Wedding brawl ... in case you missed it

Every bride's nightmare probably came true Sunday in Tampa at the waterfront Rusty Pelican Restaurant.

Tampabay.com reported Tuesday that police arrived to find a sprawling melee involving 30 to 40 wedding guests that resulted in a flying brick, the appearance of a gun, and, inevitably, a bride in tears.

Police say the groom, Markeith Brown, was throwing dollar bills onto the dance floor as kids scurried to gather them — "makin' it rain," the rappers call it. Other guests didn't like that, and the fracas was the apparent result.

He said, she said, police said

She didn't like some numbers in his cell phone.  They argued about it.  She picked up a ceramic vase and hit him in the back of the head while he was in bed.  She denied hitting him with the vase, which was in several pieces. He had a lump on the back of his head. So police arrested her and charged her with aggravated battery.

Day before wedding, man accidentally shoots, kills fiancee

WINTER SPRINGS -- He thought he heard an intruder in his home early Friday, so John Tabutt, 62, got his gun and fired at a figure in the dark hallway, investigators said.

He struck his live-in fiancee, 62-year-old Nancy Dinsmore. Family members say the couple planned to get married Saturday in a small ceremony.

Tabutt said he thought she was next to him in bed the whole night. He has not been charged.

Associated Press

Deputies: Tampa man faked kidnapping to cheat on his wife

TAMPA — A Tampa man led Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies on a wild goose chase Wednesday night after telling his wife he'd been kidnapped.

But it was a ruse by a cheating spouse, authorities said.

Wikler Moran-Mora, 38, told his wife he'd been abducted so he could cheat on her, said sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

When she told him she was calling police, Moran-Mora balked, telling her that his captors had agreed to let him go.

But it was too late.

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Read the rest of the story @ Tampabay.com.

Fla. man allegedly took 2 NY fiancés for $400k

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A 55-year-old South Florida man allegedly swindled some $400,000 from two New York women he was engaged to at the same time.

Authorities say Paul R. Francois coaxed one to move to Florida after she met him on vacation, and the other into taking out a $100,000 home equity loan on her Elmont, N.Y. place.

Francois was arrested Wednesday on two counts of first-degree theft and one of organized scheme to defraud. His attorney didn't immediately return a telephone message Thursday morning.

Investigators say both women thought they'd spend the rest of their lives with Francois. He allegedly hit one and threatened to kill the other when they became suspicious.

The woman who moved to Florida says she's penniless and facing foreclosure on the Miramar home she and Francois bought.

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Plant City man fired at girlfriend as she hacked through his door with an axe

PLANT CITY — When his girlfriend took to his door with an axe, William Floyd started shooting, deputies say.

No one was hurt in the 2 a.m. domestic dispute at 2811 S County Line Road, said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter. Floyd, 44, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Carter said it seems Floyd's live-in girlfriend couldn't get into his front door and tried to chop it down. So Floyd fired a round at the door with a .38-caliber handgun. The girlfriend drove away and refused to answer an investigator's questions, Carter said.

Floyd admitted to shooting the gun but told deputies he had only fired into the air as the woman was leaving, an arrest report states. Floyd was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail and has been released on bail of $4,000.

Zephyrhills store offers drive-through weddings

ZEPHYRHILLS — Lining the main drag through town, signs advertise drive-though restaurants, drive-through ATMs and now, drive-through weddings.

The Rev. Sharon Burnett opened Mother Earth Goddess metaphysical store in a former dry-cleaning business on Gall Boulevard in early July.

Unsure what to do with the sliding glass doors where customers used to pick up their pressed and cleaned garments, Burnett, a notary public and minister, decided to officiate behind-the-wheel nuptials. Couples with a marriage license, a witness over the age of 18 and $20 can exchange vows without turning off the engine.

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Read the full story @ Tampabay.com.

Woman assaults roommate with air freshener, potted plant

TREASURE ISLAND — Police arrested a woman for battering her live-in boyfriend when she finally worked her way up to a weapon he found dangerous.

Bonita P. Miller, 59, of 11701 First St. E, Apt.4, Treasure Island, is charged with domestic battery and is being held on $1,500 bond at Pinellas County Jail. She has two prior battery arrests but no convictions.

According to a Treasure Island Police arrest report, Miller struck Michael Wilson with a can of air freshener and a potted plant before jabbing him in the back with a key. Wilson, who told police he had overheard his roommate of three months "talking about murder/suicide" that morning, called police when she wielded a knife. He was not stabbed.

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From Tampabay.com

If you're thinking of taking the plunge in a most unusual venue...

The Palm Beach Post reports that a Fort Lauderdale scuba shop is training clergy who will be available to officiate at underwater weddings.  Debbi Ballard, an ordained Jewish cantor, is training to perform a traditional (kinda sorta) subsurface Jewish wedding at which the groom will smash a light bulb with his flipper instead of the the usual wine glass.  Meanwhile, the couple can sip wine out of a sippy cup. 

"Not everyone is cut out for a white wedding,'' Ballard told the newspaper.  She is testing a mask with a microphone that will let her address the bride and groom below the surface while weddings guests, high and dry on a boat, can listen and watch via a video hook-up.

According to Jannette Alix, president of the Miami-Dade and Broward chapter of the National Association of Wedding Professionals, underwater weddings are not uncommon, but underwater Jewish wedings are.

There's ALWAYS a Florida connection...

You know this.  So you should not be suprised that the Palm Beach Post is reporting, "Cheating South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford expected to spend the Fourth in Hobe Sound."

The governor's spokesman said he would be joining his wife and four sons at his inlaws' home in Hobe Sound's gated Loblolly Bay community.  The spokesman added that the family would be taking a longer vacation later in the month of July, and requested that "members of the media" respect their privacy this weekend.

Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall in that house?

Fox News has additional details.

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Photo:  AP