The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • B3

Story System MIAE by HBROERTJES Time 23:07:58 Date Stor 0Stor name INL PAGESLast text user HBROERTJESB 3 BR Ke 1 23:07:57 by HBROERTJby HBROERTJby HBROERTJby HBROERTJ CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK CYAN )( YELLOW )( MAGENTA )( BLACK BROWARD PLUS Missin gw friend a smugg er BY MICHAEL BARBARO The boyfriend of53-year-old Colleen Wood, the Fort Lauderdale woman who has been missing for more thansix months, is a convicted international drug smuggler whoin 1983 fled the United States to avoid trial in the wounding of a federal drug witness. Wood moved in with John L. Paul 62, part of a well- known father-son race car driving team, in December and planned to join him on a five- year trip around the world. Paul told police Wood stormed off the 55-foot boat and out of their two-year relationship shortly before Christmas, said Detective Al Stone. No one has seen her since.

Police have not namedPaul a suspect in the disappearance, which detectives are calling a missing persons case withsus- picious circumstances. have a suspect because we yet have a said MikeReed, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale police. But family and friends consider him themiss- ing link in the case. Paul, who has an MBAfrom Harvard, was an accomplished endurance race car driver, as was his son, John Paul Jr. The two scored fiveconsecutive racing victories as a team in 1981 and 1982, the longeststreak in the history of the Camel GT road racing series.

The father and son duo set a speed record in the 24 Hour of Daytona in 1982. Shortly thereafter, PaulSr. was accused of smuggling 200,000 pounds ofmarijuana into the United States. He was also charged with attempted first-degree murder in connection with the shooting ofSte- phen Carson in St. County, according to state criminal records.

Carson was agovernment witness in the drug case against Paul. He was allegedly abducted at a boat dock, and shot in the back, kidney and leg. Paul skipped out onhis attempted-murder trial. Hewas arrested two years later in Geneva, Switzerland, and ultimately was sentenced to 20 years, although he served less. In 1987, Paul was accused of trying to escape from a Florida prison by squirting a mixture of hot sauce and liquid floor cleaner into the eyes of a corrections officer.

children doubttheir mother knew about criminal past. Her son Michael Tandarich, 33, said his mother is incapable of keeping such a secret. Tandarich also lashed outat Paul for not contacting the family or working more diligently with police to find Wood. he were truly in love with her, I think he would be a little more forthcoming in hisefforts to help locate saidTan- darich. Reed said Paul, who lives in Key West, cooperatedfully with detectives when they contacted him in May.

But police have been unable to locate him since and now want to know where he is, Reed said. According to property records, Paul owns an apartment at 3314 Northside Dr. in Key West. After his arrest, John L. Paul Sr.

abandoned competitive racing. The circumstances surrounding reported mid-December disappearance from a dock on the New River, east of Southeast Third Avenue in Fort Lauderdale of which Paul is apparently the only witness have also aroused family suspicions. Stone said Paul told police two hulking men accompanied Wood as she gathered her clothes from the He said it was the last timehe spoke to Wood. other son, Todd Tandarich, that account is out of character. would not need anyone else to muscle he said.

would have taken her stuff, told him off and just Kids critical, nearly dro wn BY ELENA CABRAL Two small childrenwho apparently woke from their side and wandered into a swimming pool at a Pompano Beach home werein intensive care at aBroward hospital Tuesday. Both were in critical condition. Lisa Meyer, who had recently moved to the area from St. Petersburg, discovered her children, Tyler Meyer, 4, and Amber Duffin, motionless in a pool at 609 NE Fifth Ave. The three had stayed the night at the home of boyfriend, identified by the Broward Officeas Sean Gahagan.

lives with her mother in Fort Lauderdale, was visiting Gahagan, said her sister, Kim Decker. The group had been awake at 8:30 a.m when Gahaganwent to work, said BSOspokesman Jim Leljedal. Afterwardthe children crawled into bed with their mother. When the mother woke up an hour and a half later, the children weregone. She found them moments later in the pool a few feet from the house and pulled them out with a help.

They had apparently walked fromthe door of the house to the pool. The family did not know how long the children were under water. After BSO deputiesand paramedics responded to a 911 call to the house, they found the mother and a neighbor performing CPR on the children, Leljedal said. Paramedicstook Tyler and Amber to North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach, where they were put on life support before being transferred separately to a pediatric intensive care unit at Broward GeneralMedical Center in Fort Lauderdale. Distraught familymembers rushed to the NorthBroward hospital when they heard what had happened.

think going to happen to said Kim Decker. the worst The mother kepta vigil at the hospital as preparations for the transfer continued through the afternoon. Family members were in disbelief. almost like an act of said Jim Decker, the grandfather and a range master at the Fort Lauderdale Police inattention. No matter how vigilant you cannot protect yourchildren from The children, Decker said, are, like any children, fondof wading pools and water slides.

But it was not clear whether they knew how to swim. standard procedure for a Leljedal said. all migrate to water. such a shame because drowning is orc resol ve trouble with mentall yill More than a dozen Miami police officers who tried to subdue a knife-wielding schizophrenic man a week ago as he slowly made a 12-block trek along a city avenue and finally shot him to death almost certainly realize they were using the worst possible tactics for the situation. basic training for police officers, taught that aggressive situations are handled with County Judge Steven Leifman told me.

is the absolute, opposite, worst way to deal with someone who is suffering from mental At the dawn of the 21st Century, the death of Richard Beatty reaffirms that only just beginning to figure out the basics of coping effectively with the mentally ill. The knowledge is seeping into our institutional awareness with frustrating slowness. Beatty, 55, had a long history of mental illness, homelessness and misdemeanor offenses before his final confrontation with police June 6. Prone to paranoid flashbacks of the Vietnam War, Beatty probably believed the officers screaming at him to drop his knife, pounding on their hands with clubs and spraying him with Mace were enemy soldiers. Witnesses say Beatty lunged at Officer Hector Mendez, who shot him 14 times.

concern that the Miami officers reacted improperly. that none of the officers on the scene were part of the fledgling Crisis Management Team, trained to calm down agitated suspects who seem to have a tenuous grip on reality. Unlike other suspects, mentally ill suspects become more fearful and violent when confronted with force. The judge last year invited Miami, Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County to join the service network he has worked to create to divert mentally ill misdemeanor cases to service institutions rather than arresting them. Only Miami Beach implemented the program.

I took a tour Tuesday of the two floors of the county jail for mentally ill suspects. an overwhelmingly depressing place that gives the impression of a kennel for humans. Corrections Capt. Armando Quinoa has to guide the detainees through several stages of medication to calm them down before they can be sent to a treatment center an expensive and inefficient process. using the jail as a place where they can dump Quinoa said.

Most of the mentally ill suspects booked through the jail on misdemeanor charges are from Miami. None are from Miami Beach. In the year since Miami Beach implemented its Crisis Intervention Team, the city arrested only one mentally ill suspect, diverting the rest to community mental health treatment centers. Miami sent 63 in April alone. The trained officers steps to calm the situation said Lt.

Mark Bray, commander of Miami C.I.T. unit. meet it with force. They meet it by being passive and nonconfron- After months of prodding from Leifman, Miami sent 16 officers through the training, conducted by Jackson Memorial Hospital. But the concept relies on everyone from untrained officers to 911 dispatchers to know when to call upon the C.I.T.

members which happen last week. Herald Staff Reports JEFFREY NUEVO HERALD CELEBRATING: Rebeca Sosa, left, is congratulated Tuesday night by a supporter on winning the county commission seat. x-W est Miami ma or wins commission seat SOSA Former West Miami Mayor Rebeca Sosa on Tuesday overwhelmingly won the Miami-Dade County Commission District 6 seat. In the low-turnout election onlyabout 14 percent of the 70,000 registered voters went to the polls Sosa defeated her strongest rival, marketing consultant Ana Sol Alliegro, 60 percent to 31 percent. Two other candidates finished a distant third andfourth.

Former Miami Springs Councilman Eric Elza got 5 percent of the vote, and financial consultant Joe received 4 percent. About 250 of backers celebrated at West Community Center. Sosa, a teacher trainer for the Miami-Dade public schools, was a city commissioner in West Miami from 1990-94 and mayor from 1994 until her resignation this year to run for the county seat. When it was clear she had won, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas escorted her to the podium, to a standing ovation. and integrity, what going to get from Sosa said.

She will represent a district that stretches from Hialeah to South Miami, including West Miami, Miami Springs, and parts of Kendall and Coral Gables. The special election was called after County Commissioner Pedro Reboredo resigned from office in a plea deal with the Miami-Dade state office. South Florida water manager ightingatt emp at dismissal FINCH Frank future as South top water manager remained tenuous Tuesday, but he going to go down without throwing some counterpunches. Finch, the suddenly embattled executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, defended his performance over two of the state most challenging years. He said he was to read in the three major newspapers that David Struhs, Gov.

Jeb environmental protection secretary, had not only asked for his resignation but also designated a potential successor. While department has supervisory authority over the five water management districts, Finch charged, only governing boards can hire and fire executive directors. Struhs on Monday suggested a successor: Henry Dean, director of the St. Johns Water Management District. Cor alRe efHigh pro esma gnet for success Today is the last day of classes for Coral Reef, a magnet school that sprang up in 1996 south of Kendall.

As thousands of students prepare to graduate across Miami-Dade County this week, the first class to spend four years at Coral Reef will don caps and gowns. The scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, well above the state average, put it among the best in the county. a validation for the concept of a a large high school that contains several specialized programs instead of the single program offered by a smaller magnet. Together, the nearly 700 seniors have won more than $4 million in college scholarships and performed morethan 170,000 hours of community service. The Source to host hip-hop show at Beach Miami-Dade County, to host the Latin Grammys in September, will be the site for another major music-awards show this summer when The Source magazine holds its third annual hip-hop awards presentation in August, the publisher said Tuesday.

The show will bring an important hip-hop event to Miami Beach three months after a tense, crowd-filled Memorial Day weekend left some pondering the compatibility of rap and South Beach. Last Source show, in Pasadena, was cut short after fights broke out and spread to the stage. The founder and publisher, David Mays, said the Jackie Gleason Theater is his top choice for a venue. Senat or faces campaign contributions hearing A formal hearing on charges that state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla violated state law in disclosing campaign contributions is scheduled to open in Tallahassee today.

The Florida Elections Commission found probable cause to believe the Miami Republican violated the state elections code in not reporting $158,195 raised for his campaign for a vacant Senate seat in a December 1999 special election. BRO WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2001 The Herald 3B COMMENTARY ROBERT STEINBACK TYLER AMBER WTVJ NBC 6 The children were floating motionless in a pool at a Pompano Beach home. 2 DIE IN CANAL PLUNGE An aerial camera captures the events on the Homestead Extension of Turnpike after a northbound 1992 Toyota Camry carrying a man and woman veered off the road and flipped into a canal on Tuesday afternoon, killing both people. The accident occurred near the Okeechobee Road exit in Northwest Miami-Dade, three miles south of where a similar fatal accident occurred in February. In accident, divers were at the scene within five minutes of receiving calls from motorists who had witnessed the car plunge into the canal, police said.

Miami-Dade County fire rescue divers struggled to resuscitate the unidentified woman who had been trapped underwater for 30 minutes with her male companion. A helicopter flew her to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she died. The man was declared dead at the scene. AROUND SOUTH FLORIDA MIAMI-DADE FLORIDA.