At least four people were rescued from a sinking boat off the coast of Marathon, Florida, Sunday.
Th incident happened about 11 miles off the coast around 5 p.m. when a distress signal reached the U.S. Coast Guard. A crew was sent out to find the 27-foot, sinking vessel and its four passengers.
Additional information including what caused the boat to sink or whether anyone was injured were not immediately available Monday.
A U.S. airman stopped a Fort Walton Beach hotel robbery by making a simple call Friday, according to police.
The incident happened just before 10 a.m. Friday at a Residence Inn when the airman was walking through the lobby and noticed a “suspicious interaction” between the clerk and a person at the front desk. Luckily for the clerk, he called police as he left the lobby.
Police announced in a Dec. 30 news release that the man at the front desk had “brandished what appeared to be a concealed weapon in his jacket and demanded money.”
A father who was allegedly driving drunk the day he crashed his car into a tree, killing his daughter, 5, and injuring his son, 3, faces DUI manslaughter charges, police said in a Dec. 31 news release.
The crash happened in Polk County, Florida, on Nov. 7 when a father, who is not being named to protect the identity of his son, was allegedly three times over the legal limit when he was behind the wheel. The man picked up his children from their grandfather’s home, missed a turn and ran a stop sign, according to police. He later crashed into a tree and the car went up in flames. The man’s daughter died in the incident and his 3-year-old son suffered burns to his face.
The man tried getting his son out of the car but fell to the ground. A passerby helped the child. The father was also injured in the crash, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.
Several bills, including one to impose stricter penalties on boaters involved in crashes, have been proposed in the Florida House and Senate ahead of the 2025 start to the legislative session in March; here’s what you should know.
The bill referencing the penalties was proposed by Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Republican in Miami, and would classify fleeing a fatal boat crash as a first-degree felony, meaning this charge could carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, if convicted. Additional penalties can include a $10,000 fine. If a person who is found guilty of this crime was also found to have bene under the influence at the time of the crash, then a mandatory, minimum sentence of four years would be applied.
This bill, SB 58, was filed in response to the 2022 Biscayne Bay boat crash that killed one high school student on board and permanently injured another. The student killed in that incident was 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez who was on the boat being operated by George Pino, a local real-estate developer. Pino was first charged with three misdemeanor charges of careless boating, but those charges were changed to vessel homicide after a witness came forward this year with new evidence in the case.
A woman died Tuesday morning while scuba diving with a commercial scuba vessel in the Florida Keys, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.
The 56-year-old woman, identified at Andreas Shultz of Tallahassee, was diving at Molasses Reef off Key Lago. Just before 10 a.m., she was found unconscious in the water and was rushed to shore.
Shultz died enroute to shore while others on the boat performed CPR, according to local reporting.
Leesfield & Partners Pledges Support to Key West Athletic Programs, food banks and more this holiday season. What to Know.
Leesfield & Partners is one of the leading personal injury law firms in the Florida Keys with an office on historic Whitehead Street since the 1980s where it has served clients in landmark cases. Founded and managed by Ira Leesfield, who tried his first case in Monroe County in 1973, the firm has built a legacy rooted in strong community ties and a rich history. Over the years, Mr. Leesfield has forged deep connections in the area – serving clients such as Jimmy Buffet and the late, former NFL player Christopher Dyko – making the firm a trusted name in personal injury litigation. The firm’s Key West office was honored by the Florida Bar Association with its “Historic Building Renovation” award.
In addition to historic and record settlements and verdicts achieved on behalf of injured clients and their families, Leesfield & Partners has also had a positive impact on the community, regularly contributing to charities working to foster change in areas where it is most needed within the county.
A tractor-trailer driver who faces felony charges in the August 2023 crash in Nebraska that killed a woman and her young son, 8, is now being accused of using Snapchat as he crashed, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.
Justin Zoerb, 22, was charged with two counts of motor vehicle homicide and one count of reckless driving following the Clay County, Nebraska, crash on Aug. 9, 2023.
The crash happened around 4 p.m., killing 8-year-old Ryker Schlichtman and Nicole Pavelka, 30. Three other children in the family were hospitalized for their injuries but lived.
At least 16 people were taken to the hospital after two airboats in the Everglades carrying more than 30 people crashed Friday afternoon.
The crash happened around 3:15 p.m. near Ochopee in Collier County, according to reporting from the Miami Herald. One airboat had 20 people on board while the other carried 13 people.
Additional information, including what caused the boats to crash, was not readily available on Monday.
Following a $35 million renovation, La Concha in Key West has recently joined Marriott’s “Autograph Collection,” a signifier of upscale properties within the Marriot International portfolio.
The 160-room hotel, formerly known as Crowne Plaza La Concha, was under construction since at least October of last year and now features a refurbished bar, hotel lobby and restaurant. Included in the renovation were upgrades to the outside of the hotel, rooms, the pool area and meeting spaces.
While the addition of an upscale lodging property is a positive development for Key West’s thriving tourist economy, which welcomes millions of visitors annually, guests should remain cautious.
The Federal Aviation Administration Recently announced updated arrival and departure procedures at Florida airports named after Jimmy Buffet, a famed singer-songwriter and previous Leesfield & Partners client who passed away in 2023 at 76.
Pilots arriving at Palm beach International Airport will perform JESTR ONE, the arrival procedure named for Buffet who often compared his work to that of a court jester.
In Key West, where Leesfield & Partners has an office on historic Whitehead Street, pilots leaving from Key West International Airport will go through BUFIT ONE.
