News Cast for April 7th:
The Okeechobee Public Safety Coordinating Council has gotten the sheriff and Career Source to work together to try and create jobs for inmates once they are released from jail.
Experts said employment and a place to live are the two biggest obstacles to a person being successful after release from incarceration.
The Okeechobee Drug Court has reported an 83 percent success rate. This means the person who graduates drug court has been able to not commit any new crimes within one year after graduation.
County Commissioner Terry Burroughs said there is a 13 percent repeat offense rate.
He also praised the work of the Okeechobee Mental Health Court.
“13 percent is low. It is where we want it to be. The objective is not to have people coming through the front door of the jail. We want more people going out the back door.”
The son of Steven Nguyen who died at the Okeechobee Music Festival on March 4, 2023, has sued principals involved in the event for wrongful death claims in Okeechobee Circuit Court.
The defendants in the lawsuit include the land owner Soundslinger, the promoter Insomniac Holdings, and the security company Guardian Professional Security.
The lawsuit seeks over $50,000 in damages for medical and funeral expenses, lost income, pain and suffering and other claims.
The cause of death was ruled as a drowning.
The suit claims the lake he was swimming in was open and advertised as available for the guests.
The suit also claims there were no warning signs, swimming was allowed at night with little to no lighting, there was inadequate security and lifeguards, illegal drugs were allowed on the property, and there was a lack of crowd control.
Highlands County authorities said 19 people were arrested and seven pounds of methamphetamine was seized in a large drug ring.
Operation Little Bit was allegedly run by Dalia, Gonzales, 37 and distributed drugs to the entire county.
Okeechobee authorities said they recently helped break up a drug ring between Hardee County and Okeechobee with several alleged controlled drug buys in Basinger and several arrests.
Highlands Sheriff Spokesperson Scott Dressel said there has been an increase in drug overdoses in his county.
“The illegal drug trade is the root cause of other crimes. People who are addicted try to feed that addiction and that leads to burglaries and thefts and things like that.”
He said the sheriffs narcotics unit tries to focus on the big wigs of drug operations and not just the drug dealers and users.
“We are trying to identify where the drugs are coming into our county and are trying to cut off the source rather than just target the street level sales.”
The Glades County Detention Center is back up and operating.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Miami said it began housing detained immigrants at the Glades County Jail this month. The facility has 500 beds.
It should help alleviate overcrowding at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, one of four ICE detention facilities in the state.
Activists complained about conditions at the Glades County facility before but most of the complaints were not substantiated or proven.
ICE said it is a modern facility that is centrally located.
The program also provides new jobs for Glades and surrounding counties with positions paying over $54,000 in annual salary plus retirement and benefits.
The killer of a Highlands County Deputy was sentenced to death on Friday.
Joseph Ables was convicted last October of shooting to death deputy William Gentry, Jr.
Gentry had responded to a report of a cat being shot back in 2018.
Authorities said Ables shot the deputy multiple times in the head as he stood at the man’s front door in Lake Placid.
Ables was also convicted of animal cruelty.