Orlando

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.

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. -- A dolphin that washed ashore Thursday is being cared for by SeaWorld in Orlando, beach officials said.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / William Guthrie, an attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP, has been tabbed by Gov. Scott to fill one of three vacancies on a statewide board.

ORLANDO -- An Orlando attorney is among three appointees to the Community Association Living Study Council made by Gov. Rick Scott.

Was longest-serving member of the House until his death

Photo for Headline Surfer / Florida's longest serving Congressman, CW Bill Young, shown here at left, died Friday. He was 82.

ORLANDO -- Gov. Rick Scott issued a statement earlier tonight from Orlando regarding today's passing of Florida U.S. Congressman C.W. Bill Young, 82, and the the longest-serving Republican in the House, who had been hospitalized in recent weeks at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

“Ann and I join all Floridians as we mourn the passing of Representative Bill Young," Scott said in a statement e-mailed to Headline Surfer and other Florida media outlets.