Now We're Talking

A time for grief, a time for community support

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 16:53:05 GMT

The Now We're Talking blog would like to dedicate this entry for your reflections on the five young men killed in a vehicle crash in Anthony early in the morning of Saturday, Jan. 26. This is now a moderated blog. All comments will be reviewed before they appear on the page. I apologize for any hurt caused by people who abused this memorial page.

Even movie stars must pay taxes

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:32:07 GMT

Forget the claims of the now-defunct American Rights Litigators, there is no secret formula - or spell cast by the filing of magic papers - that will eliminate the federal taxes you'll owe on $38 million of income and produce $11.3 million in refunds.

Poet Kay Ryan coming to CFCC

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:12:44 GMT

Marion County's poetry lovers should know that Kay Ryan will do a reading at the CFCC Fine Arts Auditorium beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 24.

The event is free and open to the public. It's the sixth reading in the Debra Vazquez Memorial Poetry Series.

For background on the award-winning poet and a peek at a couple of her poems, look at her page on poets.org.

Life-savers on 2 feet and 4 paws

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:08:19 GMT

The Wednesday, Jan. 8, column: Dennis Black and his wife, Melissa, thank two brave firefighters for saving him from a burning building. Also, the Blacks owe their lives to a 14-month-old black Lab named Sebastian.

Cold dawn at a new Horizon

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:21:01 GMT

Now We're Talking column for Jan. 2.

The National Weather Service Web page for Ocala has a chart showing an hour-by-hour forecast.

On Monday I studied the graph to see the effects of a cold front swinging down into Florida. The temperatures would rise and fall like a roller coaster down to 21 degrees by 7 a.m. Thursday.

That would be the lowest point.
Of course, it would be on the coldest day of the season that school children return for the second semester. Thousands will stand at the bus stops, clutching their books and breathing mist into the cold air.

And about 500 fourth-graders and fifth-graders and their teachers will make a procession - probably by bus because it's so cold - from Sunrise Elementary to the new $37 million Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks. The sixth- through eighth-grade classes will arrive in August.

On Horizon Academy's Web page - www.marion.k12.fl.us/schools/ham - you'll find 19 aerial photos showing its construction beginning in August 2006.

At 5:30 p.m. today, the new school will have an open house for students, parents and other members of the public. Principal Juan Cordova stresses the idea that Horizon Academy - like nearby Sunrise - is meant to be an integral part of the Marion Oaks community.

People are excited, he said, about the spacious, new, state-of-the-art campus.

"To me, it's the most beautiful school in Marion County," Cordova said. "In terms of curb appeal ... it's absolutely gorgeous."

On Thursday - after the procession and after the students have had breakfast and reported to class - Cordova plans to convene them for a flag raising and the ceremonial planting of trees, weather permitting. Then they'll gather in the new gym, where a boy and girl from each year will christen the basketball hoops by sinking the first baskets.

On the Web site, Cordova gives his vision for the school: "We will continue focusing on the complete child. ... Our driving vision will be to focus on the three "Rs," Rigor, Relevance and Relationships."

At one time, he wrote, a school was the center of the community "and everyone felt a sense of pride and connection to the school. I wish to return to those days. ... Please join the staff of Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks in making our school a place of learning, laughter and life."

But, first, turn up the thermostat.
A COLD COUNTING
The current freeze warning is a reminder to protect our pets, pipes and plants, and stay warm indoors. You wouldn't want to be out in the woods or in a small boat on a river.

But 14 teams totalling about 55 bird watchers do plan to be out there. They'll rendezvous at a Bob Evans at 6 a.m. Thursday for their part in the annual Christmas Bird Count.

Norm Lantz - the official compiler of the West Marion County bird census for the National Audubon Society - hopes to head out at 7:15 a.m.

It'll be a chilly experience "especially for those of us who are dumb enough to go out on the boats first thing in the morning," Lantz said. "It's going to be real cold out there." Three teams on the water - the Withlacoochee and Rainbow rivers - and 11 teams on land will cover a 15-mile-wide circle in southwest Marion.

The cold weather won't keep the birds down, Lantz said. Unless it's foggy, they'll be up bright and early looking for food.

Joe Byrnes can be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Marion County quotables from 2007

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:24:02 GMT

This is the Now We're Talking column from Wednesday, Dec. 26.

Your local news in 2007 has had tornadoes, financial woes, courtroom drama, quirky politics and a lot more. And, of course, the people in the news have had something to say about it all.

Here are a few of those lively quotes pulled from Star-Banner stories:

"I believe we made the devil mad. We finished our revival Wednesday night, and Thursday our church was torn down. We raised the roof for the Lord."

- Paula Countryman, of the Lady Lake Church of God, which was destroyed in a tornado on Feb. 2

---
"We're all in shock. I've lost family members before, and I've never had to bury a child. ... This is the hardest thing that any of us will have to do."

- Lisa May, the stepmother of tornado victim Brittany May, 17

---
"I love you. Thank you for coming out on such a rainy night. Kelly and I love living in Ocala, and we love being here with you. ... We just want to hang."

- Actor John Travolta at the March 2 benefit for tornado victims and The Marion Theatre

---
"Tonight, John really became a part of our community. He's lived here for years, and we've always been proud of him, but tonight he's giving so much of himself to the community."

- Ocala Mayor Randy Ewers
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"The project is going to go forward, and it's going to be beautiful and successful."

- Jorge Gutman, builder of the failed City Shops & Walk development, speaking to Star-Banner

---
"He said more than once when he gets to heaven he'll tell Jessie he's sorry. I've got bad news - I don't think he'll make it."

- Mark Lunsford, the father of murder victim Jessica Lunsford, at an Aug. 24 news conference after John Couey was sentenced to death

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"John Couey is an animal. He is the worst of all kind that is made in this country or in this world. ... Worse than a savage, he's an animal."

- Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy
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"Please get me out. I'm ready to go to jail, just get me out."

- Burglary suspect Jeffery W. Mumani, to rescuers while stuck in a vent at a CVS store in Silver Springs Shores

---
"I get to start my life over."
- William P. Nichols Jr. He was acquitted of DUI manslaughter charges in connection with the deaths of Nancy and Holly Cummings

---
"I think I owe you and my fellow commissioners an apology and the members of the public. I should have shown leadership and I didn't show it."

- County Commissioner Jim Payton. Commissioners, including Payton, voted 4-1 to reject a springs-protection ordinance years in the making

---
"I go back there. I don't think nothing about a damn bear. ... I noticed the hair on the back of the hog is long. I don't have no long-haired hog. ... My son says, 'That's a [expletive] bear!'"

- Herman Horton, who raises pigs near Ocklawaha

---
"Do I want to exclude people who have no money? No. Do I want to attract them? No. ... We're going to make those folks better people by having affluent people come into town like the think tank [IHMC] that have money to spend, not by inviting a bunch of trailer trash that comes here from Alabama with more dogs than teeth."

- City Councilman Charles Ruse Jr., at a Nov. 28 workshop

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

An Ocala holiday symphony

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 19:21:14 GMT

This is the Now We're Talking column from Wednesday, Dec. 19.

In addition to four regular concerts, Ocala's Central Florida Symphony Orchestra has become part of our holidays - playing under the stars at Muni during the FAFO Mother's Day event and on the Downtown Square in December.

At Symphony Under the Lights on Friday, my wife and I unfolded our chairs on the square and gazed up at the glimmering trees. The night was temperate, and I could still see a crescent moon and a few stars.

The music was bright and beautiful. And the people - young couples, senior citizens and families with babes in blankets, toddlers in strollers and dogs in Christmas clothes - were in a holiday mood. The outdoor concert - heard over the hum of traffic and the wail of sirens - was a taste of what the professional orchestra has to offer.

On Sunday, I joined hundreds at the Ocala Breeders' Sales auditorium for the complete performance of Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and "A Merry Mancini Christmas."

In the past year, the orchestra and OBS have made changes that improve the concert experience: large baffles covering the doors behind the stage, risers to lift the middle of the orchestra, lighting for the musicians and not the audience, and new paneling on the walls.

There were still distractions, though, like the scoreboard for bids behind the stage with the word "PREGNANT" glowing in green letters. After intermission, the Florida State University Vocal Jazz Ensemble crowded into the auctioneer's box above the sign. Thank goodness somebody had turned it off.

But what fine music! And Music Director James Plondke's listener-friendly commentary between concertos added to the experience. It was lively and fun, and I thought the lyrical slower movements - like the middle of the winter concerto - were lovely.

Another concert-goer, 109-year-old Onie Ponder, was less excited. The Vivaldi was well played, she said. "But it wasn't stirring enough for the audience. ... I think this would put people to sleep."

I sought her out at intermission for perspective on the orchestra's 32-year history.

She had heard it in its early days - when she was almost 80 - and saw the orchestra as a sign Ocala was growing. Its excellence now is a sign, I think, that we are growing also in the wealth and diversity of our cultural life.

Its goals, Plondke said, are to serve the symphonic art and to serve the community.

A professor at Valdosta State University, he has led the orchestra since 2001, when Susan Robinson left abruptly. Board Chairwoman Toni James said Plondke has attracted musicians of high quality, including local residents, University of Florida professors and other musicians from as far away as Wisconsin.

There is growing business support, as well, Plondke said. "Running a symphony orchestra is not a paying proposition. It has never been that."

And now - with Ocala Civic Theatre's plans for a 650-seat venue - the orchestra can look to an even brighter future.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Pieces from the puzzle of James E. Roberts' troubled life

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:55:49 GMT

The Sheriff's Office report, from May 26, 2005, was filed under the category "Children at Risk."

At about 7:30 p.m. that day, Deputy Linda Carson found 16-year-old James E. Roberts sitting along North U.S. 301. He was trying to hitch a ride to his grandmother's house in Citra to pick up his clothes and his dog.

The grandmother, Pearla Floyd, told Carson she used to have custody of Roberts but sent him back to his mother in Ocala because he argued all the time and was breaking things.

His mother, Sherry Ann Mahle, met the deputy at the North District Office and laid out her problems with him:

He was constantly running away, Mahle said, so she had turned him over to her parents.

In the grandmother's petition for custody back in October 2003, she said Roberts needed a settled environment after his brother's death in a traffic accident.

"He does not know if he is up or down," Floyd wrote. "He needs to be here with us so he can settle down and get on with his life as a boy of 14 should."

Mahle had tried to keep Roberts in school. He was expelled, she said, and they tried home schooling. During the previous year, Roberts had attended Lake Weir Middle - until being expelled.

He is "very smart," his mother said. She had tried to get him in a GED program, but he was kicked out at orientation for an "ungovernable attitude." He had been in Mad Dads and had gotten years of counseling.

During the interview, Deputy Carson wrote, Roberts acted bored "with frequent use of crude language and cursing." He said she wouldn't have found him, Carson wrote, "if he hadn't been lost and taken the wrong road."

The wrong road indeed.
Roberts, now 18, and his cousin William A. Myers, 16, were charged with murder last week. Roberts confessed to bashing Robert T. Leigh on the head repeatedly with a baseball bat. The 44-year-old man - who was just passing through town - was on a bench in front of the Western Roundup near their northwest Ocala home.

Myers told Ocala police he was carrying a crowbar-like tool that night in case Leigh resisted. Later, he stabbed the dead man with a pocket knife.

It was a senseless murder, motivated apparently, as one prosecutor said, by "entertainment or out of pure meanness." The question now is why. What was going on with those teenagers, especially Roberts, who admits he wielded the bat?

His mother and grandmother declined to talk to me. They did, however, tell Star-Banner reporter Austin L. Miller that Roberts was never the same after his brother's death in 2001.

In public records, you'll find pieces from the puzzle of his troubled life:

His father, Robbie O. Roberts, is a career criminal with convictions since 1982 ranging from marijuana production to burglary. Mahle divorced him in 1993.

In December 1999, she obtained a restraining order against her sister's husband, and Mahle's sister got one against her.

"She came out her sliding window with a baseball bat," the sister - now Melissa Jean Floyd - wrote in a sworn statement. "She was swinging the bat yelling she was going to crush my skull."

It is worth noting, however, that Melissa Floyd was later convicted of perjury in an unrelated case.

In 2000 and 2002, Mahle ran into trouble with the law. She was sentenced to probation on charges of trying to obtained a controlled substance by fraud and using someone else's credit card.

In August 2001, deputies went to Roberts' home after his stepfather spanked the 12-year-old with a belt.

In December 2001, his older brother, Luke, was killed by a car while sitting at night in the southbound lane of Northeast 30th Court in Citra.

In August 2005, "enraged and growling" against his stepfather, Roberts punched a deputy who had tried to make him sit down, according to a Sheriff's Office report. "When I get out," a sergeant heard the boy say, "I am going to kill my stepfather with a .44 Magnum."

Such a childhood - crowded with grief, rage, lawlessness, violence, family discord and Roberts' own marijuana use - is a cautionary tale, a reminder that a child at risk has to be helped. Otherwise, we all suffer.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com, ocala.com/blogs or 352-867-4112.

Bear photos from the Ocklawaha area

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:09:44 GMT

Courtesy of Jim Horton

Among the callers today with stories about bear encounters was James G. Horton, who has 20 acres on Lake Faye between Ocklawaha and Moss Bluff.

Area residents have been seeing Florida black bears for the past couple of weeks, he told me. "They've been in my woods like wild cats. I mean they've been everywhere."

Recently, Horton and his adult daughter were driving all-terrain vehicles in the woods. He followed some tracks around a sinkhole and rolled right up to bear. Horton warned his daughter. Then he went back for a camera.

Horton was kind enough to send me an e-mail with photos attached. He wrote: "I was riding my ATV about 1/4 mile from my house and came across this bear and standing on its back feet it was about 7ft tall."

Here are some more of his photos:

Thanks, Mr. Horton, for these excellent photos. But I feel compelled to urge everyone to keep a safe distance, if possible, from bears in the wild.

Bear stories - don't feed your furry neighbors

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:25:06 GMT

The Ocala National Forest is overflowing with bears. They're stuffing themselves before the lean winter.

The Florida black bear is protected as a threatened species, but the area around the Ocala forest - with an estimated 800 bears - has a healthy population. They're not man-eaters. In fact, there's never been a documented case of a Florida black bear attacking a person, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

But the big furry omnivores - like those roaming the north shore of Lake Weir and raiding chicken coops in Moss Bluff - certainly appear dangerous. Bartow McDonald can tell you that. On Sunday night, he stepped out of his house on the lake to see a 450-pound papa bear 15 feet away in his front yard.

"This bear is enormous and very intimidating," said McDonald, an experienced hunter. "It's not like he turned and ran in fear. He just kind of meandered away."

On Thanksgiving, a resident two doors down had seen the bear, and Sunday night McDonald called the neighbors to alert them, he said. "They all watched as he cruised up and down the shore. At what point do we say they're not a risk to people?"

He worries about children in the neighborhood.

Erica Sistrunk, who raises goats on 3 acres in Moss Bluff, awoke at 3 a.m. Monday when a bear smashed her chicken coop and killed a rooster. Now she can look forward to a $200 to $300 bill for an electric fence to protect the goats.

She wishes the law allowed her to shoot a bear threatening her livestock.

"It's not what I lost. I feel like I'm under siege because I know he's coming back," she said. The Monday morning raid was her first encounter here with a bear.

Sara Sillars, an FWC wildlife assistance biologist, said the agency first asks residents to do what they can to avoid feeding the bears before they'll trap an animal.

You can't leave livestock near the forest without an electric fence, she said. "That's just leaving a buffet out for bears."

A recent increase in complaints is seasonal, Sillars said, but she has handled more calls from the Ocklawaha area this fall.

"They're basically just scared because it's a large wild animal," she said. First and foremost, people need to avoid feeding the bears - intentionally or unintentionally - because then they begin to associate houses with food. For example, residents living near the woods should stow their garbage in secure containers.

If a bear starts approaching people or entering homes, the agency has to kill it.

"It's ironic," Sillars said, "because the people who are feeding the bears end up killing the bears."

Our houses are planted in a wondrous, wild place. That's the real Florida - not the manicured lawns and golf courses - and the black bear is our neighbor. The challenge we face is preserving and living safely in the incredible habitat that we share.

It helps to know your neighbors. Along those lines, there's useful information at myfwc.com/bear/.

Do you have a bear story?

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Trolling the streets for news

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:18:22 GMT

This is the Now We're Talking column from Wednesday, Nov. 14.

I should probably write something about the $3.13 price I saw for a gallon of regular unleaded or the race-colored glasses of actor/defendant Wesley Snipes or the grey-green, greasy future of the Rainbow River.

Or I should at least call for a designated driver on all Marion County juries.

Here's the problem. Those topical, timely and potentially informative columns would require work, and I just got off vacation, physically, at least. My mind is still in vacation mode, bobbing in a boat on Lake Wauberg, waiting for the next 14 ½-inch-long speckled perch to bend a rod.

Now I am going to get my mind back in the game and forget the cool fall evening and the glorious sunset mirrored on the lake ... Hmm. Maybe a cup of coffee will help.

I'll grab my computer bag and tell you how this many-zippered, black fabric satchel is an indication of changing times.

In the big pocket, that's where I put my laptop and air card to access the Internet. In the front pouches, there's a dual-purpose camera for making videos and photos. There's a backup battery and a tangle of cords and cables. Add to that a row of pens and pencils and a couple of tablets half-covered in a handwriting so bad that people commonly ask me if I know shorthand.

This bag - plus my cell phone and the tripod and red folding chair behind the seat in my truck - are the print journalist's office of today.

In 1990, when I first started in this business as a stringer for the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, I'd write my story longhand on a tablet and then dictate it to a typist while standing at a pay phone.

The little article would show up the next day, buried in the back of the local section.

Now we're posting articles - and photos and videos - on Ocala.com as quickly as we can. Police reporter Austin L. Miller e-mails the latest from the Marion County Sheriff's Office or from his parked car, and it's edited and on the digital page in a couple of minutes.

Take Tuesday afternoon, for example. As an armed robber held up people in parking lots around Ocala, Miller called in updates, which went online right away. He carried a video camera to record the scene and document the lockdown at Blessed Trinity School.

Recently, during the John Couey trial, reporters Mabel Perez and Christopher Curry sent updates continually from a Miami courtroom, and photographer Bruce Ackerman captured video of the trial.

I believe the online readers have come to expect this immediacy.

For me it means that, when A&A Trucking and Excavating calls to say they are demolishing the front of the courthouse, I unplug my laptop, shove it in the bag and drive there. After an interview, I unfold my chair on the sidewalk, turn on the computer and post an update on Ocala.com. Then photo editor Alan Youngblood hands me a picture on a thumb drive, and I add it to the story online.

I end up looking like a character in a Monty Python skit or some oddity in a surrealist painting - the office worker typing away on a street corner - but that's just what I've come to at this point in my career.

If you see me sitting around, typing in your neighborhood, please don't hesitate to say hello. And if you have any fishing tips, I'd like to hear them.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

One of Munroe's first ER doctors dies

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:09:49 GMT

Emergency medicine has made huge strides in Marion County since the 1960s.

Granted, if you go to an emergency room to see a doctor, you might be in for a long wait, but the doctor should be on hand immediately for anyone who is critically injured.

It wasn't always that way. Ocala's funeral homes used to provide the ambulance service to Munroe Memorial Hospital.

The emergency patients were evaluated by a nursing supervisor. If a doctor was needed, the nurse would telephone the one on call. The pediatrician, cardiologist, ophthalmologist, general practitioner - you name it - might arrive at the hospital a half hour after the patient.

That changed on Feb. 1, 1970, when three doctors - cardiologist Earl Yantis and pediatricians Harry Edwards and Robert W. Carr - began to provide round-the-clock coverage for Munroe's emergency room.

"It was just this giant step up," said retired Munroe Regional CEO Dyer Michell, who was then an assistant administrator. The 155-bed hospital gained bragging rights over many in the state.

Later, Bob Carr - who died last week at the age of 72 - would be the first medical director for the hospital's new ambulance service and a doctor for the jail.

Last Friday at Hiers Funeral Home on East Silver Springs Boulevard, he was remembered, quietly and without much ado. Perhaps two dozen people - including retired nurses and doctors and longtime law enforcement officers - gathered for Carr's funeral.

Edwards, 85, sat in a pew surrounded by retired nurses. "It's the old ER!" one of them exclaimed.

In 1970, the Emergency Department - serving a county of 69,030 people - was "just a little hole in the wall," Carr's widow, Sherry, said. For Bob Carr - who had chosen Ocala in the mid-1960s - the ER became a place for building relationships. He got to know his wife there and befriended the area's law enforcement officers.

"When we were in the ED," Edwards said, "we knew personally and cared personally for every deputy, every police officer and every highway patrolman that was in this county."

And Carr seemed to have a special affinity for them.

"There was just that connection he had with all of us," said Circuit Judge Willard Pope, a former sheriff's deputy. "If you were in law enforcement and you knew him, my guess was you loved the man. . . If you were in uniform, he was looking out for you."

The officer got a handshake and a cup of coffee - and free medical attention if he had the sniffles. Carr would sometimes even ride along on patrol and volunteered his services for the Special Weapons and Tactics team.

Sherry Carr said her husband was a very private man and passionate for the things he cared about - including some unusual hobbies.

In the early years, he raised guppies. Then he raised show cactus. When Carr retired sometime in the 1980s, he dedicated himself to the hybridizing of daylilies on a farm in northwest Marion County. The American Hemerocallis Society lists 134 varieties registered in his name.

Among them is the Sherry Lane Carr - a cream butter yellow flower, with gold edges and a green throat - which served as a parent for many others of his flower children.

Bob Carr lives on in this world when a Wonder of It All daylily blooms, when a Marion County ambulance crew radios in from the road, when a sheriff's captain remembers an old friend.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Errol in the Afterlife

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:06:02 GMT

Today is Halloween. So here's a spooky story - a make-believe Internet blog - that goes by the name of "Errol in the Afterlife."

My name is Errol, and I'm sitting at Starbucks downtown to access the Internet and enjoy the aroma of coffee. But don't even think about coming here to see me, not tonight or any night. I am dead, you see - or rather, you cannot see - you cannot see me, which is the point I was trying to make.

I am a spirit on the loose - hovering under ceilings all over town, drifting alongside joggers at Jervey Gantt, haunting dreams, sitting in the chair opposite lone diners, reading over your shoulder and laughing as loud as I can (which you won't hear, of course, except maybe you'll feel the urge to smile) at children's knock-knock jokes.

The Big Guy gave me this laptop and a trans-dimensional wireless card. So I can communicate with the world of the living.

You are reading an actual, factual, no-kidding-folks ghost-written blog.

Boo.
No, I am not interested in scaring anyone. I will start off, however, by telling a ghost story.

This is the tale of a Civil War veteran named Johnny, who has haunted Ocala since 1908, bound by a long, glimmering chain of moonlight and cannon smoke to the old Confederate statue. He volunteered to be my first story. In fact, Johnny is here right now - standing on the table next to mine, looking down at me (it's what he does). I'll type while he talks.

ERROL: Are you ready, Johnny?
JOHNNY: Yes, my friend, and thank you for the extraordinary kindness you have shown in allowing an old soul such as I to unburden his heart with bittersweet tales of yesteryear and plead his case to the people of this fair county.

ERROL: The pleasure and honor are mine, old friend.

JOHNNY: I shall begin at the beginning. I am Marion County born and bred, reared in a family of five boys by the sweetest of women and bravest of men. We toiled from sunup to sundown, nursing from the unwilling earth our crops of corn and beans and sweet potatoes. Many an hour I walked behind a plow and swung a hoe and chopped wood and chased cattle. There were happy days, as well, when my brothers and I hunted together or fished in the Ocklawaha River.

We lived in a small house in a pasture cut from the forest. We were proud and honest folk who learned our religion from the Bible and old hymns and wise preachers. As you know, Errol, the too wise among them read a few of the Good Book's pages by the light of the devil's fire - to find excuses for shameful conduct - for I know truly now that God cannot abide human slavery nor injustice of any kind.

As for my family, we were no one's masters but our own.

When I was 17, I joined the Rebel army and served three years in the War Between the States. Afterward, I could not forget the horrors of war and was tormented day and night - especially at night - by images of death. The crack of a whip would send me into a panicked state of mind, so much so that I might seek refuge in a ditch or fling myself behind the nearest tree.

I found my solace in whiskey and became a worthless drunk. My brothers, meanwhile, became wealthy men.

One November evening, as I stumbled onto Broadway Street, I saw the young dandy Harvey Reed tip his hat and smile at the girl I fancied. I rushed him at once, grabbed him by the front of his coat, lifted him high and heaved him to the ground. Harvey's head smacked against a stone, and he was as dead as I am now.

I went before a judge and jury. My brothers - wanting only to spare me years in prison - hired for me the most silver-tongued mockingbird of all lawyers. I wept and made excuses, and I walked away from the courthouse a free man.

Or so I thought.
From that day on, I turned my life around. I became a sober man, an honorable leader among veterans, a devout churchgoer, a devoted husband, and a loving father and grandfather.

On the day the Confederate Memorial was dedicated next to the old courthouse (you see, I've moved a couple of times since then) I was there in a seat of honor and died quietly in my chair. As I rose up - wafting, I thought, toward the Pearly Gates - this chain of mine uncoiled like a great serpent from the monument and lashed itself to my left ankle.

Now, of course, hundreds of ghosts haunt the courtrooms, corridors, elevators and restrooms of the courthouse. They are people who, like me, believed wrongly during their lives that they had escaped the court of justice.

When the courtroom lights blink or buzz, when the elevator hiccups on the way down, when the computers malfunction, when files go missing, when the metal detectors sound off for no reason at all, you can bet it's one of those old criminals trying to get the public's attention.

The spirits all hope, beyond hope, that the tide will turn, that the courts of Marion County will flow with an endless stream of cleansing justice. Then, we believe, we will find our freedom and rise or fall to our natural homes.

ERROL: You have made me very sad, old man, because I don't see it happening.

Johnny nods slowly and sighs. Then he climbs down from the table, straightens his uniform and drags his chain out of Starbucks without saying a word.

Well, that's the story. Until next time, Happy Halloween! And stay out of dark corners and empty stairwells at the courthouse.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com, ocala.com/blogs and 352-867-4112.

'No winners' in talented attorney's final case

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 16:53:03 GMT

There's bad news for any well-to-do motorist out there who is going to drive drunk - or be accused of driving under the influence - and in the process kill someone.

Bill DeCarlis has tried his last case.

On Friday evening, after not-guilty verdicts in a two-week DUI manslaughter trial, Billy Nichols Jr. wept and hugged his lawyers. DeCarlis gave him a half-embrace, but soon the old lawyer was sitting in his chair at the defense table, staring into space.

"I just want to talk to the judge and say goodbye," he said gently as I approached him for an interview. I wanted to know if in fact this was his last trial.

Yes, he said, after 40 years of criminal law - including dozens of DUI manslaughter trials - this would be the last one. The Gainesville lawyer also gave credit to co-counsel John Fuller.

"It wasn't a very smart move on my part to try this as my last case," DeCarlis said. Situations like the Nichols case - in which two nurses were killed on the way to work - are tragedies for all concerned.

"There are no winners in these cases," he said.

It reminded me of the comments DeCarlis made almost nine years ago after he won the acquittal of Timothy Mark Bowling on DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide charges.

In that case, Bowling, a repeat DUI offender, struck and killed 13-year-old Eugene McBride with his Jeep on Northwest 44th Avenue. The jury concluded Bowling was indeed driving drunk and - even though he had fled the country to escape prosecution - should not be held responsible for the boy's death.

I still can't figure that one out.
After the verdicts Friday, Circuit Judge Hale Stancil lectured everyone on the importance of the jury verdict in our system of government and that the jurors had heard all the evidence, unlike some people who came and went from the trial.

What he did not point out was the critical difference being able to afford a really good lawyer makes for the defendant.

The accused started out looking as guilty as sin. There were blood tests showing he was still legally intoxicated two-and-a-half hours after the crash, wildly varying accounts of how much he ate and drank, and his own tape-recorded admission that he went off the road and overcorrected.

And so for prosecutor Ben Fox, it was a straightforward case: Nichols had drunk too much the night of Thanksgiving 2004, slept five hours or so, got up while still intoxicated, drove, failed to make a turn and crashed his truck into the women's car. It wasn't that Nichols meant to kill anyone, but Fox argued he broke the law.

It was a simple case, he insisted, not the complex one outlined by the defense.

Fuller and DeCarlis - an astrophysicist in an earlier career - wove an elaborate defense of competing experts. Delayed gastric emptying explained the blood alcohol level. Problems with the road and, possibly, with the truck explained the crash.

"It's CSI - Crime Scene Investigation - that's what this case is about," DeCarlis told the jury in his closing. "I had to do this case like it's . . . a physics problem or a biology problem and so do you."

DeCarlis argued his version of the crash, including a physics lesson for the jury in which he corrected an expert's math. "He completely used the wrong formula, the wrong number and got the wrong answer," he said, using a marker to correct a copy of the equation.

How could the jury not, he argued, find a reasonable doubt in all the evidence he had presented? That was the question, DeCarlis said, not whether Nichols was innocent but whether they found a reasonable doubt as to his guilt.

I suppose they did.

Joe Byrnes can be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Hope everyone had fun!

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:53:28 GMT

This is it - just a photograph taken at twilight Saturday - from the Blessed Trinity Catholic Church carnival.

Calling all career coaches

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:37:27 GMT

I'm not a curmudgeon yet - give me 15 or 20 years - but here's one thing that gets my goat. I can't stand it when people make sweeping generalizations about how youngsters today are spoiled, uncaring, irresponsible, lazy or otherwise good for nothing.

I suppose those critics have had bad experiences. Often, I think, it's a problem of preconceived ideas or a case of appearances being deceiving. There are many, many more occasions to be impressed and inspired by the grit, energy, generosity, creativity - even brilliance - of our high school students and college-age neighbors.

Take Cody Myers, for example, a senior at Marion Technical Institute studying industrial engineering and drafting. I met him at a luncheon on Tuesday, at which the Chamber of Commerce, CLM Workforce Connection and the school were recruiting mentors for its Career Coach program.

Cody has a plan laid out: graduation from MTI, including professional certifications; a stint in the U.S. Army; a four-year degree in architectural engineering; and a business of his own, perhaps here in Ocala. "Eventually," he said, I could "come back here, like these people are doing, and become a career coach here - help people be what they want to be."

He and Luisa Chil - a junior who was sitting at the lunch table with us - said they love the atmosphere at MTI, which was established in 2005 on the old Forest High School campus.

"We all have high goals," Luisa said. "Here we learn a lot of success skills. ... It truly is preparing us for the real world."

MTI's 375 students earn their high school diplomas -and even take college courses - but also get practical training and certification in one or more of the school's academies. The training includes automotive technology, building construction, business and finance, culinary arts, industrial engineering and more. Many students have received paid internships with local businesses. And upon graduation, 100 percent of eligible seniors have gotten a job.

On Tuesday, about two dozen professionals showed up to learn about the Career Coach program. Volunteers - who are, of course, screened by the School District - will meet with their individual students at MTI at least once every other week. They'll usually get together during the lunch hour, perhaps in the school dining room, or on campus before or after school.

The goal is to pair 125 seniors with career coaches. MTI Vocational Administrator Michael Fritch said seniors will complete a survey - covering their ideas about career coaching and their interests - that will help him match volunteers and students.

In a nutshell, Principal Mark Vianello said, they want professionals who have followed a career path to success to share their time and knowledge "with someone who is about to start the journey." The students may change their goals, Vianello said, but the relationship will still benefit them.

Wendy Green, a branch manager with Regions Bank, said she planned to recruit volunteers, people who communicate well, who are outgoing and friendly, goal-oriented and well-liked in the community, and who are positive and have an interest in working with children.

She sees the program as a chance to encourage and motivate the students, and give them the benefit of her nearly 30 years of experience in the banking industry.

If you're that kind of business person, call the school at 671-4765 and ask for Fritch. But all those critics who cannot appreciate the bright promise of youth - or listen with compassion to its tribulations - need not apply.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

As Nichols trial nears, remember the victims

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:55:05 GMT

The trial is finally about to begin after almost three years - a long, painful wait for Adrian "Stretch" Cummings.

The disabled Vietnam vet has seen delay after delay in the case of an Ocala businessman charged with killing his wife, Nancy Cummings, and daughter, Holly, in a drunken-driving accident. He consoles himself with the certainty they are still with him and with the memory of them as nurses and supporters of veterans.

William Perry Nichols Jr., a corporate officer with Water Spots Inc., is set to go to trial next week in connection with their deaths. He is charged with two counts of DUI manslaughter and two counts of vehicular homicide.

At 6 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving 2004, he rolled his pickup truck over their car. The women were traveling on Southeast 180th Avenue Road on their way to work.

Even Nichols' lawyers acknowledge that - when his blood was drawn two and a half hours after the crash - it exceeded the .08 legal limit for driving. The alcohol level was .103 or .104.

According to reports, Nichols had been drinking during the holiday. Now a jury will determine if he is guilty.

Was he impaired? Or did he lose control of the the F-250 for some other reason? Was he legally drunk at the time of the crash? Or is there some other, bizarre medical explanation for his blood alcohol level?

The jury will decide whether he deserves the labels "killer" and "drunken driver."

On Tuesday, the lawyers debated several motions, such as whether former Highway Patrol Trooper John Gilcher was biased against Nichols. Did Gilcher, who lost his job with the Ocala Police Department, have something against him because he was a good friend of Deputy Police Chief Greg Graham?

A defense lawyer said Graham helped arrange for Nichols to turn himself in but Gilcher went out and arrested him anyway.

Circuit Judge Hale Stancil said he will rule on the Gilcher issue today.

The defendant's social importance - his business prominence and his friends - made some of the defense motions hard to stomach. That's because the lawyers sought to hide from the jury the occupation and the faces of the victims.

"They were nurses, an honorable profession. I think it would certainly evoke a response of sympathy," defense attorney William DeCarlis told the judge. "In this particular case, they were on their way to work. And so I move to exclude it from the trial. It's not relevant and material to the issues in the case."

DeCarlis didn't win that one. So far, the judge will allow jurors to see photos of the victims and learn about their jobs.

The defendant wasn't in the courtroom on Tuesday, but Cummings was. For him, it was important the jury hear that Nancy and Holly Cummings were nurses. They had worked hard for it and looked forward to their hospital work.

And he wants them to know what the two were doing on the road so early, he said. "They were not on their way back from [an all-night] party. They were on their way to help somebody, like they were every day."

After all, one key fact here - lest we forget it - is that two unique women were killed, not just names or numbers but nurses and cherished family members.

If, on the one hand, Nichols has friends in high places, Holly and Nancy Cummings should have friends everywhere. They should have a friend in every nurse who understands their commitment and every patient who has known a nurse's care.

"That's what I'd like them to be remembered as," Stretch Cummings said, "people who gave their life to help others and not just the senseless victims of someone's drunk driving."

Joe Byrnes can be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Mr. Speed Limit tilts at windmills in Ocala

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:41:33 GMT

This week I'm reading "Zorro," a novel by Isabel Allende. I already knew, of course, about the legendary masked hero of Alta California. I had watched the old black-and-white shows on TV as a kid.

Like countless other boys, I would brandish a stick - my imaginary sword - and slash the air with it and scratch Z's on just about anything in the cause of Justice. I'm telling you all this not to recommend the book - which deserves as much - but because I have come across another nameless crusader.

Right here in Ocala, Mr. Speed Limit wages his anonymous campaign. His weapon: the video camera. His town square: YouTube.com/ocalaflorida.

He rides shotgun all around the county videotaping speeders in the rain, bikers zigzagging between cars, drivers racing up the turn lane to beat other cars through an intersection, impatient motorists passing over double yellow lines.

Those are his villains, and he goes out of his way to shame them. He focuses in on their license plates or their faces or the company name on the side of the vehicle.

Mr. Speed Limit has posted about 100 videos on his YouTube account. There are spoofs and gimmicks to liven up his message. He riffs on "The Twilight Zone" with "The Mannerless Zone" - asking why nice people become lawless monsters when they start driving.

His words scroll up the screen: "As soon as people climb into their Automobile, they Transform into a Commando [who] has just received orders to use Extreme Prejudice."

You'll find "Speed Limits for Dummies" and "Turn Signals for Dummies" on his so-called Ocala Florida Drivers Channel. The special effects and the music are cheesy. Mr. Speed Limit is funny - in small doses.

After the first 15 minutes of hoots and chuckles, I grew tired of his monotonous replays - over and over again - exploiting some poor soul's petty lawbreaking. After all, bad driving is something I see every day.

One video hammers home a curious result I often notice in city traffic. Some speeder will zip around me, darting between cars, but he doesn't get ahead. He ends up waiting with me at the next red light.

Mr. Speed Limit seems to be a man obsessed. "My mission is to bring awareness to a massive problem in our small community," he writes on the Web page. "I love my family & friends and don't wish to surrender them to the results of arrogant drivers."

I hoped to discover Mr. Speed Limit's secret identity and sent a message to his MySpace page.

"I made a deal with my family and associates," Mr. Speed Limit wrote back, "the moment I am recognized, I will pull the plug. I have received tons of hate mail and threats."

Like any action that can incite road rage, videotaping bad drivers is risky. In fact, I don't think you should even gesture at the moron who cuts you off in traffic or honk your horn at red light-runners or scold the teenage strangers who toss their trash on the highway.

Safety should be the first rule while driving. It won't further your safety - or the safety of your passengers - to start an argument with a motorist who has already demonstrated irrational tendencies.

Maybe Mr. Speed Limit will catch them on tape. "Don't want to be featured?" he asks at the end of one video. "Don't break the law."

Around here, he might as well be Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Or he could be Zorro in his black mask and cape, spinning astride an angry horse and waving his blade to no effect, in the crazy traffic at 17th and Pine.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com, ocala.com/blogs or (352) 867-4112.

Lessons learned from the Southeastern Youth Fair

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:36:56 GMT

There are certain human qualities that grow best on a farm: hard work, patience, responsibility, appreciation for the wonders of nature, acceptance for the facts of life, and a willingness to rise early, eat your grits, drink your coffee and face the day.

As Marion County becomes more crowded - growing houses, as the farmers say, instead of crops or cows or horses - you might ask where children can learn some of those values. The answer: the Southeastern Youth Fair.

Every year the months-long preparations for the February fair begin with the Steer Weigh-in in September. So last Wednesday, I went to the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion with the crew for SBTV (our twice-daily newscasts on Ocala.com) to document the annual ritual.

When we got there, the trucks and trailers loaded with steers had lined up from the front gate all the way to the back of the horse stalls. Working in the early-morning drizzle, young steer owners and cattlemen weighed and tagged the livestock one by one.

West Port High School sophomore Jason Hillman - wearing a ball cap, a T-shirt with a Confederate flag over his heart and a Gator logo on a chain around his neck - was there again this year. He was eager to compete even though his steer was stolen before last year's fair.

In fact, Jason was the first to sign up for the steer show and sale this time. He is serious about farming "and one incident like that is not going to stop me from doing what I love," he said. I asked him what he learned from last year's experience.

"Just watch out who your friends are," Jason said, "and don't let anybody get too close to your animal besides you. That's rule No. 1."

I hope Jason - with a little help from the people who provided his steer - can turn that sour experience into a sweet one. As fair coordinator Neva Crouch put it: "We focus so much on the winning we don't realize that even our disappointments can turn into a rewarding situation."

That's one more lesson learned at the Southeastern Youth Fair.

Crouch introduced me also to Samantha Dailey, 11, of Anthony. She was there to weigh in her third steer. Last year she won Junior Showmanship.

Samantha, a sixth-grader at Howard Middle School, will have several projects for the upcoming fair: a steer, a lamb, rabbits, home arts and, possibly, a plant of some kind. There will be record books to maintain for each one and the daily demands that go along with farming.

Samantha said she'll be getting up at 6:15 a.m. to feed the animals and work with the lamb. After school - in addition to the usual activities, like softball, dance and, of course, homework - she'll feed the animals again and spend some time training the steer.

To some extent - depending, I believe, on the level of participation - hundreds of other children will have similar character-building experiences with the youth fair. Crouch said about 1,300 were involved last year.

They get that opportunity because farmers, parents, teachers and business people of all sorts support the fair.

Steer Chairman Jim Peebles, a cattleman with G & M Cattle Co., volunteers his time to help the kids "and keep agriculture going in Marion County."

Farming here, he said, is "still alive but shrinking. ... That's the biggest challenge these kids will face is having a place to do it when they get old enough."

Whatever the landscape, the lessons learned - Jason's perseverance and Samantha's commitment to hard work - will enrich their lives and ours.

Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.

Putting the AMEN in First Amendment

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:09:52 GMT

If laughter is the best medicine, then satire is the cure for a case of politics.

The Marion County Commission should learn from the University of Florida police.

All those retirees parading in front of the commission to whine about water rates and going on and on and on. They just won't shut up. Who do they think they are to complain like that?

They're almost as bad as Andrew Meyer - that loud-mouth UF student at the John Kerry town hall meeting on Monday - rattling off outrageous questions. The UF police took care of that guy.

Six officers grabbed him while he tried to squirm away and while he complained loudly, "What did I do? What did I do?" Then they held him to the floor and Tasered him.

I'll tell you what he did. He wouldn't stop talking. If there's nothing else you should learn at a great American university, it's to sit down and shut up when the government tells you to. If a U.S. senator is kind enough to come down to his level and listen to him, how dare that Meyer kid try to make him feel uncomfortable.

And Meyer was saying the president of the United States should be impeached. Isn't that treason?

It's especially appropriate that - while the officers were holding Meyer down and he was pleading, "Don't tase me, bro!" - they went ahead and gave him a good jolt. That's what you get for bad-mouthing the Commander in Chief, I say.

Now, if they would just schedule some training, bring those fine officers down to the Marion County Sheriff's Office and set up a seminar. They could call it something like: "Putting the AMEN in First Amendment."

Their creative use of the Taser is a model for local governments. Councils and commissions everywhere can short-circuit long-winded public dissent at meetings - cut out all that negativity - with a little behavior modification. Just rig the microphone to deliver a Taser-like charge when needed.

Here's a hypothetical scenario to show you what I mean. Say some raving environmentalist goes before the County Commission and starts asking Charlie Stone why he's against a resolution to cut back on greenhouse-gas emissions.

At first the complainer would hear a crackle from the microphone. Your smart citizen would recognize that he's getting off track, losing that patriotic mindset that keeps us worthy of the flag, the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
The environmentalist, though, probably wouldn't realize what was about to hit him.

The commissioner might try to correct the whiny little tree-hugger and inform him that not all scientists agree about climate change. There are still a few out there who don't think people - with their cars and power plants and factories - are causing temperatures to rise and extreme weather to become even more extreme.

The environmentalist would probably cite some United Nations report. At this point, they'd give him several quick shocks for even bringing up the U.N. He's prattling on "... a consensus (bzzz) of scientists with the U. (bzzz) N. (bzzz) Ow!"

Jagged lines of electric current would shoot out of the microphone and zap him in his chest. That's what we call the appe-Taser.

If he starts with the personal attacks - questioning Stone about his wholesale petroleum company - then he gets the main course of God Bless America.

Joe Byrnes can be reached at joe@ocala.com or 352-867-4112.