Florida Criminal Lawyer Blog

A Boynton Beach area man found out the hard way that trusting people you meet online may not be the smartest strategy when making friends, says Broward criminal attorney William Moore. The Palm Beach County man, who is described as being in either his late teens or early twenties, met a woman on the popular social networking site MySpace. The pair chatted for awhile, according to Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore, who has read about the case and cites it as an example of the need for caution in the era of technology.

The two exchanged phone numbers and he called the woman to continue their conversation or to make offline plans. Apparently interested in the woman, he agreed to her request that he come over and pick her up. Once there, the pair drove around for awhile. She then asked if they could pick up her friend, too. The man agreed, driving to the location of the woman’s friend. Once the three were all back in the car, the man had driven only a short distance when their new passenger pulled a handgun on him.

Broward criminal lawyer Moore says that what happens next is unfortunate. The man was lulled into a false sense of security and was probably hopeful about his relationship with the woman. He believed that they would be returning to the woman’s home after he had dropped off her friend at another location. All along, however, the meeting appears to have been a scam designed to pan out into an armed robbery. Once the friend had pulled the gun on the driver, additional acquaintances swarmed the car, assisting the passenger in taking the man’s wallet, car keys, and even his pants. The victim fled and contacted the police.

Fortunately, the robbers did not actually take his car. The pants-less victim returned with law enforcement officials to find his car still present at the scene, although he could not drive it because he no longer had possession of his car keys. As a result, the vehicle was towed. A law enforcement officer warned, “Be careful. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not true…People meet on MySpace and think 'I'm gonna get the hook up' and they sure do, but not the hook up they were expecting.” The safest route is to meet potential dates or friends from the internet in a public place to avoid being victimized.

A Boynton Beach man has been arrested on grand theft charges, Broward criminal lawyer William Moore has learned. Mark R. Hilton III, who is 47 years of age, was charged with stealing in excess of $166,000 from the Casablanca Isles Condominium Association. Hilton was the former president and bookkeeper of the association.

Hilton was previously arrested and convicted for grand theft, Fort Lauderdale criminal lawyer Moore has determined. In 2006, he was arrested for embezzling $13,252 from an air conditioning business. He worked for the company as an account manager during the period during which he stole funds. Hilton was convicted and served time in jail as a result of that offense.

In 2007, Hilton served on the board of the condominium association and apparently managed the association’s funds with little oversight. He took out unauthorized credit cards, then billed the homeowners association to cover his expenditures. The problem? His purchases were personal and were never authorized by the HOA, Broward criminal attorney Moore has learned.

Law enforcement officials believe Hilton used the credit cards to cover all manner of personal costs. These charges included the mundane, like car insurance, to the extravagant, like trips to Disney World. Hilton is also accused of using association funds to cover the costs of his five dogs’ veterinary care, airfare, car rentals, jewelry, art, and even cash advances paid directly to him. Hilton’s arrest is the product of a police investigation that took approximately one year.

Homeowners associations and condominium associations often screen applicants who may want to buy or rent units prior to their purchase or move-in date. For approval, some associations require that applicants attain a certain credit score or have no serious criminal record. Of course, once the applicants are approved and become members of the community, the association likely does not continue to monitor the creditworthiness and criminal histories of its residents. In this case, it is unclear whether Hilton was ever screened for entry into the association or for his particular position.

Now, he is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail. His bond for the charges, grand theft and conducting a scheme to defraud, is currently set at $100,000.

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Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of robbing a couple at gunpoint in Riviera Beach, Broward criminal lawyer William Moore has learned. Law enforcement officials believe Robert Lamont Felder was the gunman in an attack on a young couple in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, May 31. Felder has been charged with burglary and two counts each of kidnapping and armed robbery while wearing a mask. Because he is being charged as an adult, Felder is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail, says Fort Lauderdale criminal attorney Moore.

Felder appeared in criminal court on Wednesday morning, but the judge rescheduled his bond hearing because Felder’s parents were not present in the courtroom. Law enforcement officials believe that he and an accomplice robbed an 18-year-old man and his girlfriend at gunpoint at about 3:15 in the morning.

The victims told police that they had parked their car in an alley off of Avenue S when their vehicle was approached by two men. One of the men had a t-shirt wrapped around his face to conceal his identity. He hit the male victim on the head with his gun, demanding the man’s money. The victim did not have any money, which angered his assailant, who then demanded their jewelry and cell phones. The two men then got into the backseat of the vehicle where they demanded, at gunpoint, that the male victim drive them to an ATM so that he could withdraw cash for them. He did so, eventually obtaining $600 in Lake Park, which he gave to his attackers.

After obtaining the money, the robbers made the victims drive them back to Avenue S, where they escaped with the female’s purse. Her uncle came out to the alley and tried to chase the attackers as they fled, but stopped when she warned him that they were armed with a gun. A family member suggested that Felder, a classmate of hers, might be one of the culprits when the couple described his crossed eyes. The victims later selected his picture from a photo lineup.

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More and more local stores seem to be targeted under the cover of darkness in a slew of recent business burglaries, notes Broward criminal lawyer William Moore. The heists are happening in Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties and appear to be the work of small groups of burglars. Unfortunately, store owners are getting late-night calls from law enforcement officers telling them the bad news or sometimes just showing up to work in the morning to find shattered glass littering the stores and parking lots.

The “smash-and-grab” burglars have been conducting operations since at least last summer. Police noticed a marked uptick beginning in July. The pattern was unmistakable: a group of burglars, rather than one person acting alone, smash the glass front of the store or remove the door entirely. Oftentimes, they smash the glass storefront with a car.

Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Moore finds it interesting that the thieves appear to have rather varying tastes. They do not hit just electronics stores or only conduct jewelry heists. Instead, the have hit a variety of electronics stores, including chains like Best Buy and small stores such as Port Electronics, alongside a drugstore and even a Gucci location. Burglars stole prescription drugs from a Palm Beach Gardens pharmacy. In some cases, the whole incident happens in less than a minute, as was the case when six thieves smashed the glass door at Computer Sights in Fort Lauderdale.

The thieves quickly grab expensive items, including video game systems and laptops. They then escape rapidly. Later, the burglars sell the stolen items on the street. Some burglars have been “dumb,” according to local police. In Hialeah, thieves smashed and grabbed electronics from Best Buy. They were so successful that the same group hit the same Best Buy just a few days after the first time they stole goods from the store, in what police labeled a “gutsy” move. Not surprisingly, they were apprehended during the second attempt.

Stores like Port Electronics have it the hardest. The small electronics store does not carry insurance. The store was hit on January 12 and, despite the loss of thousands of dollars of electronics equipment, has managed to stay open. Still, its employees are not optimistic about the future. "I know it's going to happen again. There's no doubt in my mind," said Ed Blum, who manages the store. Likewise, General Manager Donald Blank of the CompUSA in Fort Lauderdale is leery. "You always have that in the back of your head," he said.

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Tony and Jeanne Thomas live in Boynton Beach, in southern Palm Beach County. The couple’s home was burglarized several times last year, beginning in October. The burglars took expensive valuables, like jewelry and a collection of rare coins. Smaller things disappeared, too, on other occasions. The couple’s crockpot and ice cream maker were stolen. Frustrated, the Thomases had no idea who could be stealing the items from their home. Palm Beach criminal lawyer William Moore says home burglaries may increase during economic tough times, as people scramble for cash or have too much free time due to unemployment.

With the problem growing more frightening, Jeanne Thomas purchased a surveillance system that allowed her to view the video in her home from a third location. She installed the $250 monitoring system over her husband’s protests that she would never find anything with it. Jeanne did not find anything interesting at first, discovering only that the dogs played on the couches while she was at work. After awhile, she stopped watching the surveillance.

Thomas, who works at Keiser University in Fort Lauderdale, had a bad feeling one morning this week. She logged onto the surveillance system online to get a look inside her home. ''It was the strangest feeling. I had a feeling something wasn't right. When I went on, I saw a person standing in my house,” Thomas said.

Thomas dialed 911 as soon as she saw the images. She kept watching as she talked to the operator while 18 Boynton Beach police officers surrounded the home. The family pets were upset, she told the operator. Thomas watched the burglars take valuable items from her home, including a flat-screen television and a video game system.

Boynton Beach police arrested the two suspects who were inside the home. Altogether, there were four suspects eventually arrested. The young men who were arrested are Curtis Williams, 20; Steven Morales, 19; Scott George, 20; and Jonathan Cruz, 20. The Thomases knew Cruz prior to the incident. Jeanne Thomas said that her husband even gave Cruz rides when he was a child. The Thomases were friendly with him and said it had never occurred to them that Cruz would have been involved in burglarizing their home.

All of the suspects confessed to their involvement in the burglary. Palm Beach criminal attorney Moore says would-be burglars might do well to follow the advice of Jeanne Thomas: be careful, because “[y]ou never know who is watching you.”

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A number of robberies in Palm Beach and Broward Counties have police scratching their heads and searching for the so-called “Saggy Pants Robber,” says Palm Beach criminal lawyer William Moore. Law enforcement officials in both counties are working to determine if the same culprit is behind each incident.

Starting in November, 7-Eleven stores throughout the area have been robbed with alarming frequency. In Fort Lauderdale, at least five 7-Eleven stores and one Walgreen’s location have been robbed in the past few months by a man with sagging pants and a Jamaican accent. On Friday, two more Broward stores were robbed, according to Broward criminal defense lawyer Moore. Locations in Miramar and Pompano Beach were both hit the same night. Still, the Miramar police have issued a statement warning the public that it is still too early to tell if the Miramar robbery was committed by the same man who has been robbing other locations.

The Saggy Pants Robber was initially identified by Fort Lauderdale police, who pieced together an image of a man due to the similar characteristics of the robber described by clerks at each store. His voice and accent have been described similarly and he was wearing the same pair of shorts, which have a noticeable red stripe down the sides, underneath his pants in several of the robberies. Some of his victims stated that he wore a green ski mask over his face or prescription eyeglasses. His demeanor is noticeably calm and collected and he works quickly, which may explain why he is still at large. The descriptions have not all been identical, with wide variations in the man’s height given: from 5’5” to 6’0”.

Fort Lauderdale police also note that his mannerisms toward his victims are changing and he seems to be acting increasingly aggressive towards them. Detective Kathy Collins of the Fort Lauderdale police department described the change, saying, ''He used to go in and imply he had a weapon, back in December and January. But since then, he's not only displayed the weapon but in the last two robberies he has pointed at the clerk very aggressively, grabbing the clerk, and now he's really putting fear in the victims.''

The Saggy Pants Robber is also expanding. Initially, he robbed only stores of Fort Lauderdale, but now appears to be branching out both to the north and south. He is believed to be the robber behind heists in Boynton Beach, Deerfield Beach, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, and elsewhere.

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A string of bank robberies in Broward and Palm Beach Counties has had investigators puzzled for weeks now. Tellers described the robber as middle-aged, but the defining feature that stood out was the bad condition of his teeth. He has been locally known as the “Rotten Teeth Robber” after the Broward Sheriff’s Office referred to him as a “dirty, rotten teeth bank robber” during the investigation. The Boca Raton police department was more polite about the issue, telling reporters that they were searching for a robber with “considerable tooth decay.” They also noted that bank employees believed he had a limp. Initially, some eyewitness reports gave differing descriptions of the man in terms of his height, build, and age. Broward criminal lawyer William Moore says differing accounts are relatively common and that eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, in part because people tend to be very prone to suggestion when they remember details about a crime.

According to law enforcement officials familiar with the case, the Rotten Teeth Robber has hit at least five branches of Bank of America in the last month. On March 3, he robbed the Pompano Beach branch, then waited nearly two weeks before robbing the Lighthouse Point bank. Thereafter, he allegedly went on a bank-robbing spree, hitting Bank of America branches in Tequesta, West Palm Beach, and Deerfield Beach on March 26. The Rotten Teeth Robber then began hitting other area banks, as well. He is expected to be charged with robbing a Pompano Beach BankAtlantic on March 31 and a Wachovia branch in Fort Lauderdale on April 1.

The Rotten Teeth Robber was done in by his most recent robbery, officials say. At about 10:40 a.m. on April 1, he gave the Wachovia teller a note, demanding cash and wearing jeans, a baseball cap, and a nondescript gray shirt. The teller complied with the robber’s demand, but bank employees rushed to contact police. Fort Lauderdale police quickly nabbed Alan Weller, 47, who was identified as the robber by employees of the Wachovia branch. West Palm Beach criminal lawyer Moore says it is unusual for a bank robber to hit so many banks in one area in such a short period of time.

Weller resides in Lake Worth. Prior to his capture, he was described as a white male in his forties or fifties, who was thin and about 5’7” and wore glasses. Bank employees who had been robbed consistently noted that his teeth were unusually dirty or rotten. He was seen leaving at least one bank robbery in an old green Ford Taurus. In another, he departed in a brown Chrysler PT Cruiser.

A Palm Beach County bank robbery last year:

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Sunrise, Florida police are investigating allegations that an elderly hitchhiker in the area was robbed and beaten. On November 14, an 84-year-old man in Sunrise negotiated with two other men for a ride from Fort Lauderdale to the home of a friend in Lauderhill. They agreed to have him sit in the back of their old tan car and, for $20, that they would drop him off at his friend’s house.

The older man became suspicious that the men were not planning on taking him to the house in Lauderhill early on. The driver took the car in the opposite direction than they would have gone to head directly to Lauderhill. When the older hitchhiker inquired about their destination, the other men indicated that they planned to stop at a Mobil gas station on Northwest 60th Avenue.

The driver pulled over. The man in the passenger’s seat got out, opened the backseat door, and demanded that the elderly hitchhiker hand over all of his money. The older man refused to give him any more money.

At that point, the man punched the elderly hitchhiker in the face, then drew a knife. While threatening the elderly man with the knife, he elbowed the older man in the face. At that point, the man who had been the passenger reached into the hitchhiker’s back pocket, taking his wallet. The robber rifled through the wallet and took $200, all of the cash. He also took the hitchhiker’s planner from his front pocket.

The hitchhiker retrieved his wallet from the robbers, who drove off, leaving him there alone. The police located the knife at the scene of the crime.

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Last week the Miami Herald reported that the United State Attorney’s office unsealed an indictment returned by a Fort Lauderdale federal grand jury charging several people in a large-scale conspiracy.

Four South Florida men and three people from North Carolina were charged for their involvement in this multi-million dollar retail operation, which include the interstate transportation of merchandise from Target, CVS, and other retailers. The products were transported to a warehouse in South Florida, where they were repackaged and resold, generating about $7.9 million.

The defense attorney for one the accused claims his client believed the goods were discontinued or damaged and had no knowledge that they were stolen. The FBI estimates that this case is part of a larger trend in retail theft, making up roughly $30 billion in retail losses annually.

Drug store thefts a billion-dollar business, Miami Herald, August 27, 2008

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