminal homicide, for example, has none. Some states vary in which crimes are covered by this statute such as various violent crimes, sex offenses involving minors, kidnapping, arson, forgery and other offenses.

South Florida Woman Facing Federal Bank Robbery Charges

January 21, 2017 | Michael B. Cohen, P.A.

It was the height of the Holiday shopping season last month, when a middle aged woman wearing sweat pants and a dark colored hat walked into a bank and simply handed a teller a note which read “This is a robbery. Smile & act naturally”. She also told the teller that she was armed and wouldn’t hesitate to use her weapon, “so don’t act like a hero”, even though witnesses to the apparent robbery didn’t see a weapon in the woman’s possession, according to the federal criminal complaint.

After her arrest, which took place three days after the alleged robbery, and after being taken into custody, Sonya Clark, who is fifty two years old and works for a moving company also seemingly confessed to robbing a local branch of a TD bank in Boynton Beach late last year, near her residence. The bank that was hit in Fort Lauderdale was also a TD Bank
Continue reading ›