STATE CAPITAL BRIEFS (EVENING EDITION): WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2016
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
GAETZ ADVANCES IN UWF PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH
Former state Senate President Don Gaetz and Martha Saunders, a University of West Florida provost and vice president, were among eight candidates recommended to advance in the search for a new president for UWF. A presidential search committee made the recommendations Wednesday, after interviewing 16 candidates at the university’s Pensacola campus over three days. The committee is scheduled to meet again Tuesday to review the references of the eight candidates provided by a consulting firm and then recommend further on-campus interviews with at least three of the candidates. The next round of interviews is set for Sept. 12 to Sept. 14. After those interviews, the search committee will recommend at least three candidates to be considered by the university’s Board of Trustees, which is scheduled to meet Sept. 15 to pick a president to succeed Judy Bense, who is retiring at the end of the year. Gaetz, who lives in Niceville, has been a Republican member of the Florida Senate since 2006, serving as the chamber’s president from 2012 to 2014. Gaetz, who is term-limited this year, is also a former Okaloosa County school superintendent. Saunders, the provost, is a former president of the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. The other six presidential candidates include: James Applegate, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education; Frank Ashley, senior vice president for The College Board; Ron Elsenbaumer, a senior adviser to the president for entrepreneurship and economic development at University of Texas at Arlington; Bahman Ghorashi, a provost and vice president for academic affairs at Tennessee Tech University; William “Mike” Sherman, vice president for innovation and economic development at The University of Akron; and Alan Utter, a professor and vice provost for research at Appalachian State University.
KAINE CAMPAIGN SWING CALLED OFF BECAUSE OF STORM
With Florida bracing for Tropical Storm Hermine, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine has called off a campaign swing that was expected to include stops in Pensacola, Panama City and Jacksonville. Hermine, which was upgraded Wednesday afternoon from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, has caused Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency in 42 counties in North and Central Florida. The storm, which is in the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to hit the state Thursday. Kaine had been scheduled to campaign Thursday afternoon in Pensacola and Panama City before appearing Friday in Jacksonville.
MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED BECAUSE OF POLICE STOP
An appeals court Wednesday overturned a first-degree murder conviction in the slaying of a Pompano Beach store owner, finding that police didn’t have “reasonable suspicion” to pull over a car containing three black men. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal said the traffic stop violated the constitutional rights of defendant Lorenzo Sanchez, who argued that the stop stemmed from “driving while black.” The stop came after the July 30, 2008, shooting of the owner of Amigo Food Store during a robbery. Alerts to police officers described two Haitian men running away from the store. A short time later, a police officer saw a Dodge Charger traveling a few blocks from the crime scene, with the driver’s hair in dreadlocks and a backseat passenger wearing a strange-looking hat. The ruling does not provide details about what happened immediately after the car was pulled over, but Sanchez was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, according to Department of Corrections records. A majority of the appeals court, however, said police did not have adequate reason to stop the car. “In fact, as the evidence disclosed, the police were stopping every black male in the vicinity of this tragic crime,” said the ruling, written by Judge Robert Gross and joined by Judge Melanie May. “To uphold the stop, in this case, would be to allow overly generic stops in the area of a crime — i.e., all black males, all Hispanic women — a practice reminiscent of Captain Renault’s instruction in the film Casablanca to ‘Round up the usual suspects.’ The (U.S. Constitution’s) Fourth Amendment does not permit stops based on such minimal information.” But Judge Burton Conner dissented, pointing to issues such as the length of time between the robbery and the stop, the location and observations by a police officer about the suspicious appearance of Sanchez, who was the backseat passenger. “Like the majority, I am deeply disturbed by the record evidence showing that other officers were apparently stopping people just because of their race and gender,” Conner wrote. “Such law enforcement behavior cannot be condoned in a free society. But as the case law makes clear, the subjective motivations of law enforcement do not make evidence inadmissible under the Fourth Amendment.” The majority said the case should go back to circuit court.