Articles Tagged with “Ira Leesfield”

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An 81-year-old died Monday while with a commercial diving crew in the Florida Keys, according to local media.

Stephen Edward Plopper, of Carmel, Indiana, was swimming with a commercial dive boating around Sand Key Lighthouse off of Key West when members of the crew with the boat noticed him unresponsive in the water.

They immediately began CPR, according to reporting with The Miami Herald. Members of the Coast Guard who responded to the scene also performed life-saving measures and transported Plopper to the Lower Keys Medical Center where he died.

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A trial is set to begin Monday, July 14, six years after 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon was killed and her boyfriend, Dillon Angulo, 27, was injured in a horrific crash involving a Tesla Model S on autopilot.

The crash happened on April 25, 2019, when the couple was on a date and had pulled onto the shoulder of Card Sound Road in the Upper Keys.  The driver, George McGee, was driving his 2019 Tesla Model S about 62 mph through an intersection and crashed into Leon and Angulo’s vehicle, according to reporting from Reuters. The two were standing beside the vehicle.

Before the crash, McGee allegedly reached down to pick up a cellphone and ran both a stop sign and a stop light before hitting the car, reporters said in the article.

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Katerina “Katy” Puig, who survived the 2022 Boca Chita boat crash that killed her classmate, was honored by the City of Miami, which proclaimed Thursday, July 10, as “Katy Puig Day,” according to The Miami Herald.

Puig was celebrated for her bravery Thursday by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who presented her with a plaque while she attended the ceremony with her parents, Kathya and Rudy Puig.

Since the September 2022 crash that resulted in the tragic death of Luciana “Lucy” Fernandez, 20-year-old Puig remains in physical therapy to regain motor skills. She currently requires the use of a wheelchair after suffering brain injuries from the crash.

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A Martin County family is grieving the loss of their 1-year-old daughter after she died in a tragic pool drowning incident in Jensen Beach.

The infant was under the care of a grandparent who lost track of the her and called 911. While on the phone, dispatchers asked the grandparent — who was going from room-to-room in the home searching — to check the pool, according to reporting from the Treasure Coast News.

Emergency responders were called out to the home around 3:30 p.m. where they found the grandparent administering CPR to the infant. The 1-year-old was taken to Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital in Stuart, Florida, where she later died.

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A man faces charges after police say he went on a drug-fueled bender and stole a Conch Tour Train on the Fourth of July.

Jonathan Patrick Winslow, 57, of Big Torch Key, faces a felony burglary charge and a further charge for theft of a vehicle. He was also charged with drug possession, a misdemeanor.

Police were called out to the Conch Tour Train Depot around 11:30 a.m. Friday after it was reported that a train from Conch Tours, a company that operates “train” tours through Key West’s Old Town, was stolen. GPS tracking was used to find the train around downtown.

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Nearly three years after mail carrier Pamela Jane Rock was killed by a pack of dogs in Florida, a law has been created to increase safety and penalties for aggressive animal owners.

Per HB 593, which goes into effect July 1 in the state, owners of dogs considered to be “dangerous” must microchip their animals, secure them and have at least $100,000 in liability insurance. This bill defines a dangerous dog as those subject to an investigation which have killed or bitten a person to a “certain severity.” This severity is defined as a score of five or higher on the Dunbar bite scale, a system designed to classify dog bite severities.

The scale ranges as follows:

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A 23-year-old disappeared after he flipped on a jet ski in a Utah lake with his cousin, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

The man, whose name had not been released as of Wednesday afternoon, was last seen around 5:30 p.m. on June 22 near a marina, officials with the Utah County Sherrif’s Office Search and Rescue team said via a Facebook news release. The man was riding the jet ski with his cousin, who was rescued by someone in a nearby boat.

The search continued until at least 1 a.m. on June 23. Some witnesses reported seeing waves between 2 and 3 feet high.

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The driver in a fatal boat crash that ejected at least six people in the Florida Keys faces charges related to a woman’s death nearly seven months later, according to reporting from local media.

Reinaldo Aquit, 48, of Miami Beach, was charged Friday with vessel homicide and eight other misdemeanors. The misdemeanor charges had not been released as of Monday morning, though jail records show that three are related to public order crimes, such as reckless operation of a vessel, and three are related to health and safety.

Stephanie Rodriguez, 28, of Hialeah, was among the passengers on the boat the day of the crash. She died from her injuries. Rodriguez was “kind, loving, and playful,” according to a GoFundMe page that was started to help provide support to her family in the wake of her death.

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With a little more than a month left until the official start of the spiny lobster sport season in Florida, here’s what divers and boaters should know.

Leesfield & Partners has over 48 years of experience in Miami, Orlando, Key West and throughout the Florida Keys. In that time, the firm’s attorneys have represented countless boat crash victims and their families, becoming among the top leaders in the state when it comes to maritime and boating accident law. With that experience, comes tremendous experience as to what can go wrong on the water.

Among the most pressing issues when it comes to boating safety are boating under the influence, negligent speeding on the water, a lack of experience, and a lack of lifejacket usage. The most recent data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shows that Florida is again the nation’s leader when it comes to registered vessels with the state tallying in 1,030,053 registered vessels in 2024. With the nation’s most boats, it is no wonder that Florida also leads the nation with the most boating accidents.

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An individual in the Florida Keys working as a fishing charter captain was charged after a violent video allegedly showed them stabbing a bull shark surfaced online.

Zane Porter Garrett, 26, of Stock Island, was charged with aggravated animal cruelty after authorities accused them of being the person in the video.

The investigation was conducted by officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission after a Snapchat video showing an animal being stabbed was reported to authorities.

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2350 S Dixie Hwy
Miami, FL 33133
Phone: (305) 854-4900
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Key West, FL 33040
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E-Mail: info@leesfield.com

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