Bad enough that Hector Soto-Velez, 82, went to the ER at Orange Park Medical Center in Jacksonville with only an ankle fracture and was dead three days later. Well, he had a complication, doctors said, and he was started on morphine, which slowed his breathing down, and then, suddenly, it was zero. The family's puzzlement gave way to outrage. But, the hospital said, Mr. Soto-Velez's son Jimmy signed a DNR order. The family said, no, they twice refused to sign them because no one could explain Mr. Soto-Velez's condition. A handwriting expert, who looked at 12 samples of Jimmy's writing, said no way did Jimmy sign it. Lawsuit filed. [And of course, the best hospitals already know how to get legit signatures on the DNR, by saying, oh, go ahead and sign, it's just, y'know, a parking voucher.] [FirstCoastNews.com] [Florida Times-Union]
Follow-Ups (1) FirstCoastNews.com somehow saw the affidavit used to get a search warrant for the computer of ex-UF associate law school dean John Patrick Shannon, who resigned last month after his name turned up in a kiddie-porn crackdown [The F State, 11-10-2006]. Yow! Either he has quite an imagination, or he's a really, really bad dude. Sample Shannon e-mail writing: "dying for a young one" / "if [a child] ever get[s] sick and need[s] cold medicine, you can give him an extra dose and take advantage of him while he sleeps" / "I did a cam2cam with another dad the other day [and] it was no limit. It was a girl, nine months [and] it was hot" [FirstCoastNews.com]
(2) Pinellas-Pasco judge Crockett Farnell yesterday fined Dept. of Children and Families Secretary Lucy Hadi $80k for not moving fast enough to open up treatment beds for 10 mentally-ill people in jail, as required by state law [The F State, 11-22-2006, 11-16-2006]. Gov. Bush called the Farnell-Hadi standoff a matter of Farnell's throwing a "tantrum" and professes to be looking for a solution, but the most obvious one-recognizing what he should have seen 7 yrs ago, that there are more than 1,461 worst-case mentally ill people in Florida-would be just too expensive. Farnell, who by the way is probably (seriously) a big conservative Republican fan of Gov. Bush but who takes an even greater interest in seeing the law obeyed, still had the option of locking Hadi up in one of the nine pending cases on his docket, and at least two other judges in the state have similar cases. [St. Petersburg Times] [St. Petersburg Times Farnell profile]
Floridians With Worse Sex Lives Than You Christopher Oslin, 48, was arrested at a Beall's Outlet Store in East Naples in a dressing room in the ladies' section, where he had been for an hour, wearing only underwear and socks and, said a sheriff's deputy, "aroused." There was a camcorder on the floor, under some clothes, and deputies found on the video exactly what you'd expect them to find. Oslin was charged with loitering, but as soon as they can identify any of the women, they'll add voyeurism. [Naples Daily News]
Your Daily Loser Anthony Armstrong, 22, was arrested at a North Fort Myers post office after he broke to burglarize the joint but couldn't figure how to get out. [Fort Myers News-Press]
More Things To Worry About Today Production in Florida's 11 oil fields was down last yr, to 2.6m barrels; this story is an example of "burying the lede [lead sentence]," in that a more astonishing lede would be, "Florida has 11 oil fields" [St. Petersburg Times] . . . . . Seandell Lee Parsons, 30, was charged with robbing Dave's Diner in Jacksonville, thanks to a cook on duty, who had recognized Parsons as a regular customer who "always ordered corned beef." [Florida Times-Union] . . . . . A highly decorated sheriff's detective in Palm Beach County was arrested for allegedly giving a woman he had just met some inside gossip about a high profile case, apparently just to help him get laid [Miami Herald] . . . . . Latest F State senior to hit the gas pedal instead of the brake: an 84-yr-old Deland woman, who plowed into two buildings when parking at the Medicine Shop to pick up her prescriptions [WKMG-TV (Orlando)] . . . . . They grow up so fast these days: Two Lee County 5th-graders were found with a "killing list" (of classmates and adults) [Naples Daily News].
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2006.