Hard Boiled News

True Crime and News of the Weird from around the Globe

Crazed Woman Chokes Kid at Disney World for Blocking Fireworks View

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Tabbatha Mature has some growing up to do

LA BUENA VISTA, Florida — A wild-eyed Florida woman is accused of choking a young girl at Disney World after the child got in the way of her view at a fireworks display, cops said.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said the girl was with a group of friends and their chaperones visiting the Magic Kingdom from out of state, when they joined the crowd to watch a fireworks show on Wednesday evening.

When the show began, the girl and some of her pals stood up to get a better look, prompting 41-year-old Tabbatha Mature, who was seated behind them, to demand they sit down, according to WJXT-TV.

The girls then decided to leave and the victim told Mature, “You can have out seat,” which set her off in a rage, cops said.

Authorities alleged Mature, who hails from New Baltimore, Michigan, then grabbed the girl by the throat and pushed her down towards the ground, screaming “You don’t want to mess with me!”

The girl’s friends managed to pull her away from Mature and then told a Disney employee what had happened.

The girl was not injured, but police charged Mature with child abuse.

 

Santa Look-Alike Busted for Selling Snow in Florida Keys

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Fidel Gutuerrel Gonzales Gutierrez bears an uncanny resemblance to jolly St. Nick

MARATHON, Florida — This Santa look-alike is definitely going to get some coal in his stocking this year.

Fidel Gutuerrel Gonzales Gutierrez — who bears an uncanny resemblance to St. Nick if he had moved down to the Florida Keys — has been busted for selling some snow.

The 58-year-old sold cocaine to undercover agents sxi times in February and March, the Monroe County Sheriff’s office said.

On each of the occasions, Gonzales Gutierrez is accused of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school or house of worship. He is also charged with using a two-way radio to facilitate a felony.

Police records say Gonzales Gutierrez is a fisherman, despite his resemblance to a sleigh driver.

Woman Admits Keeping Mexican as Pregnancy Surrogate Slave

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Esthela Clark admits smuggling the victim in to make a baby

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — A 47-year-old Florida woman faces 20 years in prison for smuggling a young woman from Mexico to be her pregnancy surrogate and then starving her and forcing her to do domestic labor.

Federal prosecutors say Esthela Clark pleaded guilty to forced labor, admitting that she paid people-smuggling “coyotes” $3,000 to sneak the victim into the U.S. from Mexico for the purpose of her serving as surrogate mother.

Clark had promised the 26-year-old woman the process would be medically supervised, but instead she tried to get the woman pregnant by using syringes to inject semen taken from her boyfriend’s used condoms.

The efforts — which sometimes entailed up to five injections per day — lasted for nine months, but didn’t result in a pregnancy. When that didn’t work, prosecutors said Clark forced the woman to have sex with strangers in an effort to get pregnant.

Prosecutors say Clark believed things weren’t working because the victim was too fat, so she put her on an all-beans diet, leading the woman to lose 65 pounds.

Clark also forced the woman to do domestic work around the house, isolated her from her family and tried to force her to pay back the money paid to the smugglers who brought her into the country.

A woman from a local church alerted police to the young woman’s plight after seeing her washing cars on a cold winter’s day wearing insufficient clothing.

 

Bosnian War Criminal Sentenced for Lying About Past to Get U.S. Passport

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Slobo Maric was convicted of abusing Bosnian Croat prisoners of war like these men

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — An unemployed Florida man convicted of war crimes in Bosnia has been sentenced to a year-and-half in federal prison for lying about his past as a sadistic prison warden when he applied to become a  U.S. citizen.

Slobo Maric, 56, had been a member of the Bosnian army during the civil war that tore that country apart in the early 1990s. Authorities say that during that time he served as the second in command at an elementary school-turned detention center for captured Bosnian Croat soldiers in the city of Mostar.

Under his command, prison guards routinely meted out brutal beatings of the prisoners of war . They also sent them to the front lines to dig trenches, fill sandbags and carry away the dead, and many were killed by sniper fire and bombs, authorities said.

In 1994, Maric was arrested and charged with war crimes against prisoners but was released as part of a prisoner exchange the following year. In 1996, he applied for refugee status in the United States. Prosecutors say he lied about whether he had ever violated the law, and the application was granted.

He then moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and in 1998 became a permanent resident and once again lied about his past on the application. Two years later, Maric was indicted for war crimes in Bosnia and was tried and convicted in absentia. U.S. prosecutors say Maric hired a lawyer and filed letters in his own defense in the case.

Shortly after his conviction, Maric applied to become a U.S. citizen and lied once again about  his past and in 2002, he was granted citizenship.

Maric pleaded guilty to the fraud last July and will have his U.S. citizenship revoked after he has served his sentence. He will then be deported back to Bosnia where he will likely face jail time for his war crimes conviction.

Shoplifting Fiasco Ends With Flipped Over Car, Two Arrests

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All ended up end over end well for this group of shoplifters

ORANGE PARK, Florida — They would have been better off just paying for everything.

A group of Florida shoplifters totaled their car while making their getaway after trying to make off goods they had stolen from a shopping mall, WJXT-TV reported.

Police say the three women had stolen a bunch of stuff from Orange Park Mall on Saturday and after one got nabbed by mall security, the other two attempted a daring getaway.

But things went belly up when their vehicle struck a rock as they sped out of the parking lot, and flipped over.

The two women attempted to get away on foot, but one was nabbed by police, while the other managed to escape.

Police did not immediately release the names of the women who were caught.

Mom Charged After 3-Year-Old Son Fires Gun in Florida School Parking Lot

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Abbi Maldonado forgot lesson one about gun safety

DELTONA, Florida — A reckless mother was charged with child neglect after leaving her 3-year-old son alone in a car outside a church school where he found loaded handgun and pulled the trigger, police said.

No one was hurt in the incident in the parking lot outside of the Good Shepherd Academy in Deltona, Florida on Monday afternoon, but the single shot fired shattered a window and lodged in the door frame, the Volusia County Sheriff’s office reported.

Abbie Maldonado, 30, had come to the school to pick up her other son, when she left her 3-year-old alone in the backseat. She told cops she had left the back door open so she could watch her son from afar as she chatted with other parents outside the school.

She then heard a bang, but didn’t realize it was a gunshot, police said. She eventually returned to the vehicle and took the boy inside to use the bathroom, but only when she returned did she notice the front driver’s side window had shattered.

Maldonado then realized that her loaded handgun was no longer in the driver’s side door pocket where she had left, but was now on the backseat.

After making sure the boy was okay, she went inside the school and reported the incident and officials there called police.

“Nobody’s hurt, but we had a parent that has a concealed weapon permit and a child got a hold of it and pulled the trigger,” the caller said, according to cops.

Maldonado was hit with a  felony charge of child neglect.  She told deputies she normally keeps the gun locked in the trunk.

The child was released to Maldonado’’s boyfriend.

Comedy of Errors Leads Cops to Weed Stash Hidden in Man’s Butt

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Wherever Genaro Garcia tried to hide his weed, cops still managed to find it

FORT PIERCE, Florida — He stuck it where the sun don’t shine, but the cops found it anyway.

Florida highway patrolmen made the unfortunate discovery of a bag of weed poking out from between a suspect’s buttocks during a wild traffic stop in which the man did everything he could to ditch his stash and failed.

The episode on March 3, kicked off the when cops tried to pull over a Kia Optima near Fort Pierce for having windows that were tinted darker than is legal. They also saw the driver, Genaro Garcia, 31, wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

“I observed the driver door window come down and the driver was moving around as if to conceal something,” the officer wrote in his report, according to the TC Palm.

But Garcia kept going and began throwing things out the windows of the his car, which cops later discovered were bags of weed.

As officers gave chase, one bag of weed became lodged in the front grill of one of the pursuing police cars.

Eventually cops got Garcia to stop by placing a spike strip in the road to puncture his tires.

As officers got Garcia out of his car, they made him stop chewing on marijuana he was trying to swallow.

“Also a bag containing marijuana was discovered in Mr. Garcia’s butt that was sticking out,” the report stated.

An open can of beer was also found in the car.

Garcia was charged with possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, fleeing and eluding, tampering with evidence and possession of drug paraphernalia. He has been released on bond pending trial.

Laurence Fishburne’s Porn Star Daughter Busted After Drunken Wreck

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Montana Fishburne’s prior claim to fame had been a short-lived attempt to become a porn star

FORT LAUDERDALE — The wayward daughter of actor Laurence Fishburne, was arrested after allegedly getting into a drunken wreck in Florida in which her car was left covered in wine.

Officers with the Florida Highway Patrol say Montana Fishburne, 25, was driving a white Toyota Corolla in Fort Lauderdale early Saturday, when she slammed into the rear of a Land Rover that had slowed in response to a separate accident further ahead.

Neither Fishburne, her passenger or the driver of the Land Rover were injured in the crash.

When officers arrived at the scene, they say Fishburne was muttering incoherently about “her driver’s license name being different if I were to arrest her,” the police report stated. Officer said they could also smell a strong odor of alcohol on her breath.

Inside her car, police found an open bottle of red wine and purple liquid stains all over the driver and front passenger seats that smelled strongly of alcohol, the report said. As police were trying to clear the road, they say Fishburne squatted down near the shoulder and urinated.

Cops say Fishburne failed a series of field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest. At the stationhouse, Fishburne allegedly blew a .177 and .181 on the breathalyzer, more than twice the legal limit.

Fishburne moved to Fort Lauderdale in 2014 after a short-lived attempt to become a porn star and a stint as a stripper in Texas. She has said in interviews that she hoped the porn films would help her become the next Kim Kardashian and she could launch an acting career.

Her career choices have left her estranged from her famous father, Laurence Fishburne, best known for his roles in “The Matrix” and “Deep Cover.”

In 2009, Montana Fishburne was arrested on charges of prostitution. The following year she was charged with battery and false imprisonment after allegedly barging into the home of her boyfriend’s ex, dragging her into a bathroom and beating her.

Tourists Narrowly Avoid Being Crushed By Cruise Ship in Florida Harbor Mishap

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Police yanked the women to safety just moments before a giant cruise ship swept past

PORT CANAVERAL, Florida — A quick-thinking sheriff’s deputy swooped in and saved two jet-skiers from being crushed under a 130,000-ton cruise ship after they had capsized in its path.

The Brevard County Sheriff’s office said the two tourists on Spring Break from West Virginia, Skylar Penpasuglia, 19, and Allison Garrett, 20, were riding in Port Canaveral on Saturday when one of them fell into the water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=cdxZ_eZCALI

As she tried to climb back aboard the Jet Ski, it flipped over and as the two women frantically tried to right the water craft, the wind blew them out into the channel and into the path of an outgoing cruise ship, the Carnival Magic.

As the towering ship bore down on them, SeaPort Security Marine Deputy Taner Primmer, who was escorting the cruise ship, leapt into action, and steered his patrol boat into the ship’s path and pulled the women to safety.

Garrett (far left) and Penpasuglia (far right) were on Spring Break from W. Virginia.

Harbor Pilot Capt. Doug Brown, who was steering the Magic out to sea, also spotted what was going on and managed to turn the giant ship just enough to not strike the women.

Chilling video shot by tourists on the cruise ship’s deck, showed how close the cruise ship came to passing right over the women.

“Were it not for the quick actions of both Deputy Primmer and Port Canaveral Harbor Pilot Capt. Doug Brown , the girls could have been pulled under the ship causing potentially serious if not fatal injuries,” said Sheriff Wayne Ivey.

 

Miami Cop Turns Bad Lieutenant, Charged With Shaking Down Motorists

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Miami Police Officer Jose Acosta had been on the force less than a year

MIAMI — A rookie Miami cop has been arrested on charges that he was shaking down motorists he had pulled over.

Jose R. Acosta had only joined the City of Miami police department in May 2016, but had quickly betrayed the oath of office, allegedly robbing drivers he threatened after pulling them over, officials said.

“The city of Miami Police Department will not tolerate actions that betray the oath of our office as public servants and contradict our duty to serve and protect our communities,” Deputy Police Chief Luis Cabrera said.

Acosta was arrested Friday in a sting operation, police said.

The 21-year-old was taken into custody and charged with burglary and grand theft and was released on bond on Saturday.

Cabrera said Acosta was suspended without pay pending his dismissal from the force.

The bust marks the second recent black eye for the Miami police department. In December, three rookie officers were fired for joking on online chat forum about going to black neighborhoods for target practice.

The department was placed under Justice Department supervision last year following a high number of questionable shootings by police over the course of several years.