Courthouse rumblings
Criminal defense lawyers are watching closely the case of Herchel Royals, who was arrested in July 2013 on drug charges. His case is one of those possibly impacted by the current FDLE lab investigation of a supervisor allegedly stealing drugs from the lab. Royals’ trial is in April and he is represented by assistant public defender Damien Zimmerman.
The compromised evidence issue may have spread beyond the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and FLDE. The buzz is the Pensacola Police Department also has a problem and a letter will be issued shortly by the state attorney’s office.
Found Money for State Budget
FY 2014-15 General Revenue (GR) collections are now estimated at $27.7 billion, an increase of $1.4 billion. This marks the first time the state’s GR collections are expected to exceed the $26.8 billion collected in FY 2005-06-which was the highest amount ever. Coupled with unspent funds from the current year ($2.2 billion), there will be almost $30 billion in GR available for the next budget.
Smartest Answer of the Week
When the Escambia County Commission was interviewing in its Thursday afternoon meeting the five finalists for the county administrator position, Commissioner Lumon May ended the five interviews with a question—who is your favorite commissioner?
John Weaver, the attorney from Myrtle Beach, SC, had the best reply. He replied whichever commissioner he was meeting with privately at the time.
Weaver is one of the three people still in the running for the job. Jack Brown and interim County Administrator Larry Newsom are the other two names being bounced around by the commission.
The board will make its decision on April 3…or not.