Ulises Rodriguez, a 36-year-old former Miami-Dade firefighter, will avoid jail time for allegedly sending sexually explicit text messages and pictures to a 17-year-old boy. The boy later turned up dead, though his cause of death has not yet been made known, and Rodriguez played no part in the death. Rodriguez…
Steven Thomas thought he was about to hit a perverted hole in one when he presumed he was arranging a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old girl via her mother through the Internet. Instead he wound up in an online-sting sand trap. Thomas, a pro golfer who has played at several…
Sometime between his arrest on narcotic charges and sitting for this mugshot, Rodgerick Everett Jr. sustained several scraped to his face, a swollen lip, and a neck injury that required a cervical collar. Miami-Dade Police says that Everett, the son of a long-time South Florida officer, inflicted the injuries on…
Twenty-five people were arrested yesterday after Miami-Dade police discovered 25 separate hydroponics labs in the county during a crackdown dubbed “Operation Machete.” Besides the alleged criminals, police also seized more than 1,300 pot plants during the daylong sweep…
What in hell is going on in Gainesville? In the past week, two different elderly residents have been tied up and beaten by brazen robbers — the latest in a spree of such crimes dating to last summer.Today 78-year-old disabled retiree Paul Quant is recovering after being stabbed and brutally…
Hazing in the Florida A&M University Marching Band appears to have run rampant for years, but why was the hazing doled out to drum major Robert Champion so severe that it killed him? An attorney for Champion’s family now claims Champion might been targeted for harsher hazing in part because…
On Christmas Eve in Liberty Square, Dorian Hinkson stabbed his neighbor to death in front of his wife and kids — a tragic crime that kneecapped Miami’s oldest housing project, highlighting not only cops’ inability to stem the violence but also an expensive and elaborate camera surveillance system’s failure to…
If you have any dregs of holiday spirit sloshing around in your tired soul, this story should evaporate it. According to police, sometime around 10 on Christmas morning, 46-year-old Wilfredo Ruiz got into an argument with his wife Ana in their home on the 14400 block of SW 22nd Terrace…
Theo Karantsalis, a soft-spoken librarian who teaches research classes at Miami Dade College between freelancing for Miami New Times and the Miami Herald, has become an unlikely central character in a hotly contested federal case that has free-speech advocates ready to clash with top D.C. officials. In a case that…
Police believe Steven Warren, 37, prowled the Overtown area of downtown Miami preying on homeless women. Warren was arrested on New Year’s Day and charged with raping two women, and police believe he may be responsible for more. Warren has also been linked to the death of a woman in…
Being dead is no excuse for making sure you’re not scammed by one of South Florida’s shady characters. Not even death can protect you from grand theft.Miami resident Armando Sardina, 56, sits behind bars after stealing hundreds of dollars from the home of a dead man. Sardina had been employed…
A man facing charges of drug trafficking showed up at a Broward County courtroom wearing a shirt with a very detailed pattern displaying instructions on the proper cooking method of crack cocaine. Ooh la-la! Très chic! Honey, is that crack jacket Jeremy Scott?…
Vernell Reynolds is a whole different type of corrupt cop. She stands accused of not just embezzling $200,000, but from swiping that money from a charity set up by police officers which she oversaw. The U.S. Department of Justice announced her arrest and indictment today, and claims some of the…
Andrew Marshall fought government — city, state, and federal — tooth and nail for years. On Wednesday, the government finally won.Marshall was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for making and possessing unregistered firearms. Originally from a wealthy New York family, he moved to Miami and dropped off the…
When trying to get revenge on someone, it’s best that your plan doesn’t end up getting you arrested for child pornography charges.Take Rashad Hannibal Jackson for example. He wanted to get back at an ex for “disrespecting” him, so he decided to upload a tape he had secretly made while…
Scott Rothstein, the ego-drive man-child of a mega-lawyer who is now serving 50 years in prison for running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme in Fort Lauderdale, has now admitted to shelling out in the neighborhood of $50,000 to $60,000 a month on prostitutes alone.Oh, sure, some of the hookers were…
Gaston Canten, a prominent Cuban-American businessman who used his ties in the community to bilk victims out of their hard earned money, has officially been charged and has agreed to plead guilty to his part in running a $135 million Ponzi scheme. Canten’s scheme went so far that even Belen…
It figures that one of the first babies born in 2012 in Miami-Dade came into the world three weeks early because of a petty theft.Ana Johana Irias, 26, was using an ATM near Northwest 36th Street and 13th Avenue when a teenager drove by on a bike and snatched her…
Manuel Mares was one of the more popular faculty members at the Hialeah-based Florida National College. During graduation speeches, students made sure to thank the 56-year-old academic adviser and former business professor for his mentoring. He worked in the criminal justice department and in September appeared on a Miami-Dade police…
As always, we’ll start Riptide’s annual tradition of counting down our list of the year’s worst cops with a caveat: being a cop in the 305 is one of the toughest law enforcement gigs in the country and despite the weekly headlines here, most Dade cops do good work. As…
The domestic flight baggage carousel at Miami International Airport always makes us nervous. We’ve arrived in one piece. We’re ready to finally get to our destination. The only thing left to do is collect our luggage. Why isn’t it on the carousel? Oh my God, someone could have just randomly…
Donna Shalala may have just averted her worst nightmare. Ever since Napoleonic Ponzi booster Nevin Shapiro spilled his guts to Yahoo Sports this summer with allegations that he’d rained gifts on student-athletes — from cars to hookers to piles of cash — the worst-case scenario for the Canes would be…
