Hendrick gets probation
Federal judge orders disgraced former county attorney to pay $50,000 fine
James Hendrick, the former Monroe County attorney convicted in February of obstructing justice and witness tampering in a wide-ranging, years-long Keys corruption case, was given five years probation and a $50,000 fine Friday in Miami federal court.
“An awful lot of people came forward on your behalf,” said U.S. District Judge Shelby Highsmith. A couple dozen filled the courtroom's pews: friends, business partners, Hendrick's wife and son. “Do not disappoint us.”
“I will not,” said Hendrick, who leaned over the bar to hug his wife. Her eyes brimmed and she whispered to him.
Hendrick, 59, was convicted in February of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and witness tampering involving a bribe paid to then-County Commissioner Jack London.
London had pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return for failing to report the $29,000 bribe and was facing three years in prison.
No charges in hotel death Kohl closes probe into DoubleTree
Despite numerous blunders by DoubleTree Grand Key Resort staff that proved fatal for 26-year-old Thomas Lueders, Monroe County State Attorney Mark Kohl's office on Friday said the resort's actions cannot be considered criminal.
Lueders, of Washington, D.C., died from carbon monoxide fumes Dec. 27. His father, Richard, was in the same room, No. 416, but was hospitalized and fully recovered in a day, according to a report from the state Fire Marshal's Office.
The two were discovered by Grand Key General Manager Steve Robbins, who attempted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Thomas Lueders. Robbins later resigned.
Lueders' death spawned multiple lawsuits from other Grand Key customers who stayed on the fourth floor, where the boiler room is located. That room was found to be the source of the carbon monoxide that seeped into Room 416 and killed Lueders while he was reading in bed.
The city pulled its certificate of occupancy and the 216-room resort was closed from Dec. 29 to March 1.
I know a couple of people who work at the Grand Key Hotel and the stories about this are scary. Apparently the 'smoke' alarms were going off for days before the main incidents and because no one could find any fire, they just reset them and ignored the noise. The problem is that some of these monitors were combination smoke/carbon monoxide monitors, but the staffing situation was so bad that no one knew. Alot of those in charge have been fired or re assigned, but a basic English speaking maintenance crew is obviously what is needed over there.
Spottswoods get the go-ahead Massive project to redevelop to start in '08After hearing vociferous public comment against it, the Key West City Commission on Tuesday passed a resolution to launch developer Spottswood Cos.' 20-acre redevelopment plan, called the Key West Hotel and Conference Center, at the so-called triangle where U.S. 1 intersects with Roosevelt Boulevard.
“I think we are going to have to get used to these changes,” Commissioner Bill Verge said.
The plan includes a 450-room hotel, 50 workforce-housing apartments, 33 time-share units, 21 residential condos, a 20,500-square-foot conference center, 21,000 square feet of retail space, and a 250-seat restaurant and bar at 3820 N. Roosevelt Boulevard.
Vociferous? VOCIFEROUS.. gee whiz wonder why? Although I am actually weighing this
hideous monstrosity up with what the town is losing. A Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Holiday Inn, Raddison Inn.. starting to see a creepy pattern here? Frankly losing those and a Waffle House just don't make me as uncomfortable as losing mom & pop B&B's downtown to massive over development. Yes I know, we are losing some of the cheap end hotel rooms and that is the one thing that is very very wrong with this deal. Those people are the ones who keep the economy going, not the rich bitches in their hermetically sealed, generic faux conch blockhouses.
So are the Spottswoods the children of Satan? Yes absolutely. I just don't care so much, what they do to an already ruined and depressing part of town. Its all over for us I know that, I just want to make sure that people know the names of those responsible.
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