From: "Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission" <MyFWC@public.govdelivery.com>
Date: Mar 20, 2015 7:13 PM
Subject: FWC Law Enforcement Weekly Report 03/13 - 03/19/2015
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(Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.) FWC Division of Law Enforcement Weekly Report
March 13th, 2015 – March 19th, 2015
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week; however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement.
Patrol, Protect, Preserve
NORTHWEST REGION
BAY COUNTY
Bay County officers concentrated their patrol efforts in St. Andrews State Park during Spring Break. Arrests included:
JACKSON COUNTY
Officer Guy was on land patrol when he received information of two subjects catching and keeping over the bag limit of red ear sunfish (shellcracker) on the Merritt’s Mill Pond Fish Management Area. He quickly responded to the area and made contact with the subjects as they were about to leave the ramp area. A fisheries inspection revealed the subjects were in possession of 45 shellcrackers, which is 25 over the legal bag limit. The fish were seized and appropriate citations were issued.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office requested our assistance regarding an overturned fishing boat on Lake Miccosukee. The two occupants were treading water with no safety equipment. They were able to make one phone call before their cell phone died to alert their parents of their emergency. Officers Menard, Anderson, Stephens, Investigator Bryant, and Lieutenant Harvey responded to the scene. Aircraft from FWC and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office also responded. During the search, Officers Anderson and Menard periodically shut down their vessel to listen. When the officers heard a faint cry for help coming from the south end of the lake, they responded to the area and located the two boaters clinging to an ice chest. They were brought aboard and checked by the Jefferson County Fire and Rescue Paramedics who were on board the patrol vessel. The subjects had been in the cold water for over two hours. The two boaters were reunited with their families after they were checked out.
JACKSON COUNTY
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
Officer Loyed, Lieutenant Clements, and Biologists Pawlikowski, Herrick, Smith and Martin participated in the 1st Annual Guns and Hoses outreach event in Marianna. The group had a wildlife display that included snakes, lizards and a turtle. Informational pamphlets were handed out to approximately 300 people. The group also assisted with the Kid’s Fishing Clinic hosted by the Marianna Optimist Club. The event’s goal was to raise money for the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches.
NORTHEAST REGION
BREVARD COUNTY
While on patrol in Brevard County, Officer Lightsey attempted to stop a small vessel to conduct a vessel safety inspection. The vessel did not stop but instead went to a nearby island. After ordering the vessel to deeper water, a safety inspection was conducted. When asked where he was going, the man stated he was going home. The officer advised the man that there were no homes on that island. The man then stated he was stopping there to use the bathroom. The officer smelled the strong odor of alcoholic beverages coming from the man as well as observing glassy eyes and slurred speech. When asked, the man stated he had drank “twelve beers”. After conducting Standardized Field Sobriety Tasks the man was placed under arrest for operating a vessel while normal faculties were impaired and issued a citation for failure to provide blood, breathe or urine samples.
SUMTER COUNTY
Officers have been watching a large alligator in a local WMA suspecting it would possibly be illegally harvested during the recent small game hunt. Officer Sweet received information that the alligator was killed and tail removed. Officers Sweet and Straub located a suspect. They also located the freshly removed alligator tail in a cooler and the rifle that was used when it was killed. Appropriate charges were filed with the local State Attorney’s Office.
OSCEOLA COUNTY
Lieutenants Fugate, Hayes, and Jefferson along with Officers Platt, Scrambling, Mendez, Lightsey, Miller (K-9), Cybula, and Arendas were involved in a search and rescue for a missing contractor hired to spray invasive plant species in Bull Creek WMA. While working in the area, the man became lost and did not report back with his crew at the end of the day. This sparked a multi-agency search and rescue effort involving FWC and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office personnel. The search lasted through the night and into the next morning before he was found by the Sheriff’s helicopter. The man was reunited with his family after being found on a levy road near where he was working. The man suffered no injury and was in good spirits when he was found.
PUTNAM COUNTY
Officer Guirate was on foot patrol in western Putnam County when he noticed a freshly made trail which lead him to within 20 yards of a makeshift turkey blind. The officer’s presence was unnoticed by the illegal hunter sitting on the ground behind the palmetto frons. After observing the man call turkeys for 45 minutes and watching three hen turkeys scratching the ground directly in front of the hunter, Officer Guirate suspected the area had been baited as well. Officer Guirate announced his presence and approached the turkey poacher. His suspicion of baiting was confirmed as the officer found cracked corn scattered on the ground. The Leon County man was charged with attempting to take Turkey over Bait, Hunting out of Season and Trespassing.
NORTH CENTRAL REGION
ALACHUA COUNTY
All Alachua County units responded to a boating accident on Lochloosa Lake. Units received information of an overturned vessel with one male found holding on to the boat and another male was missing in the water. With the assistance of FWC Investigations and the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office dive team, the missing man was located at approximately 6:00 p.m. by Lieutenant Farmer (with FWC) utilizing a side scanning sonar unit. The Alachua County Sheriff’s Underwater Dive Team dealing with limited water visibility, recovered the man’s body at approximately 6:45 p.m. Investigator Bembry will be working the boating accident.
Citrus County
Officers were on water patrol when radar overlay indicated that one commercial shrimping vessel was inside the closed area by .75 mile. The commercial shrimp boat was a new boat to the area and was believed to have been shrimping inside the closed area during the past month. A vessel stop and boarding of the vessel resulted in the citing of the captain for the closed area violation. The subject was issued a notice to appear before the Citrus County Court.
DUVAL COUNTY
Officer Schirbock was on routine land patrol on the west side of Jacksonville when he noticed a truck behind a locked gate in an area that has planted pines, a construction site and a private hunting club. After watching the truck for a short time, Officer Schirbock could tell that there were four subjects hog-hunting with dogs. Officer Schirbock made contact with the subjects and confirmed that they were hunting with dogs on private property without the land owner’s permission. Officer Schirbock spoke with the land owner and confirmed that the subjects did not have permission to be on the property. Each subject was issued a notice to appear for hunting with dogs without written land owner’s permission and for trespassing. Officer Schirbock also seized three firearms, six dog-tracking collars and one dog tracking GPS.
COLUMBIA COUNTY
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
Investigator Bing was invited to speak at the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) District 2 facility in reference to boating safety and answered questions from the staff. Approximately 80 DOT staff were in attendance.
HAMILTON COUNTY
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
Officers Langford and Nichols participated in the annual Kicking Bear event held at the Skeeter Ranch in Hamilton County. The event was held for children up to high school age and had an outdoor theme. Approximately 250 people were in attendance.
SOUTHWEST REGION
CHARLOTTE COUNTY
Officer Morrison investigated a destruction of Gopher Tortoise Burrows incident on Palm Island. It appears that the suspect used the lot with the Gopher Tortoise Burrows in order to access the lot he was trying to clear, in the process he ran over two clearly marked burrows with a tractor several times. The suspect was given a notice to appear in court with a misdemeanor citation.
Officer Cohl and Morrison were in Bull Bay when they noticed a small vessel traveling along the mangrove line in shallow water. Upon contact, the operator made mention of only having a trout, however once it was apparent the Officers were going to do an inspection of the vessel the operator admitted to also having a snook. When the snook was measured it was found to be undersized by three inches. Appropriate paperwork was issued.
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
Officer Birchfield and Howard assisted with a “kids fishing day” on Laishly Pier. The event had the Officers answering several questions, assisting with tangled lines and putting on bait. Everyone involved had a full day of fun by the end of the event.
LEE COUNTY
Captain Carpenter, and Officers Morrow and Thompson assisted the marine biologists with a manatee rescue in the Pine Tree Canal of St James City. The team, through a group effort, were able to net a nine foot male manatee and load it into an air conditioned box truck. According to the biologist on scene, the manatee’s injury was blunt trauma, believed to have been caused by a vessel strike. It was later transported to the St. Petersburg Marine Mammal Patho Biology Lab. Later in the day, Lieutenant Barrett, Investigator Sushil and Officer Morrow responded to the Orange River to assist with a second manatee rescue. The four foot manatee was netted and safely removed from the water without incident and transported to the lab.
COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING
K-9 Trainer Felix Collazo and K-9 Officer Stasko participated in “K-9 Appreciation Day” at the Ft. Myers Bass Pro Shops. The Officers were able to answer a variety of questions from Grouper season to what kind of food our K-9’s eat. The public was also able to interact with K-9 Jasmine and learn what duties she has as a FWC K-9.
PINELLAS COUNTY
While on water patrol, Officer Bibeau and Investigator Schefano initiated a vessel stop to conduct a boating safety and fisheries inspection. At the conclusion of the fisheries inspection Officer Bibeau found the operator of the vessel to be in possession of 3 undersized red grouper, 2 undersized mangrove snapper and 1 undersized yellowtail snapper. Officer Bibeau also located numerous undersized stone crab claws. The subject was issued a misdemeanor citation for the violations.
SOUTH REGION A
HENDRY COUNTY
K-9 Officer Lilley and Officer Taylor were working south Hendry County for turkey season. The Officers had located some turkey blinds a couple of weeks prior that had cracked corn spread all out in front of them. The Officers arrived at one of the blinds early in the morning to await the arrival of a hunter to come and hunt the area. At daylight a subject entered the blind and began to attempt to attract turkeys with a turkey call but was unsuccessful. The Officers made contact with the subject and advised him of the situation and after a short interview, the Officers found that there was another person who was turkey hunting also in a baited area on the same property. The Officers made contact with that subject and found that he was also attempting to take turkeys in a baited area. The subjects were issued a notice to appear (misdemeanor citation) for their violations.
PALM BEACH COUNTY
While on foot patrol at a Belle Glade structure, Officer Toby observed an individual climbing over a fence in a restricted portion of the structure. Officer Toby immediately approached the individual and conducted a stop. Officer Toby was able to see that the individual was in possession of a mesh basket that contained multiple game fish. Officer Toby conducted a fisheries inspection, removing each fish from the basket for measurement to ensure all were of legal size. Upon conclusion, the Individual was found to be in possession of eight undersized black crappie and one undersized black bass. The individual was issued two misdemeanor citations for these violations.
ST. LUCIE COUNTY
Officer Payne assisted members of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, NOAA and Sea World in tracking an injured dolphin in the Indian River Lagoon. Several vessels were on the lookout for a mother and calf dolphin. The calf had sustained an injury on its upper rostrum which had monofilament material entangled and cutting into its flesh. The animal was located, but rescue efforts were not favorable. The following day Lieutenant Rogerson assisted the same team in attempting to locate and capture the animal. The dolphins were located swimming in a shallow cove and a rescue attempt was successful. The injured dolphin was secured and the monofilament line was removed. Antibiotics were administered and a tracking device was attached to track his recovery and progress for the next few months.
Officer Irwin and Investigator Turner were on water patrol in the Fort Pierce Inlet when they observed a small overturned canoe and three people in the water clinging to it. The tide had changed about an hour or so prior and was pulling the subjects outbound and off shore. Two of the individuals were hanging on the back of the canoe; it was sitting low in the water. The front was sticking up so the third individual was out of the water. One of the two subjects on the back seemed to be having a little difficulty keeping his head above the water. As the patrol boat approached, Investigator Turner was able to gaff the canoe and pull the subjects close as Officer Irwin maneuvered the patrol boat alongside. Both officers then grabbed an arm of the subject having the most difficulty and pulled him on board. Then they secured the other two individuals and recovered their boat and belongings. The subjects were taken to South Causeway Boat Ramp where their families were waiting.
SOUTH REGION B
COLLIER COUNTY
Officers Futch and Reams were working a resource detail focusing on hunters taking turkey over bait in northern Collier County. They observed fresh tire tracks on a road leading to an area known for illegal hunting activity. They located a vehicle and observed a turkey yelper (a device hunters to use to mimic the sound of a female turkey) and other hunting related items in the vehicle. The Officers then heard a gunshot. Officer Reams stayed with the vehicle and Officer Futch followed fresh shoe prints heading in the direction of the shot. The shoe prints led to an area where a large amount of grain had been deposited onto the ground and several turkey decoys were in a baited area along with a turkey blind. Officer Futch walked over to the blind and observed a recently killed Gobbler (a male bearded turkey) inside the blind along with a yelper and other hunting equipment. Officer Futch then observed three male subjects dressed in camouflage and carrying weapons. They walked up to the decoys and began to remove them from the baited area. Officer Futch stepped out from a concealed location and stated "Hey, don’t mess with my decoys!" in which one subject replied "What are you talking about, these are my decoys!” Officer Futch identified himself as a FWC Law Enforcement Officer and asked if the blind and hunting equipment belonged to them. One of the subjects indicated that all of the hunting equipment and the dead turkey belonged to him. During the interview, another subject in the group also admitted to taking a turkey over bait in another location. Both of the subjects were issued misdemeanor citations and the third subject was issued a warning.
Officer Futch received information from a witness that a subject did not report his turkey kill to the check station after hunting in the CREW WEA (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed Wildlife and Environmental Area). The witness was able to show the officer the area in which the subject was hunting. Officer Futch found shot gun shells and turkey feathers in the area. When Officer Futch initially spoke to the subject, he denied killing a turkey. The witness’ wife was able to produce a text that she received from the subject in which he bragged about killing the turkey. The subject later told Officer Futch that he didn’t want to check the turkey because he wanted to come back later and kill another turkey. The subject received a citation for failing to report killing a turkey.
Officers Johnson and White were advised by Lieutenant Shea that a vessel had been catching and keeping undersized sheepshead. While on patrol, multiple local charter captains also approached the officers with the same information. The officers located the suspected vessel catching the sheepshead and approached it to conduct a boating safety and resource inspection. During the inspection the captain stated that there were no fish on board. However, during their inspection the Officers found 9 undersized sheepshead buried in a bucket underneath gear in the vessel. The captain was cited accordingly.
Officer Futch was on land patrol in the Picayune Strand State Forest during the spring turkey quota hunt, when he observed a subject dressed in camouflage and riding a bicycle with a shotgun strapped to it. Officer Futch made contact with the subject in order to conduct an administrative inspection. As the subject provided Officer Futch with the required documents (hunting license and quota permit) he detected the smell of burnt cannabis emanating from the subject. The subject was asked if he was in possession of anything illegal and he stated “no,” but he did confess to “smoking a little bit of weed earlier.” Officer Futch asked the subject where the contraband was located and the subject produced drug paraphernalia and a vial of marijuana from one of his pockets. The subject received a Notice to Appear for possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
Several FWC officers participated in a late night commercial bait shrimping detail. The detail resulted in 12 infraction citations, 2 misdemeanor arrests and 6 written warnings.
An officer was conducting speed radar enforcement at Oleta State Park. The officer conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle doing 53 mph in a 25 mph zone. The operator did not have an issued driver’s license and was in the US illegally. US Customs and Border Patrol was notified and the subject was taken into custody.
Over the weekend, Officer Pino and Pestka patrolled the waters of North Miami Dade County. They issued 31 citations, assisted the manatee group with a dead manatee and responded to several calls where boaters were in need of assistance.
Officers working the Key Biscayne Regatta issued over 41 written warnings, 21 infractions, 11 misdemeanors including 4 BUIs (boating under the influence) and 1 felony.
An officer was on patrol in Cape Florida State Park when he observed an individual fishing at pier 4 and conducted a fisheries inspection. The subject was found to be in possession of 7 undersized mangrove snapper and 1 undersized hogfish. The individual was educated and cited.
An officer responded to Blackpoint Marina where an individual was being detained by park staff for his own safety. He was observed driving a vessel in an erratic and unsafe manner, colliding with another vessel and attempting to dock several times unsuccessfully. After a brief investigation, the subject was found to be operating a resident’s vessel without the owner’s permission. Signs of impairment were detected and the individual was given a field sobriety test (FST). After performing poorly on the FST and with eye witness sworn statements, the individual was arrested for grand theft and boating under the influence.
MONROE COUNTY
Officers in Key Largo responded to a dive incident at Molasses Reef where CPR was being performed on an unconscious female. Officers LaRosa and McKay responded by water as Officer Dube stayed on shore to assist with communications between fire rescues, the Sheriff’s Office, and the assets on the water. Due to rough seas (6+ feet, 25 knot winds), the female was left on the commercial dive boat where she regained consciousness. The victim was transported to a local ER and then transferred to Miami for additional testing. Unfortunately, officers respond to these types of calls on a routine, weekly basis where the outcomes are usually fatal. They work closely with the other agencies in administering first aid, providing EMS transport, vessel escorts to shore, and vessel traffic control when the victims are brought to shore.
Officer Munkelt was checking shoreline recreational fisherman when she noticed the cargo pants pocket of one fisherman make a jerking motion outward as though there was a fish in it. She observed a bucket with all legal fish, including a mangrove snapper, adjacent to the subjects. She approached the subjects and inquired if she could see what was in the individual’s pocket. The subject produced an undersized hogfish and mangrove snapper from his pocket and was cited for those violations.
Officer Wagner took two members of the SPCA to the west end of Wisteria Island in reference to a possible abandoned canine on a sailboat. The vessel and canine were located but there were no obvious signs of abuse or abandonment. However, neighbors claim they have never seen anyone tend to the dog so the possibility of neglect/abandonment is present. Officer Wagner and the SPCA members placed an SPCA notice on the premise. If no one responds in 24 hours then neglect/abandonment is assumed and the dog will be removed and placed in their custody.
Officer Sutter responded to a call about a monkey in a bathroom in Key Largo. Upon arrival, the officer was able to identify the monkey as a marmoset. The officer contacted Investigator Smith in Dade County to look up nearby residences with a permit to have this type of animal. Officer Sutter responded to the residence and after interviewing the pet owner, advised that the Marmoset escaped from the bathroom and climbed up a tree. Officer Sutter was able to coax it down and recapture it. Officer Sutter was able return the Marmoset to its owner. Investigator Smith will follow up with the owner and complete an inspection on the residence regarding caging requirements.
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