Police search for men who shot at each other

ST. PETERSBURG - Police are searching for two men who abandoned a pickup truck and shot at each other while arguing, police say.

It happened about 8 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of Fifth Street S and 14th Avenue. Witnesses told police that two men got out of a black Ford Ranger, yelled profanities at each other and started shooting. No one was reported injured, said Sgt. Antonio Gilliam.

After the initial shooting, other neighbors in the area reported shots fired. Police officers who responded also heard shooting, Gilliam said. The truck's front left tire was flat, apparently from a bullet hole, and the vehicle smelled of marijuana.

Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

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Woman pulled from water off Honeymoon Island

DUNEDIN -- Paramedics transported a 69-year-old woman to the hospital after she was found face down in the water off Honeymoon Island State Park.

Suzanne Kunis was at the beach with her husband and friends when she went swimming about 7 p.m. Then her husband, Mark Farber, saw her floating face down helped pull her to shore.

Dunedin Fire Chief Bill McElligott said Kunis was transported to Mease Dunedin Hospital. McElligott said there didn't seem to be a problem with rip tide or other surf conditions.

"They're doing everything they can for her," McElligott said.

Kunis was critically injured, the sheriff's office said.

--Stephanie Garry, Times Staff Writer

Riverview man tries to run over trooper, FHP says

RIVERVIEW — A routine traffic stop turned into a wild ride down Interstate 75, with for a Highway Patrol trooper clinging to the side of a pickup truck, and an attempted murder charge for the driver.

About 3:45 a.m. near Gibsonton Drive, FHP officials say, Trooper Anthony Horne saw a truck that didn’t get out of the way of an emergency vehicle and switched on his lights and siren.

Horne stopped Anthony Craig Cook (at left) and was preparing to cite him for failing to move over for an emergency vehicle. Then, with the trooper at his window, Cook put his 1989 Ford pickup in gear and turned hard to the left, trying to hit Horne, FHP officials said.

Horne jumped onto the running board and held on to the side of the truck as Cook drove south on I-75, with the trooper pleading for him to stop, the FHP said in a news release.

After driving about 700 feet, Cook put on the brakes. Then he jumped out the passenger side and took off running. Horne chased him, caught him and arrested him, FHP said.

Troopers say they later discovered that Cook had illegal drugs and a suspended license.

Cook, 35, of 12931 Lincoln Rd., Riverview, was being held without bail Thursday in the Hillsborough County jail. He faces charges of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, fleeing and attempting to elude an officer, aggravated battery on an officer, possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, driving with a suspended license and failing to move over for an emergency vehicle.

Kim Wilmath, Times staff writer

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Appellate court hears Hillsborough county mayor case

TAMPA -- Critical defect or minor matter?

That's the key question for the 2nd District Court of Appeal in the legal argument over whether to create the position of Hillsborough County mayor.

At this point, a referendum on the county mayor's job has been removed from the November ballot.

The reason: a Hillsborough circuit judge ruled in August that the proposed charter amendment to create the position also says the new mayor would be elected in 2008. That can't happen, and so is a fatal flaw, the judge concluded.

The group in favor of the county mayor job appealed, and today attorneys for both sides made their cases in a Tampa courtroom.

Barry Richard, who represents supporters of the proposal, said the mention of electing the new mayor in 2008 does not affect the central question at issue in the referendum. That question, he said, is whether Hillsborough voters want to change their form of government.

In this case, the ballot question "clearly tells the voter" that the decision concerns whether to go from having an appointed county administrator to a nonpartisan, elected mayor, Richard told a three-judge panel. Voters won't be confused by the mention in the charter amendment of a mayor's race in 2008.

"They know it can't begin before it gets adopted," said Richard, a Tallahassee attorney for Elected County Mayor Political Committee Inc., which circulated petitions in 2006 to put the question on the ballot that year.

But Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson's office said the group fell short of the number of petition signatures it needed to schedule the referendum in 2006. Johnson later said valid petitions would stand and newly signed petitions could be added to the total until backers reached the number they needed. He also said in 2006 that the county mayor question could be placed on the ballot in 2008.

During today's hearing, presiding Judge Darryl C. Casanueva noted that the Florida Supreme Court has warned parties in the past to "be careful about what you put in" ballot initiatives, especially when it comes to dates.

"The date might be important if it affects a critical component of the amendment," Richard said, but in this case it doesn't. The petition, he said, ought to be read that the new county mayor would be elected at "the next general election at which it can be placed on the ballot."

And Richard said the state Supreme Court also has warned judges to be "extremely cautious" about removing things from the ballot and taking away voters' chance to decide important issues.

But attorney Jennifer Blohm contended that the charter amendment language saying the county mayor would be elected in 2008 makes a big difference.

"The people who were signing this thought it was going to be on the November 2006 ballot," said Blohm, a Tallahassee attorney who represents local activist James E. Shirk, who sued in July to block the referendum.

One problem, she said, is that the charter amendment would eliminate the county administrator's job to create a county mayor, but no county mayor would be elected for two years.

As proposed, the charter amendment "gives an exact date when the transfer (of authority) was supposed to happen and it can't happen," she said.

Richard argued, however, that state law gives the County Commission the ability to appoint an administrative officer anytime it needs one, so no lapse of authority would take place.

An attorney for Johnson's office did not take a position in the dispute, but did ask the judges to make a decision no later than Sept. 10, because the office has to print hundreds of different ballot styles and begin mailing them overseas.

-- Richard Danielson, Times Staff Writer

Senator's letter halts elderly exploitation trial

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Sen. Mike Fasano's letter to the judge starts out like this: "I realize I cannot get involved in the Eloise Mudway case."

Oops. Too late. The state senator's letter not only involved him in the trial of the New Port Richey couple accused of bilking a 91-year-old woman out of her savings and house but was the reason why the judge recused himself today, resulting in a mistrial.

State law and judicial canons gave Circuit Judge Jack Day no choice. If there's even the possibility that the letter could influence the judge, he must remove himself from the case.

Defendants Joseph and Cynthia Clancy, who each face up to 30 years in prison if convicted of 2005 charges of exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult or grand theft, must be retried within 90 days. Their trial started Wednesday.

Tampa woman on dog walk is sexually assaulted

TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- A 22-year-old Tampa woman was sexually assaulted at knifepoint Tuesday while walking her dog on Baywater Drive, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

According to an arrest affidavit, about 10 a.m., the woman was approached by 33-year-old George Collazo Jr. (pictured), of 5624 Baywater Drive, who asked if he could pet her dog. Deputies didn't identify the dog's breed or size. The man then removed a blue-handled boxcutter and told her to go inside his apartment or he would hurt her, the affidavit said. Once inside, Collazo pushed the victim to the floor, fondled himself and forced her to perform oral sex on him while threatening her with the knife, the affidavit said.

Police arrested Collazo at his home that day and charged him with sexual battery and kidnapping. He was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail, where he remains without bond. Though the arrest affidavit and a police news release list his address as Baywater Drive, his jail listing states that Collazo lives at 15420 Livingston Ave., Apartment 504, in Lutz.

In March, Collazo was arrested on two counts of battery, jailed and released on bond, according to Sheriff's Office records. He was arrested twice in 2007 on trespassing charges.

Kim Wilmath, Times Staff Writer

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Search is on for second suspect in kidnapping

Deputies are searching for a second person they've accused of kidnapping and trying to a sexually assault a 23-year-old woman while she walked to a friend's house in east Hillsborough County early Thursday.

The woman, whose name was not released, was walking along U.S. 92 around 1:35 a.m. when a silver Lincoln Navigator pulled up next to her, deputies said.

Hillsborough sheriff's officials gave this account: The two men inside, including 21-year-old driver Gary Adams (left), offered her a ride and then offered her a cell phone. She refused the ride, and the unidentified passenger grabbed her by the hair, yanked her into the SUV's back seat and began groping her. The woman kicked and clawed the back-seat attacker before jumping from the moving SUV onto Turkey Creek Road. She ran to a friend's residence and called authorities.

A short time later, a patrolling deputy spotted the silver SUV at Turkey Creek Road at Reece Road near Plant City. Adams, 21, of Tampa was the only person inside. Instead of surrendering during a traffic stop, investigators said Adams hit the gas, taking aim at the deputy. He missed.

With the deputy following, Adams sped north on Turkey Creek before turning west on State Road 54, where the SUV ran over tire-flattening "stop sticks" and came to a stop at Lakeview Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Seffner.

There, he tried to run from the SUV but was caught. He allegedly punched the face of a deputy trying to arrest him. He was finally Tasered, handcuffed and jailed on a host of felony charges, including  kidnapping, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, aggravated fleeing to elude, battery on a law enforcement officer and being an accessory after the fact of an attempted sexual battery.

Authorities are looking for a second suspect in the attack, who is described only as black.

Casey Cora, Times staff writer

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Gas leak causes evacuation

ST. PETERSBURG -- A gas leak that began this morning at 148 42nd Ave. N has caused an evacuation, according to Lt. Joel Granata of St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue.

About 20 people from nearby homes and businesses had to be evacuated. The leak began around 10:44 when Verizon workers drilled through a 2-inch PVC pipe that supplies gas to several businesses along Fourth Street, Granata said.

The St. Petersburg hazardous materials team responded to the leak and dug out the pipe. Around noon, Tampa Electric workers were working on affixing a sleeve to the pipe, Granata said.

"We have it pretty much under control," he said, "but it was definitely a hazardous situation."

Residents and business occupants will be allowed to return shortly after the repair is complete.

Nicole Hutcheson, Times staff writer

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DNA leads to two burglary suspects

TAMPA -- DNA evidence led to the arrest of two suspects in two separate recent burglaries, according to a Tampa Police Department report.

On Wednesday, officers found a DNA match from a blood sample taken after a burglary at Manifestations World Wide Church, 3008 E Lake Ave., on June 16. The blood left at the scene was found to belong to Eldred Baker, 30, who was incarcerated at the Orient Road Jail for a different burglary. Baker was subsequently charged with burglary and grand theft.

On Aug. 26, police matched DNA evidence from a June 24 burglary at 3401 N 54th St. to Brenda Perkins, 53, of 2504 25th Ave. E, who had left blood at the residence after breaking the window and allegedly stealing cash. After analyzing the blood, police found Perkins at home and booked her into the Orient Road Jail on grand theft and burglary charges.

Kim Wilmath, Times staff writer

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Costly Kenwood dog park gets okay

ST. PETERSBURG -- The City Council approved a dog park for Historic Kenwood this morning, despite complaints that the $171,284 price tag -- nearly six times the usual cost -- was a waste of tax dollars.

"A dog park is not just for dogs, it's for the people, it's for the neighborhood," said council member Jim Kennedy. "We are creating a place for people to have recreation, to have that be in the neighborhood, to have that close to home."

Council members Wengay Newton and Bill Dudley, who cast the two votes against the park, said the project sends the wrong message to taxpayers.

"I'm having a hard time approving something when we have people who are really hurting," Dudley said. "I think there is a perception that in tough economic times, the city is not willing to tighten its belt."

Car slams into beer truck in fiery crash

ST. PETERSBURG -- A car slammed into a Budweiser truck early this morning at 38th Avenue and 16th Street N in St. Petersburg.

About 4:30 a.m., a brand-new blue Chevy Cobalt ran the light at 38th Avenue after the driver spotted a police cruiser nearby, said Pete Hoambrecker, communication supervisor for the St. Petersburg Police Department. It slammed into the beer truck waiting at the intersection and burst into flames, Hoambrecker said. Police and a civilian pulled three people from the burning car: one passenger seriously injured and the driver and other passenger with minor injuries. They were taken to Bayfront Medical Center. The driver of the beer truck was not injured.

Police spokesman Bill Proffitt called Officers Mariuse Linowski and Shelia Desich heroes because they rescued the three people from the car and then tried to put out the fire, albeit unsuccessfully, with extinguishers from their cars before firefighters arrived. Linowski and Desich had no protective gear and risked burns. St. Petersburg Fire Rescue will recognize Linowski, Desich and the civilian who helped them, Ray Ott, at an awards ceremony, Lt. Joel Granata wrote in an e-mail.

A load of sand was being sent to the scene to clean up spilled liquid. Hoambrecker said the liquid could be beer and probably was not fuel.

The Cobalt was not reported stolen, Hoambrecker said. He said he driver and passengers would be questioned, and the owner of the car -- if different -- would be notified.

The road has been cleared and is open to traffic.

Kim Wilmath, Times staff writer

Photos provided by St. Petersburg Fire Rescue

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