DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Now more than ever, conservative Deltona City Commissioner Webster Barnaby sees new leadership as the key to a better Volusia County, which is why he's running for the non-partisan at-large County Council seat against the incumbent and two other politicians, all of whom are long in the tooth.
Photo for Headline Surfer® / DAYTONA BEACH -- Gary Davidson, the chief spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office has confirmed that Sheriff Ben Johnson suffered a "minor heart attack" eight days ago and that he has since made a full recovery and returned to work the following Monday.
It was on April 18, a Saturday afternoon, that Johnson, first elected as sheriff in 2000, went to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach after experiencing chest pains, agency spokesman Gary Davidson confirmed overnight.
"During examination at the hospital, it was determined that the sheriff had suffered a mild heart attack," Davidson told Headline Surfer®. "He was admitted to the hospital overnight and was discharged (a week ago) Sunday afternoon and is doing quite well."
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.
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.
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.
Photos for Headline Surfer® / Margie Patchett and Maureen France are the co-founders of Volusia Tax Reform.DAYTONA BEACH -- Volusia Tax Reform, a grassroots organization established to challenge municipal and county government spending, is recognized by Headline Surfer® as part of its 5th anniversary celebration for VTR's political activism and government watchdog standing.
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498. Daytona Beach News-Journal Publisher Bill Offill puts himself at center of photo ops with Medallions of Excellencde winners; boasts of jobs fair at News-Journal Center which print newspaper doesn't own
OAK HILL, Fla. -- An 18-year-old has been booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach on DUI manslaughter charges in the July 24, 2013, horrific wreck on Maytown Road that took the life of his cousin.
On April 21, 2014 at approximately 3:54 pm an adult white male wearing dark clothing entered the TD Bank located at 1101 Dunlawton Av in Port Orange. The male handed the teller a note wanting all the money. The male implied he had a weapon, but none was seen. An undisclosed amount of US currency was given to the male, who stuffed the money down the front of his shirt. The male then exited the front of the bank heading towards the east. Thhe male was seen getting into a dark colored sedan and leaving the area. A search of the area was negative for the suspect.
Headline Surfer® graphic / Sheriff's homicide investigators are awaiting autopsy results before deciding if criminal charges will be levied in the early Easter morning shooting death of Sanford Olson at his residence at 7 Seabreeze Drive in Ormond by-the-Sea as shown in this locator map. His wife told a neighbor he was accidentally shot.ORMOND BEACH -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office's Major Case Unit is continuing to investigate the fatal shooting early Sunday morning of a 55-year-old man in Ormond-by-the-Sea, just north of the Ormond Beach city limits.
The victim's wife was being interviewed about the death at 7 Seabreeze Drive after receiving a call at 2:52 a.m. about a shooting that had happened. When they arrived on scene, deputies discovered he had been shot to death.
