Orlando

Former Orlando police chief

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Bill Koleszar did what few have been able to do: He fought (New Smyrna Beach, FL) City Hall on a September night in 2009, and he won!

William L. (Bill) Koleszar II , a resident of New Smyrna Beach and former Orlando police chief for a couple of years in the early 1980s, passed away on Friday, July 3, 2015, after a lengthy battle with heart disease.

Born in Fairfield, Conn., Mr. Koleszar's candle burned brightly for 71 years across six continents.

From 1975 to 1982, he served as chief of police in Montpelier, Vt, and Arvada, Colo.; and as chief of police in Orlando, Fla, 198-1984. He also served on the cabinet of Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm as that state's first director of public safety, from 1984 to 1987.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Victor Oladipo underwent corrective surgery Saturday for a facial fracture.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando Magic guard Victor Oladipo will be out indefinitely after suffering a facial fracture in practice Thursday, General Manager Rob Hennigan announced Saturday.

Oladipo, 22, who was evaluated Thursday afternoon, underwent a corrective surgical procedure. He was injured after taking an inadvertent elbow during a practice drill.

Leaves behind anchor grind to spend more time with family while battling depression

ORLANDO -- When she first hit the TV airwaves more than a decade ago, she was Lauren Perkins. Then she got married. But it didn't take WKMG Local 6 followers long to match the name Lauren Rowe with the familiar face and reassuring voice.

Daytona Beach-area's James Sotolongo, Ramara Garett & Stephanie Musselwhite maintain their innocence

Headline Surfer photo / James Sotolongo stands amid the defense team outside the US District Courthouse in Orlando where a jury began deliberating Friday as to his guilt or innocence in a mortgage fraud conspiracy trial. Sotolongo, his live-in girlfriend, Ramara Garrett, mother of their 1-year-old baby; and a third defendant,  Stephanie Musselwhite, have all pleaded innocent to charges. The jury will continue its deliberations on Monday.

 ORLANDO -- What is most amazing in the case against James Fidel Sotolongo, Ramara Garrett and Stephanie Musselwhite is that it has has gotten this far.

Tanya Wilson given nod for Orange County bench by Gov. Rick Scott

Photo for Headline Surfer® / U.S. prosecutor Tanya Wilson is moving from the US District Court in Orlando to the Orange County courthouse downtown where she will leave her post as a federal government prosecutor to a county judgeship.

ORLANDO -- Gov. Rick Scott has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Davis Wilson to an Orange County judgeship.

Wilson, 45, is the lead prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the trial against James Sotolongo, Ramara Garrett and Stephanie Musselwhite, all accused of conspiring to defraud four banks of nearly $13 million in mortgages involving seven upscale residences in the Daytona Beach area. The case went to the jury today.

Outside attorney: Government's case relies on 'finks and vermin'

Inset photo by Headline Surfer® / Will the jurors in the Volusia County mortgage fraud case believe government witnesses Sidney Coton and Christopher Mencis, who have already pleaded guilty and subsequently testified in exchange for lighter sentences or will they believe defendant James Sotolongo, shown at left in the display photo with his attorney, who didn't take the stand in his own defense? The jurors begin deliberating on Friday morning.

ORLANDO -- Federal prosecutor Tanya Wilson apologized to the jury of 12 on Thursday in closing arguments for the cast of unsavory characters she had to rely on to make her case of mortgage fraud against the three individuals from the Daytona Beach-area on trial in the courtroom.

Legal sources: Clear cut conflict of interest for jurist who may be forced to recuse himself from presiding at trial that begins Tuesday

Photos for Headline Surfer® / The big question heading into the trial for Jim Sotolongo and Ramara Garret, shown in the inset, is whether U.S. District Judge Roy B. Dalton, Jr., shown at far left, will be presiding.

ORLANDO -- Before he was nominated by President Obama and his appointed ratified by the U.S. Senate in 2011 for a federal judgeship in the Middle District of Florida, Roy B. Dalton, Jr.,was a member of the board of trustees for the Orlando-based Seaside National Bank& Trust for four years before laving to assume his position on the bench.