The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • B5

Orlando Sentinel: PRODUCT: OS DESK: LOC DATE: 12-07-2006 EDITION: MET ZONE: MET PAGE: B5.0 DEADLINE: 0.36 OP: wjackson COMPOSETIME: 00.51 CMYK Orlando Sentinel FINAL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2006 B5 FLORIDA 'Wild video charges down to 8 Prosecutors cite a lack of evidence in the case involving girls used in sex acts. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PANAMA CITY All but eight of the dozens of felony charges once faced by producers of the Girls Gone Wild video series have been dropped by prosecutors because of a lack of evidence. The case is scheduled for trial next year. Assistant State Attorney Mark Graham said he can support only second-degree felony charges of using children in sexual performances in his case against producer Joseph Francis, Francis' companies and employees. The remaining charges could be dropped at a Jan.

3 hearing, when a judge considers a defense motion to dismiss all charges in the 2003 case. Graham filed the motion to reduce the charges Monday in response to the request from Francis' attorney Aaron Dyer that all charges be dropped because of police misconduct. A judge in July threw out evidence investigators gathered while searching Francis' condominiums and private jet because of problems with the search warrants. Francis was arrested in April 2003 and charged with more than 40 criminal offenses, including racketeering. He is accused of participating in the filming of two 17-year-old girls in sexual situations at a Panama City Beach motel.

In Monday's motion, Graham also addressed a defense argument that the Girls Gone Wild producers did not know the girls were underage. The defense has maintained the girls lied about their ages and signed a release saying they were 18. "Knowledge of the victim's age is not an element of the offense of use of a child in a sexual performance," he wrote. "Whether the minor girls lied about their ages is irrelevant to the criminal charge." The State I In Brief Experience is a boon for new hurricane chief Bill Proenza is hailed as a 'natural successor' to retiring Max Mayfield. By MAYA BELL SENTINEL STAFF WRITER MIAMI Bill Proenza is not a household name, but wait for a hurricane or two and his name and face could become as familiar to Floridians as a trusty uncle.

A veteran weather forecaster and administrator, Proenza, 62, was appointed Wednesday as the eighth director of the National Hurricane Center, catapulting him from relative obscurity to the national limelight. He will replace the retiring Max Mayfield, an unassuming scientist whose kind face, calming voice and straight-forward warnings were fixtures on TV and radio newscasts and updates whenever a hurricane threatened the United States. Introducing Proenza at a Washington news conference, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said his proven record during about40 years with the National Weather Service made Proenza a "natural successor" to the popular Mayfield. "His experience, his leadership and his relationships will enable him to be an effective director and a stable voice for our country in times of turmoil," Gutierrez said.

Though he is not a public figure yet, Proenza is well-known and respected in weather circles, especially in the service's Southern region, where he has spent almost eight years as director. In that job, he oversees nearly 1,000 employees and 32 forecast bureaus in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and 10 states stretching from New Mexico to Florida, an area that claims 90 percent of all land-falling hurricanes in the U.S. As a result, he already knows many local officials and emergency managers who are counting on his leadership and communication skills at the hurricane center. "Bill is a known to us," said Craig Fugate, director of Florida's division of emergency management.

"It's not like bringing in someone we'll have to learn, and will have to learn us. He knows our issues and challenges." HARAZ N. GHANBARITHE ASSOCIATED PRESS Bill Proenza was named the new director of the National Hurricane Center on Wednesday. At the hurricane center, where Proenza began his career as an intern in 1963, his administrative duties will shrink, but his domain will grow. He inherits a $5.7 million budget and 46 employees, including 10 hurricane specialists.

They are responsible for tracking and issuing advisories for all hazardous tropical activity in the Atlantic basin and the eastern Pacific. But it will be Proenza who will have the primary responsibility for conveying the center's warnings and preparedness messages to the public. And that, those who have done it say, is a grueling role that consumes much of the director's time and energy both during and after the six-month hurricane season. "It takes a lot out of you. It is a very physically and mentally demanding position," said Bob Sheets, who served as director for eight years.

"A lot of that is due to the openness of the hurricane center." That openness was pioneered by Sheets' predecessor, Neil Frank, who remembers that until he took over in 1973, "We just threw out a little paper at the media and said, 'Here's our warning, and went back to our cubbyhole." He also remembers Proenza as the young summer intern who helped him with his doctoral dissertation when he was a forecaster. A native of New York, Proenza is the son of Cuban immigrants, and though his official biography said he speaks fluent Spanish, he conceded Wednesday his Spanish skills have "much room for improvement." He also said he has not given much thought to losing his anonymity, but he is ready to do what it takes to meet the center's mission of saving lives. "I'm sure the anonymity that I've enjoyed may be behind me, but we'll do our best to cope with it," he said. Maya Bell can be reached at mbellorlandosentinel.com or 305-810-5003. Cops: Inmate linked to 2 other killings ST.

PETERSBURG An inmate serving a life sentence has been linked to two other killings unsolved for decades, authorities said. Advances in DNA technology gave police enough evidence to arrest Tony Abies, 51, police Maj. Michael Puetz said. Abies is thought to be a serial killer who may have committed more unsolved crimes. "We do suspect there's a high probability that there's more he's responsible for than what we've been able to link him to so far," Puetz said.

Abies is facing a first-degree murder charge in the 1983 death of Adeline McLaughlin. The 84-year-old was sexually assaulted and smothered with a pillow, authorities said. Deborah Kisor, 31, was assaulted and strangled four years later, but her killing is not being prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office because she was involved with Abies, which complicates the case, police said. Abies was convicted of first-degree murder in 1971, at age 16. He was released 12 years later.

Five months after his release, McLaughlin's body was found in her apartment. Kisor's partially clothed body was found by children playing near a park in 1987. Compiled from wire reports U.S. indicts son of Liberian ex-president MIAMI The son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor was indicted Wednesday on U.S. charges of committing torture as chief of a paramilitary unit during his father's regime.

The indictment marks the first time a 12-year-old federal anti-torture law has been used, U.S. officials said. Charles McArthur Emmanuel, also known as Chuckie Taylor was charged with committing torture overseas as a U.S. citizen as well as conspiracy. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

Suspects who face the torture charges must either be U.S. citizens or be caught in the United States; in this case, Taylor was both. Emmanuel, 29, was born in Boston in 1977 to a former girlfriend of Taylor. The younger Emmanuel is already in custody in Miami, awaiting sentencing for falsifying his father's name to get a passport he used to enter the United States in March. Emmanuel headed the Anti-Terrorist Unit in Liberia after his father became president in 1997.

Human Rights Watch, an international rights group, and Liberian witnesses have said the unit was involved in many other killings, torture, abuse of civilians, recruitment of child soldiers and looting. Women cite abuse in clemency bids KILLERS FROM Bl HB 1983. She had been beaten and raped by her husband, Kuykendall said. The governor and Cabinet could take weeks to make their decision. Gov.

Jeb Bush leaves office Jan. 2, as does Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher. Other Cabinet members are Gov. -elect and Attorney General Charlie Crist and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Branson. All told, five criminals are asking the Cabinet to free them from prison.

One is Polk County murderer Riley Burchfield, 57, who got into a fight with his wife in 1973, then walked into the bedroom of his sleeping 3-year-old stepson and shot the boy in the chest with a handgun. Burchfield pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He has served 33 years. Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzmanorlandosentinel.com or 407-324-7294. him.

Sherry Perry, who has seven grandchildren, is asking that her life sentence be commuted to the time she has already served, said Dia Kuykendall, spokeswoman for the coalition. That is the same request from the two other women murderers. Katherine Telemachos, 35, was sentenced to life in prison for, at age 19, helping her boyfriend kill her father in his sleep in Broward County in 1990. He had ordered the couple to break up, according to a local news account. Telemachos did not tell authorities at the time, but her father had physically and sexually abused her for years, Kuykendall said.

Telemachos also now suffers from breast cancer, Kuykendall said. The third domestic-violence killer is Sandra Patria, 50, who has served 23 years of a life sentence for fatally shooting her husband in Manatee County in SATURDAY Super SaLe! nama men she didn't know into the house, she said, then she heard an argument and a shot. Deputies found her sitting on the edge of her husband's bed. His body was beside her, a shotgun wound to his face. Assistant State Attorney Tom Hastings was the prosecutor at trial.

He plans to be in Tallahassee today and will urge the governor and Cabinet to leave Perry in prison, where she has been locked up for 10 years. It is irrelevant whether David Perry was a wife-beater, Hastings said. Sherry Perry was a premeditated murderer and a liar, he said. David Perry had told her he planned to divorce her, so in the three days before the slaying, she went shopping at a crack house for an untraceable handgun, Hastings said. When she didn't find one, he said, she used her husband's shotgun to kill on GameCube Value Pack 0088 $149.88 if items purchased separately.

7 7 Nintendo GameCube System -your choice Black H313265 Platinum H637381 4 Mega Memory Card LL 682761 Sonic Adventure 2 490205 Super Monkey Ball 2 081 1 70 Ill select GBA Video Titles 4QQ QQ Game Boy Advance Videos 77 330083 3301 37 I each 3301 72 3301 80 Auction site yanks Millionaire Raffle tickets 535254 was 19.99 39.99 TICKETS FROM Bl FIRST ACT Breaker Electric Guitar Double cut away body shape for great balance and high fret access. Features high output humbucking pickup with great "rock" distortion. Includes amp. Ages 8-up. A 24" CARS Super Tow Mater RC Ages 6-up.

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Odds of winning $1 million are while the overall odds of winning a prize are Winning numbers will be drawn at noon Jan. 1 and posted on the Lottery Web site by 3 p.m., Steele said. Gary Taylor can be reached at gtaylororlandosentinel.com or 407-324-7293. ones every day, she said. While eBay might not be able to stop an illegal sale in time, England conceded, it will cooperate with law enforcement.

The Florida Lottery, which alerted eBay to the Millionaire Raffle problem, intends to go after anyone who sells a ticket, Steele said. The penalty for the first-degree misdemeanor: up to a year in jail and a 1 ,000 fine. A Clearwater seller was able to use a "Buy it now" feature on eBay to sell three of the tickets in minutes. One sold for $54.95 less than nine minutes after it was listed. The other two sold for $49.95 each to one buyer one in 1 1 minutes and the other in 27 minutes.

Those appear to be the only three tickets on the site that sold before the auctions were canceled. A Miami seller may have been seeking a way around the system by offering a ticket free with the purchase of jewelry. number of tickets being sold and the best odds of any game in Florida Lottery history. Just 1.25 million tickets were made available, and the last one was purchased in St. Petersburg at 10:30 p.m.

Nov. 30. "We're not surprised that the game sold out," Steele said. "But we're a little surprised that people would willingly break the law to sell them." Several auctions Tuesday night on eBay, including some offering a cluster of the tickets for several thousand dollars, had been removed by Wednesday. But others popped up, including one with a $300 bid from Gainesville.

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