The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 183

BRO WWW.HERALD.COM SATURDAY, MARCH 26, 2005 3B BROWARD PLUS AROUND SOUTH FLORIDA MIAMI-DADE COUNTY Cops visit sex offenders as public-safety move The Miami-Dade Police Department's Sexual Predator Unit began scouring the county Friday to check on hundreds of sexual predators and other sex offenders who are required to register their addresses with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The operation comes a week after police found the body of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford i in Homosassa, northern Florida. A registered sexual offender, John Evander Couey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing the girl. Miami-Dade County has more registered sexual offenders and predators than any other county in the state. Its Sexual Predator Unit has a huge caseload and few resources.

With two detectives, a crime analyst and a researcher, the unit is required to keep track of nearly 3,000 registered sexual predators and offenders. One was Corey Coleman, 26, of 9855 SW 212th St. in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. Coleman was sentenced in 1996 for lewd and lascivious acts against a minor and had gone more than a year without registering. Police showed up at Coleman's door as the sun rose and arrested him for failing to register as a sexual offender, a third-degree felony.

Because most offenders stay on the registry for life, the number of offenders shows no sign of shrinking. "The numbers never go down; they are always going up," said Detective Ernesto Urtiaga, who with Detective Victor Caceres found Coleman. MIAMI-DADE COUNTY MIAMI LAND BUY LINKED HAITIAN TEEN CAN TO STATE MONEY APPLY FOR RESIDENCY Two Miami-Dade County Ernesto Joseph, a homelawmakers, concerned about less Haitian orphan whose exploding development on arduous fight to remain in the borders of Biscayne Bay the United States prompted and the Everglades, are hop- a national outcry, could ing to get $25 million from soon become a permanent the state to speed up land resident ending his twobuys. and-a-half year battle with Environmentalists are U.S. immigration authorienthusiastically backing the ties.

effort, led by Rep. Dan Gel- The Administrative ber, a Miami Beach Demo- Appeals Office of U.S. Citicrat, and Rep. Marco Rubio, zenship and Immigration a Miami Republican and Services in Washington, House majority leader. D.C., has ruled that Joseph is "It's definitely enough eligible to apply for permamoney to make a differ- nent legal status as a juveence," said April Gromnicki, nile.

The decision reverses Everglades policy coordina- an earlier ruling by the tor for Audubon of Florida. Miami district office, which While it is too early to had blocked Joseph's peticonsider the money a lock, tion on the grounds that he lawmakers have won initial was an adult, not a minor as support from a key player, he claimed. Rep. Joe Negron, a Stuart Though this is the last Republican who is chair of formal step in applying for the legislative budget com- residency, the processing mission. takes months.

To remain eliNegron is scheduled to gible for permanent resijoin Gelber, Rubio and staff dency, Joseph, who is living from the South Florida with a foster family, must Water Management District have his green card in hand today on a helicopter tour of before he turns 18 on July 16. the area. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Negron and Rubio could green card applications and not be reached Friday, but other immigration docuGelber said lawmakers hope ments often take a year to to tap an unexpected wind- consider because of fall of revenue collected increased background from a surge of construction checks. following last year's hurri- Still, Joseph, who arrived canes.

in Miami along with 213 "This seems to be a other Haitian migrants on pretty good use of that' Oct. 29, 2002, when their money," Gelber said. boat ran aground near Key Regional water managers Biscayne, remains hopeful. would use the money to buy "I feel really good," said some of the 13,200 acres that Joseph, who is learning EngMiami-Dade's Department lish and enjoys watching of Environmental Resources Tom and I Jerry cartoons. "I Management has long had am very happy." on its wish list.

In a letter to U.S. Congressman Kendrick Meek, MIAMI BEACH D-Miami, last month, Joseph SUBJECT OF MEETING: wrote: "I am troubled about MEDIAN EXTENSIONS my case. I want everything to be O.K. But it is not. The Miami Beach Capital It broke heart.

I need my Improvements Projects your help." Department will be hold a community meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Museum, 1001 Washington to discuss the potential extension of three medians on Washington Avenue, as part of the Washington Avenue Construction Project. Media designs will be discussed for the following stretches: from Fifth to Sixth streets, 16th Street to Lincoln Road, and a new median from Washington Avenue to Collins Avenue on Lincoln Road. The streets will maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction. All the medians will be landscaped, irrigated and up-lit and with community consensus.

For information about the meeting or project, call Ronnie Singer, Community Information Manager, at 305-673-7071 or e-mail beachfl.gov. BROWARD COURTS New hearing set in shooting The Florida Supreme Court says aspects of the case against Dwayne Parker, convicted of a 1989 shooting death, must be heard again in state court. BY SARA OLKON The state Supreme Court has ruled that a Death Row inmate convicted of killing a bystander after a nearby Pizza Hut holdup should get a new hearing. The court says Dwayne Parker, now 44, may have been given ineffective counsel and has sent the case back to Broward Circuit Court. "It's very disappointing," said Jane LaRoza, the sister of Parker's victim, William Nicholson, a 41-year-old father from Pompano Beach.

Parker "deserves to die," LaRoza said during a phone interview Friday. "Even though I am a Christian, I don't think our tax dollars should pay for that dog. My GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE SYMBOLIC WALK TO GOLGOTHA: Drive as they embark on a brother is nothing but bones in a yard." On April 22, 1989, Parker walked into the Pizza Hut at 3003 N. Federal Highway with a nylon stocking over his head. After robbing the place, with an unarmed accomplice, Parker exchanged gunfire with a Broward Sheriff's deputy, PARKER then killed a bystander, according to prosecutors.

Parker admitted he held up the fast-food restaurant, shot and wounded two customers inside the Pizza Hut and shot at a car as he tried to commander, but he said he did not shoot Nicholson. A BSO deputy, according to lead defense attorney Bo Hitchcock, accidentally shot Nicholson in the confusion and someone at BSO later switched bullets in the case to pin the murder on Parker. Deputies and State Attorney Mike Satz denied it. After deliberating for nearly three days, jurors in 1990 rejected Parker's claim Nike robbery, for trying to shoot a deputy who chased him and for firing through a passing car with several passengers inside. On Thursday, the state high court said Parker's legal team may not have adequately presented jurors with the defense claim that BSO allegedly switched the bullets.

Parker claims that his lawyers failed, among other things, to show that the color of the photos showing the fatal bullet could be manipulated and that some bullets from Parker's gun were never accounted for. Moreover, the court said that Parker's lawyer may not Parishioners from St. Timothy's Catholic Church in South 5-mile Way of the Cross reenactment of Jesus' trek to his have presented a complete picture to jurors of Parker's abusive childhood and his alleged 1 mental illness. Such testimony, Parker believes, might have spared him from Death Row during the penalty phase. Specifically, Parker told the high court that jurors never heard that he suffers from brain damage and is borderline retarded, that he was raised by a schizophrenic mother who beat him with an electric cord and poured hot water on him, that he was sexually assaulted at age 9.

A Broward Circuit Court hearing has not yet been scheduled. Hitchcock, the lead defense attorney during trial, could not be reached for comment Friday. LaRoza had her own take on Hitchcock's competence in the case. "You couldn't ask for a better lawyer," she said. "Parker is still there.

He is still eating food." that BSO altered evidence, and later recommended the death sentence. Jurors also PARKER DONNA E. NATALE STAFF Miami cross U.S. 1 at Sunset crucifixion. Walk for Jesus is cause for pause BY DAVID OVALLE The woman looked annoyed.

A procession made up of hundreds of people had halted traffic and crossed South Dixie Highway. "Hey! What's going on?" she shouted. "We're walking," a boy shouted back. "For Jesus!" Stunned for a second, the woman furrowed her brow. "Oh!" she said before nodding her head and clapping.

The procession erupted into applause. They clapped for Jesus. Two South Miami-Dade congregations came together on Good Friday for a five-mile Way of the Cross procession, evoking the image of Jesus Christ's final journey before his crucifixion. After watching an uncut version of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, hundreds of Catholic parishioners from St. T.mothy's and St.

Louis, led by two wooden crosses, embarked on their hikes: Members of St. Timothy's, Burke plans to reapply to Florida Bar ormer Miami-Dade C. Burke Commissioner who James did 21 months in federal prison for bribery of a public official, fought The Florida Bar's attempt to ban him from the practice of law. Burke lost. This week, the Florida Supreme Court issued an order Burke is "hereby disTALK OF barred." The OUR TOWN disbarment is JOAN retroactive to FLEISCHMAN December jfleischman '99, when the court issued an emergency suspension for his felony conviction.

Burke, 57, says Florida Bar rules set by the Supreme Court permit him to apply to the Florida Board of Bar Exam- iners for readmission five years from the disbarment date. The five years is already up, and Burke says he'll reapply after his supervised release ends in April '06. Of the lawyers who have been disbarred or tendered disciplinary resignations since 1972, only 18 were sentenced him to life in prison for the Earlier this month, Phang began doing legal commentary with criminal defense lawyer Mark Eiglarsh. They appear on The Insider's Edge, a segment on the early-morning newscast. Last Monday, Phang got the order to "cease" her TV appearances in an e-mail from Jose Arrojo, a chief assistant to State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.

Rundle "does not want her assistants providing public legal analysis or commentary regarding criminal trials," Arrojo wrote. Phang says she obtained permission before she even sent a "demo" tape. She says she did the segment "for two solid weeks before permission was rescinded." Phang, a Yale grad, attended the University of Miami's law school. She prosecuted all kinds of cases grand theft auto to first-degree murder. At her new job, she'll work on the federal civil suit Patino filed against the city of Sweetwater, Mayor Manuel and police officers Allen St.

Germain, George Alvarez and Catalino Rodriguez in the 2003 beating of Peter heave mostly clad in T-shirts and sneakers, weaved their way down Sunset Drive and around lunchtime patio diners. The members of St. Louis went south on Red Road. Along the way, they stopped to pray and sing at 14 "stations" designated to represent certain moments of Christ's final walk. readmitted, the Bar says.

Burke's '04 arrest for misdemeanor battery in a domestic dispute with wife Yvette wasn't prosecuted. They are now separated, he says. Burke has a part-time job at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Overtown, writing grant applications. He also does legal research for Miami attorney Ben Kuehne, reviewing documents in a tax-evasion case. "I've known him for 20-plus years, and I sought him out," Kuehne says.

"Many of the documents are governmentrelated." SHE'S OUTTA THERE Miami-Dade prosecutor Katie Phang, told by her bosses she must quit her unpaid TV gig as a WFORCBS 4 legal consultant on the Michael Jackson trial, quit her $46,000 day job instead. Phang, 29, resigned from the state attorney's office, where she worked for five years. She's joining the firm of Ralph Patino, a Coral Gables personal injury and wrongful death lawyer. "When one door closes, another one opens," Phang says. Michael Daniel.

The firm also represents the family of Cesar Rada, 31, an unarmed schizophrenic shot to death March 13 by Miami-Dade police Officer Jeffrey Price. Phang has yet another job in mind. "I want to be a judge, eventually unless I'm on Court TV." THREE REELECTED WITHOUT CHALLENGE Three Sweetwater commissioners easily won reelection Friday when no one signed up to challenge them in the May 10 election. The only seat that remains contested is that of Commissioner Orlando Lopez of group 1, who is being challenged by Elsa M. Thompson, a self-employed house cleaner and a former volunteer with the city's seniors.

Jose Bergouignan Jr. of Group 2, Jose M. Diaz of Group 3 and Ariel Abelairas of Group 4, were automatically reelected. Among Abelairas' priorities: Focusing on efforts to annex areas of unincorporated Miami-Dade north to the Dolphin Mall. That would close to quadruple the size of the small city.

POWERS THAT BE Kicked upstairs: Jerry Powers, 58, founder and publisher of Ocean Drive celeblifestyle magazine. Parent company SoBe News' board of directors named him Powers then promoted Leslie Wolfson, 42, exec VP for business development, and Courtland Lantaff, 37, VP of business affairs, to co-publisher. SoBe News also puts out Ocean Drive en Vegas and Florida InsideOut, a just-released home and design mag. Lana Bernstein, 36, company spokeswoman, says four new magazines are in the works. She won't discuss the titles..