The last thing that you expect when you are leaving the Cracker Barrel is to be accosted by a man trying to steal your wallet. Having this act committed by an individual wanted in several other states is an even less conceivable.
This is what happened to a 70 year old man leaving a Cracker Barrel in St. Johns recently. The man says that the person who approached him showed a police style badge in order to catch him off guard. Once the wallet of the victim was in his possession, the individual ran from the scene.
The accused in this crime is Gregory Jeffries, 40. He was posing as a police lieutenant. Wearing a peach colored paisley suit, it was easy to identify him as someone who might be an officer.
As Jeffries fled the scene, many people chased after him and called for police. In an attempt to flee the angry people chasing him, Jeffries fled east on State Road 16 on foot. He later met up with a waiting vehicle which then sped off.
The officers were able to get the identity of Jeffries from a wallet which was dropped at the scene. The U.S. Marshalls were able to use the information from the wallet to track down Jeffries in Fort Lauderdale.
When Jeffries was detained, the Philadelphia police force indicated that Jeffries meets the description of an individual wanted for pick-pocket crimes in their city. The expectation is that Jeffries has been going up and down the East Coast committing crimes in various areas.
The badge is like a fake as Jeffries has never been involved with law enforcement. He has been extradited to St. Johns County where he will stand trial for third degree felony charges. Among the charges is impersonating a law enforcement officer.
In a case of robbery, turned murder, Randy W. Tundidor stands accused for the murder of a Nova Southeastern University professor, Joseph Morrissey.
As the report alleges, Tundidor, 45, and his son, Randy H. Tundidor, 23, took Morrissey and his wife hostage. They drove the two to the bank where they were forced at gunpoint to withdraw money. It is alleged that after this, the two returned back to the home of the professor on Northwest 75th Terrace where the professor was found murdered.
The prosecution in the case of Tundidor is alleging that the father is the guilty party in the brutal stabbing murder of Morrissey. The report given by the son in the robbery and by the wife is supposed to reveal how the professor pled for his life explaining that he has a wife and child and how this did not faze Tundidor.
The charges faced by Tundidor include first degree murder as well as robbery and arson. The arson charge stems from Tundidor setting the home of the professor on fire while the wife and child were inside, though thankfully they escaped the blaze.
Christopher Pole, the defense attorney, has been adamant that the acts were committed by the son of Tundidor rather than by his client. By way of evidence, he points to the fact that there is not one latent print anywhere to be found on or around the crime scene. The only evidence that Tundidor was involved in the murder is the testimony offered by a crack addict and a hysterical wife in shock.
The testimony offered by the son of Tundidor was in exchange of avoiding the death penalty. Tundidor himself is now trying to avoid being sentenced in murder altogether even though the eye-witness accounts appear to be damning.
Fort Lauderdale has joined the ranks of many other cities seeking tougher laws against those begging for money from people trying to go to their car or into a restaurant. Their stance is that it makes the public feel unsafe and it creates a negative image for tourists.
The new law does not replace the old law, but adds to it. Whereas the old law was more focused on the beaches, beach areas and Seabreeze Boulevard, the new law focuses more on the downtown area of Fort Lauderdale. Areas under the microscope are parks, sidewalks near dining areas and city parking lots.
The measure has a few people upset. Civil rights groups are upset about the idea that the law criminalizes people trying to get what they need. They claim that it is an unconstitutional measure which infringes on the freedom of speech invoked by those asking for money.
The South Florida chapter of the National Lawyers Build also issued a statement against the new law. They feel that being tougher on panhandling does nothing to stop the action. In their opinion, this only creates a situation in which it is even more difficult for these individuals to get out of poverty because now they have an arrest record for trying to get something to eat.
While the new law will not cause panhandling to stop altogether, the lawmakers are hoping that they will at least be able to offer some peace for those looking to get to their cars or to walk along the street. They are also hoping that the measure will clear some of the downtown areas of the homeless which converge there on a near daily basis. Only time will tell if the new measure will make matters better or worse for the city.
Recently in Palm Beach, a Fort Lauderdale man was arrested for his part in a major smuggling operation of marijuana into the United States.
The man in question is Lynx Jones. He was discovered nearby to an abandoned boat filled with more than $342,000 worth of marijuana. At the time, Jones denied involvement with the boat saying that he was merely walking the beach after having a fight with his wife. After being questioned, his story changed.
Jones claims that while living in the Bahamas, he borrowed money from a Jamaican man. The debt which was incurred between 2007 and 2009 went unpaid leaving Jones in hoc to the Jamaican man. Since Jones had no other way to pay, the man suggested that he helped with delivering packages of marijuana for him.
The first shipment that Jones was supposed to make ended with the shipment being dumped in the water shortly after Jones left the shore. The Jamaican discovered that he did not make the delivery and was enraged.
Jones was threatened with death if he did not make an even larger delivery for the man. This delivery was accompanied by two additional boats which followed Jones all the way until he was about to the U.S. Coast when they turned back.
After arriving on the beach, Jones was ordered by a man to remove all of the contents of the boat and toss them over a sea wall. Instead, he claims that he ran from the boat and hid in a public bathroom. After a while, he emerged from the bathroom and was arrested by federal agents on the beach.
The total weight of the marijuana which was in the boat was over 193.6 kilograms spread among 74 packages. Jones has been charged with importing 220 pounds of marijuana into the United States.
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