An alleged drug “queenpin” accuses Miami prosecutors of misconduct before her trial

Sandra Avila Beltrán, once known as the “Queen of the Pacific” in the Latin American drug trade, is accusing Miami prosecutors of lying about her role in cocaine shipments to the United States to persuade Mexican authorities to extradite her last year.

For Avila, a dark-haired beauty who stood out in a narco-trafficking world dominated by macho men, the misconduct accusation is a final bid to save her neck as she faces trial — or a possible plea deal — later this month.

Her defense lawyers are seeking to have a 2004 indictment dismissed, but it’s a likely long shot. If convicted of two conspiracy charges alleging drug importation and distribution, the 52-year-old Avila could spend the rest of her life in prison.

Her attorneys claim in a court filing that a federal prosecutor and drug agent were aware that signed declarations by codefendants — including Avila’s ex-boyfriend — were “riddled with falsehoods and misstatements.” Yet Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Morales submitted the evidence to Mexican authorities in 2010 to persuade them to extradite Avila, according to the defense lawyers, Stephen Ralls and Howard Schumacher.

Morales’ successor in the case, prosecutor Cynthia Wood, said in court papers the allegations against him were “false” and “without foundation.”

Avila’s reputation as the Queen of the Pacific was gained by her dominant role in the powerful Sinaloa cartel, her romantic relationship with a Colombian drug-trafficker and her influence over ocean supply routes.

Mexicans, along with the news media, have long been fascinated with Avila, who was arrested in her country in 2007. They constantly followed details of her taste for high fashion, gourmet food and beauty secrets. One rumor that made the rounds: A doctor visited her while she was jailed in Mexico to administer her Botox injections.

Last summer, a Mexican court and foreign secretary granted her extradition on the U.S. narco-trafficking indictment, which has alleged links to a cocaine deal in Chicago and a cocaine seizure in Manzanillo more than a decade ago.

Avila’s attorneys claim that Morales, the prosecutor, pressured her ex-boyfriend, Juan Diego Espinosa Ramirez, who was convicted in the same case, to sign a March 2010 declaration implicating her in the Chicago deal — without his defense attorney present. They said his declaration was instrumental in her extradition to the United States.

But according to Espinosa, “his declaration was not freely and voluntarily provided and he was denied the advice of counsel prior to signing the document,” Avila’s attorneys said in court papers.

Espinosa said in the declaration that Avila participated in a 100-kilo cocaine shipment with a trafficker named Juan Carlos Lopez Correa in 2001. And that after the cocaine was delivered to Chicago, Lopez Correa became responsible for the debt on the drug deal, he said.

On Sept. 14, 2001, federal agents intercepted a telephone call in which Espinosa, Avila and Lopez Correa allegedly discussed his outstanding payment. During the call, Espinosa asked Lopez Correa to pay for the shipment.

The current prosecutor in the case, Wood, pointed out that Espinosa’s declaration was similar to the factual statement he and his defense attorney signed in June 2009, when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

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UM, county clash with owner of mall over pedestrian overpass above U.S.-1

After several University of Miami students have been killed or seriously injured trying to cross busy U. S. 1 to get to popular retail spots on the other side, Miami-Dade County has finally approved building a Mediterranean-styled pedestrian bridge across the highway.

But the project has come to a standstill after the owner of the mall, University Centre, has refused to cooperate.

The county has offered the owner $1.85 million to compensate for the loss of five parking spaces needed to anchor the bridge across the street from the Metrorail station and the nearby UM. In addition, the county has offered the strip center owner 10 parking spaces at the Metrorail station across South Dixie Highway.

The mall owner has not budged.

Toby Brigham, an attorney representing the owner, said the placement of the overpass at that corner would block the mall’s visibility and its signage, hurting business.

“That’s a critical point where the driveways curve,” Brigham said. “Things like that in today’s economy, in competition with other shopping centers who are not similarly blighted, can make a huge difference.”

The mall’s stance has angered UM President Donna Shalala, who has taken her fight to the Coral Gables city commission and to the public.

“The county has made a fair offer in our judgment, the owner has basically rejected it and, as you can imagine, has hired a lawyer,’’ she said. “We have had students killed, seriously injured. Ponce de Leon [Middle School] uses that Metro stop and needs that bridge.… I’m now at the point this is unconscionable, we’ve got to get this done.”

Since 1989, eight UM students have been struck by vehicles while attempting to cross U.S. 1 around Mariposa Court, the intersection of the shopping center.

Three of the students died. They were: Eric Adams in 1990, Aaron Baber in 1998 and Ashley Kelly in April 2005. Kelly was hit by an SUV while walking to T.G.I. Friday’s with a friend to meet potential roommates.

The most recent incident involving a UM student was in April 2012 when Eliza Gresh was struck by a hit-and-run driver in South Miami and injured while attempting to cross U.S. 1 at Southwest 57th Avenue.

After nearly eight years, the county has approved the project. About $6 million in funding at the state and federal level has been allocated and a Mediterranean-style overpass has been designed.

“This has been a long-term project and it’s absolutely imperative, not because it adds an aesthetic value, but because it adds a component of safety to the residents of Coral Gables, a large number of whom are UM students,” said Nawara Alawa, student government president. “This is not just a project benefiting the university.”

But Miami-Dade County can’t begin construction because it hasn’t acquired the five parking spaces in the northeast corner of the University Centre parking lot needed to place the eastern pedestal of the bridge. The center is on the eastern side of the highway.

Shalala expressed her frustration over the hold-up to the Coral Gables Commission at the December State of the City/University of Miami meeting.

“We, of course, believe that the University Centre would not be there without our students and staff using all of those shops heavily,’’ Shalala said.

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Miami mayor: City will fight to keep fed funding for housing, anti-poverty programs

Miami city administrators said Thursday they will do “everything possible” to avoid losing out on $5.8 million in federal community development funds.

The promise came days after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development threatened to penalize Miami for failing to spend $13.3 million in Community Development Block Grants over the past three years. Cities that do not adhere to a strict spending schedule can see their funding reduced.

Commissioners slammed the city administration for not spending the money fast enough. CDBG dollars can go toward affordable housing, economic development and anti-poverty programs. In Miami, they fund daycares like the Centro Mater in Little Havana and community centers such as the Allapattah Community Action Center.

“This is a very serious issue,” Commissioner Francis Suarez said.

Assistant City Manager Alice Bravo promised a quick solution.

“We are going to do everything possible not only to spend down the funds that are in place, but to work with officials in Washington to explain our situation,” she said. “We are going to do everything in our power to make sure our funding is not removed.”

Commissioner Frank Carollo said he was “baffled” by the situation, in part because he attended a meeting with HUD consultants earlier this month at which Miami administrators were told the city was in full compliance.

Miami Community Development Director George Mensah said the HUD consultants must have received bad information from the federal government.

Under HUD guidelines, grant recipients can keep up to 1.5 times the amount of their annual allocation on reserve, in a HUD line of credit. Miami received about $5 million in 2012, meaning its fund balance could be as high as $7.5 million. But as of last month, the CDBG balance topped $13.2 million.

Mensah said the city was having problems, in part, because the feds have reduced the amount Miami could keep on reserve.

“In some ways, this is a mathematical issue,” he said.

But neither he nor City Manager Johnny Martinez nor Mayor Tomás Regalado answered questions from commissioners and a reporter about why the allocated money had not been spent over three years.

Earlier in the day, Regalado told The Miami Herald that city administrators were working to schedule a meeting with HUD officials in Washington, D.C.

“We’re not going to lose that money,” Regalado pledged.

The mayor noted that some CDBG-funded projects were moving forward, including a new community center in Little Havana and road repairs in District 4.

Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones implored city leaders to do a better job of moving projects along.

“We need to make sure that if we have projects sitting there, that we move the money,” she said. “At the end of the day, whatever we’re not doing affects the whole entire city.”

In other business, Carollo sponsored a resolution directing the building department to deny 40-year building re-certifications when properties have outstanding code violations or are deemed unsafe.

The proposal came in response to a series of stories in El Nuevo Herald about Little Havana condominium owners who saw their floors collapse and who had little recourse.

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Florida advocates say 2012 proved need for Voting Rights Act

As a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court raised doubts about a central provision of the federal Voting Rights Act on Wednesday, the law’s defenders said the 2012 election provided a vivid example for why it was needed to protect Florida from voter suppression.

“Look at the performance of our governor and Legislature in the last election,’’ says Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida whose parent organization has joined in the lawsuit to retain the law. “They are walking advertisements for why we need the Voting Rights Act.”

After the Legislature passed a sweeping elections bill in 2011, the act’s provisions required the state to get federal approval from either a federal trial court or the Justice Department before the law could take effect in Monroe, Hillsborough, Hardee, Hendry and Collier counties.

In addition to seeking the review, Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi challenged the act’s constitutionality. Former Secretary of State Kurt Browning called the provisions of the act an “arbitrary and irrational coverage formula based on data from 40 years ago that takes no account of current conditions.”

The five Florida counties have been subject to the pre-clearance requirement of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act protections since 1975 because of a history of discrimination against language minorities. Monroe County, for example, failed to print ballots in Spanish even though the Spanish-speaking population was large enough to warrant its own ballot.

The law’s most controversial provision, passed by the Republican-led 2011 Legislature, was a plan to reduce the number of early voting days. The ACLU and other citizens groups used the pre-clearance requirements to challenge the law, arguing that the changes disproportionately affected minority voters, who rely on early voting more than white voters.

A three-judge federal court concluded the law could have the effect of cutting voting hours in half. It suggested the law could stand if the five counties would expand early voting hours each day to maintain the total number of hours they offered in the past — a remedy initially rejected by Scott and lawmakers.

All but Monroe County agreed to the change. Monroe argued that reducing early voting days was more important to maintain voter access than extending hours on fewer days.

When the federal court agreed to accept the four-county compromise, Monroe was forced to go along with the compressed schedule and the state dropped the challenge.

The result: long early voting lines in the state’s most urban counties, putting Florida’s elections laws under the national spotlight again.

“I think now the state will agree that fewer days didn’t work out,’’ said Joyce Griffin, a Democrat who has worked in the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections office for 28 years before she was elected supervisor in November. She believes the act’s pre-clearance provisions should be retained.

“I have always viewed it as an extra safeguard,’’ she said. “It gives us another layer of protection — and I was very happy to have it last year.”

If the U.S. Supreme Court throws out the pre-clearance requirement, Florida would be allowed to enact its voting laws first, while opponents would have to challenge it later, said Julie Ebenstein, staff attorney for the ACLU of Florida.

“Without the Voting Rights Act ..., the confusion and chaos regarding elections in 2012 here would have been far worse,” she said.

In the last 20 years, the Section 5 rule also has forced the state to rewrite its reapportionment maps, creating a majority-minority state Senate district in the Tampa Bay area in 1992 and requiring lawmakers to restore a Hispanic majority seat in Collier County they had planned to eliminate in 2002.

Bondi did not file a brief in the Shelby County v. Holder case, but she and other Republican state officials echoed arguments of the Alabama Attorney General in 2011 when the state challenged the law.

“I strongly support the many provisions of the Voting Rights Act that appropriately enforce the right of citizens to register and vote free from discrimination,’’ Browning said at the time. “But there is no constitutional basis to arbitrarily single out five Florida counties and a few other covered jurisdictions, based solely on information from decades ago, and subject them to procedures that don’t apply to the rest of the country.”

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Somerset parents, neighbors unhappy with school’s plans to move campus to Kendall

Somerset Academy is drawing the ire of both parents and neighbors in Coral Gables and Kendall as it expands its charter school empire.

Angry parents crowded into a cafeteria recently to hear that their kindergartners likely will be bused to a new school in Kendall after Somerset lost its Coral Gables lease at Granada Presbyterian Church.

Meanwhile, about 40 neighbors of the proposed school met Sunday, outraged by Somerset’s plans to replace a small neighborhood school that has been run by the same family for six decades and attended by fewer than 300 students.

Somerset wants to build a new campus on the site of the old Pinewood Acres, 9500 SW 97th Ave. in Kendall, to serve 2,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“We’re not against education, but what we are against is the numbers they’re trying to introduce into the area and the huge buildings,” said Jose J. Suarez, who chose the secluded neighborhood 14 years ago for his modern glass and concrete house.

The outrage among both groups highlights the tricky waters Somerset has tried to navigate in opening its charter schools in residential neighborhoods. Since it was founded 15 years ago, Somerset, a nonprofit managed by its for-profit partner, Academica, has grown into one of the state’s largest charter school companies, with 42 schools around Florida, in Texas, Nevada and online.

This fall, Somerset took over kindergarten classes at Granada, telling parents that their students would be eligible to attend first grade at its campus at Christ Journey Church.

After a hard-fought battle with neighbors, Somerset opened a school at the church, but the enrollment was capped at 260 – down from the 700 Somerset had proposed. To minimize traffic, Somerset also agreed to give preference to students who live within a mile of the church, and only admit outside students if space allowed.

The fight shaping up over Kendall’s historic Pinewood Acres School nearly mirrors that of Coral Gables: an affluent community with A-rated schools where neighbors cherish their quiet streets and the area’s towering live oaks.

Over the last six decades, the Pinewood Acres School changed little. Two University of Miami education grads fashioned it out of a 20-acre pig farm. The founders lived in the building where they taught, and as the school grew, they built homes for teachers and their families.

But a tough economy in recent years has been hard on the school, said Judy Lones, daughter-in-law of its founders.

“The enrollment had dropped and it was going to take a lot of money to invest in it to wait out the storm.”

So last year, the family negotiated a five-year lease with Somerset with an option to buy. And in December, the family and Somerset submitted plans to the county that would replace the ranch-style buildings scattered around the eight-acre campus, making it look more like a camp than a school, with new two-story buildings that echo the style of other Somerset campuses.

Neighbors say the campus is too big for the area, where one-acre estate homes with tennis courts in their backyards abut smaller single-family and zero-lot-line homes serviced by just one two-lane thoroughfare, 97th Avenue.

Somerset intends to initially open the new school, Somerset Bay at Pinewood Acres, as a K-8, with only 290 students — not the 2,000 that it eventually hopes to enroll, said Andreina Figueroa, the school’s board chair.

“It is our goal to be good neighbors,’’ she wrote in an email.

Somerset already is advertising the new school on a website and soliciting applications. However, the Miami-Dade School District said it has not yet received an official request from Somerset to open a school at the site.

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Wanna play for the Miami Marlins — the organ, that is

For the first time since the team's inception in 1993, the Miami Marlins held open auditions for an organist Monday night at their new stadium.

Several local musicians showed up to vie for the special gig.

The chosen organist will be responsible for performing songs such as Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Let's Go Fish and Clap and Stomp at all 81 home games next season.

Among the requirements for the job were a good knowledge of all genres of music, knowledge of the Miami Marlins and creativity for all types of situations and spontaneous moments during a Major League Game.

Organs have been a standard feature at most baseball parks ever since the Chicago Cubs introduced them at Wrigley Field in 1941. The Marlins have had only two organists — Lowery Ballew and Dick Jans — but had never held an open tryout for the position.

It’s unknown how much the job pays.

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Execution of murderer raises new questions about the death penalty in Florida

TALLAHASSEE --
The execution of Paul Augustus Howell scheduled for Tuesday has put Florida’s death penalty process under the microscope again.

Howell, 42, was convicted in 1992 of the pipe-bomb killing of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Jimmy Fulford in Jefferson County, east of Tallahassee. If he dies by lethal injection as scheduled, his attorneys say, he will be the first Florida inmate to die without his case having been reviewed in federal court under a habeas corpus appeal. They argue Howell deserves that review — and a chance to seek another trial.

They say the court never heard about the conflict of interest involving his trial attorney, the failure to tell the court of Howell’s brain damage, his paranoia, child abuse or his lost court files. And the court never heard about Howell’s inadequate representation from the appellate lawyer who missed a crucial deadline for his federal review.

“Lawyers who never met the client in the 13 years they represented him lost his records in a flood and haven’t asked for new ones,” said Sonya Rudenstine of Gainesville, a new attorney hired by the inmate’s family. “If it weren’t so tragic, it would be a comedy of errors.”

The Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal last week by Howell’s new attorneys. The court said it could not address claims he may raise in federal court. His attorneys have filed a new request in federal court in Tallahassee.

The habeas corpus review is routine in death-penalty cases in which the federal government provides inmates with an experienced, federally funded lawyer to have his case presented before a federal court as a final layer of protection before execution.

Howell’s last-minute appeal for more time comes as the Florida Legislature is moving in the other direction — toward limiting the time inmates should have to get their cases reviewed.

A bill being pushed through the Florida House by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, would accelerate the time it takes to execute death row inmates in Florida by an estimated five years.

According to Gaetz, inmates spend an average of 14 years on death row before they are executed. His bill would not only limit the time state courts have to review the cases, it would ban any lawyer deemed ineffective by the court from taking a capital case for five years.

Without that, Gaetz argues, death penalty opponents will continue to have a compelling argument “that the punishment costs too much and doesn’t effectively deter crime.”

Howell, a member of a Jamaican drug posse, was convicted after building a pipe bomb to kill a Jackson County woman who had information that could link him to a drug-related murder in South Florida. He hid the bomb in a gift-wrapped microwave oven and had a driver deliver it.

As the car was traveling through Jefferson County, Trooper Fulford stopped it for speeding. He then inspected the vehicle, unwrapped the microwave oven and the bomb exploded, killing him.

Howell’s attorneys now want the court to recognize that he never should have been represented in the first case by his attorney, Frank Sheffield, who is now a state court judge in Jefferson County.

When Howell faced state murder charges, he was already under indictment in a federal trial for drug trafficking. Sheffield represented him in the case, but withdrew after his secretary, who was also his wife, told prosecutors she had received a telephone call from an anonymous caller who told her that “If Paul Howell goes down, Mr. Sheffield is going down also.”

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Renewed fight begins for bill to ban texting and driving

TALLAHASSEE --
It was supposed to be a joyous occasion. Russell Hurd and his wife were waiting for his 26-year-old daughter Heather and her fiancé at Walt Disney World on Jan. 3, 2008, to meet with a wedding planner.

But the young couple never arrived.

Heather, who worked for the theme park, was killed, and her fiancé injured, in a nine-car crash caused by a 61-year-old tractor trailer driver who was distracted by his company’s electronic messaging device.

Margay Schee, of Ocala, was 13 when a truck driver talking on his cellphone hit her school bus, which was stopped with its flashers blinking. Margay was pinned under the seat, the bus caught fire, and she was trapped inside.

Steve Augello, of Spring Hill, started worrying when his 17-year-old daughter Allessandra was late getting home from a play rehearsal. Allessandra was hit head-on by a 19-year-old girl who was believed to be texting her boyfriend.

Three scenarios, same lethal outcome: victims killed by drivers distracted by cellphones, a problem outgoing U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood has called a “deadly epidemic.”

Thirty-nine states ban text messaging for all drivers. Five states ban teens from texting while driving. Florida, on the other hand, is one of six states without a texting ban for drivers.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, and Rep. Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, have been sponsoring texting bans for years without success, but they’re pushing hard again this year.

Detert’s Senate bill passed its first committee stop and is moving up the legislative chain. Holder’s companion bill will be introduced early March. “I think this is the year that the Legislature is willing to move on it,” Detert said.

There’s strong support for a ban. The Florida sheriffs’ and police chiefs’ associations, the Florida League of Cities and a host of other groups support legislation to curb texting while driving.

A majority of 800 registered Florida voters — 71 percent — said last year that they supported a texting while driving ban in a Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll.

“The stars may be lining up for something bold here,” said Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, who voted for Detert’s bill but voiced concerns that it needed more teeth.

The proposal by Detert and Holder makes texting while driving a secondary offense, which means a driver caught messaging has to commit another offense, such as speeding or running a stop sign, before an officer can stop the driver.

Once stopped, a driver could receive two tickets, one for the infraction and one for texting. The fine would be $30 for a first-time texting offense, $60 if it occurs again within five years. Amendments would allow texting in hands-off high-tech cars and when a car is stopped at a red light or in a traffic jam.

More than 100,000 crashes a year involve drivers who are texting, according to the National Safety Council. When people text and drive, their eyes are down for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, that’s like “being blind” while driving the length of a football field, Detert said.

Other bills are also moving through the Legislature.

Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, is sponsoring legislation that would make texting or using a cellphone without a hands-free device a primary offense for drivers.

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Parents of missing Hallandale Beach baby formally charged

The parents of an infant who disappeared more than a year and a half ago were formally charged Friday in Broward County Circuit Court.

Brittney Sierra, 21, faces two counts of felony child neglect.

Calvin Melvin, 27, was charged with three felony counts of providing false information to police.

Each could face more charges if a Texas lab confirms that DNA from a tiny skeleton unearthed behind the couple’s former Hallandale Beach rental house in January matches their baby, Dontrell Melvin.

Dontrell, who would have turned 2 this month, had not been seen for nearly 18 months before police learned of his disappearance Jan 9.

At first, Melvin told Hallandale Beach Police that the child was with his family in Pompano Beach. But when police went there, they were told by the grandparents they didn’t have the child and hadn’t seen him.

During questioning by police, Melvin changed his story several times, investigators said. At one point, he told them he’d taken the baby to a fire station under Florida’s Safe Haven Law.

But police didn’t believe him and began questioning Sierra, as well. The couple, who have another child together, pointed their fingers at one another, police said.

Their answers led police to the backyard of their former rental home at 106 NW First Ave. It was there, tiny human remains were found in the ground.

Hallandale Beach Maj. Thomas Honan said until they have a solid DNA match — or a confession — there is nothing else police can do.

“The father is pointing fingers at the mother and the mother is pointing fingers at the father,” Honan said Friday. “All we have is the skeleton.”

Friday’s arraignment was standard — within 45 days from their arrest — Honan said.

Melvin remains in the Broward County Main Jail on a $151,000 bond, according to jail records. His charges stem from the times he changed his story while being interviewed by police. His court appointed attorney, Edward Hoeg, said Friday that he has filed a motion to reduce the bond. Melvin has entered a not guilty plea, his attorney said.

“We are going to fight these charges adamantly,” he said.

Sierra is being held at the North Broward Jail on $100,000 bond. Her charges were related to the two times Sierra had the opportunity to mention the missing baby to the Department of Children and Families, but failed to do so, Honan said.

DCF made contact with both Sierra and her mother, Renee Menendez, who was raising her four other children ranging in age from 8 to 11, more than 30 times, according to documents released in January.

It wasn’t until a hotline call Jan. 9 that police discovered the boy missing.

Sierras two other children — one of whom is an infant — were taken into state custody, as were Menendez’ four children.

There will be a dependency hearing related to Sierra’s children at 10 a.m. Monday at the Broward County Courthouse.

She has entered a written not guilty plea, according to her court appointed attorney, Dohn Williams Jr.

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Helen Snapp, WWII pilot, dies

Helen Wyatt Snapp did not want to be called a hero.

“The real heroes are the people who don’t come back” from combat, said the former WASP pilot.

Despite that humility, Snapp was recognized in South Florida and beyond for her contributions to aviation and for helping pave the way for women in flight.

Snapp died Jan. 20 at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines from complications after a hip fracture surgery. She was 94.

Snapp was born in Washington, D.C., and attended Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va. During one summer break from school, she and her sister Evelyn began taking flying lessons.

Although she had a fear of heights, when World War II broke out, Snapp entered the Civilian Pilot Training program and became a licensed private pilot.

In 1942 she married Ira Benton Snapp, a lieutenant in Company B 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army during its campaigns in North Africa, Sicily and Italy.

It was while her husband was overseas that Snapp learned about the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) training program and began training in Sweetwater, Texas. She became one of the country’s first female military aircraft aviators.

When she graduated, she was sent to Camp Davis in North Carolina, where her duties included radar operations, aerial target towing and search light training. Later, she flew at Liberty Field in Fort Stewart, Ga. Her responsibility there was to fly planes that towed targets, at which male recruits would shoot live ammunition.

Snapp’s final task in active service was a top-secret mission with radio-controlled aircraft, that would later be packed with explosives and used as the first guided bombs.

She also piloted the B17 Memphis Belle, while traveling from Tampa to Jacksonville, when the plane was being used for War Bond promotions.

She was trained to fly both single and multiple-engine planes.

When WWII ended, Snapp returned to the Washington, D.C., area where she and her husband raised three sons. Simultaneously, she worked for the U.S. Post Office.

They moved to South Florida in 1984.

Snapp’s son Jeremy said his mother has served as a source of inspiration for him since he was a child.

“She participated in a piece of history and got to do a lot of things people normally don’t get to do … like fly fighter planes,” he said.

Besides her aviation career, Snapp was known for enjoying life and cherishing time with her family, friends and fellow pilots, he said.

If she saw any opportunity to connect with her contemporaries, she would take it, he said.

Snapp advocated for WASP pilots to be officially recognized as military members and spoke about the discrimination they felt at the time. Although they participated in military activities, they were considered civilians. Now, they are able to enjoy some military benefits, including using VA hospitals and the opportunity to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

“They were doing a man’s job, but they really were kind of played down,” said Suzette Rice, the president of the Wings Over Miami Air Museum, who became a friend of Snapp’s. Rice said Snapp and the other WASP pilots were trailblazers; they were considered civilian pilots, but now women in the military fight in active combat.

Snapp was proud to help make that recognition possible.

“That was the message Helen had,” Rice said. “She would say, ‘We were women doing a man’s job, and nobody had done it before.’”

Snapp and 175 other living members of the WASPs received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010. She was also active in women’s pilot association the Florida Gold Coast 99s and the Wings Over Miami Air Museum.

Ursula Davidson, a pilot and member of the Ninety-Nines, said she will most remember Snapp as a friend who “was always ready for an adventure.”

“She was a good role model about how to live your life,” Davidson said. “Just to keep doing what you like to do and not to be afraid.”

Snapp is survived by two of her sons, Jeremy and David. She was predeceased by her husband and son Ira Ben Snapp II.

There will be a memorial service for Snapp on at 11 a.m. March 2 at the Wings Over Miami Air Museum.

Her family has requested donations to the Wings Over Miami Museum or the Florida Gold Coast 99s in lieu of flowers.

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Man set ablaze Christmas night dies; family files suit

A man who was doused in gasoline and set on fire at a gas station Christmas night died Friday after being in and out of a coma since then.

Darrell Brackett, 44, walked to the U-Gas Station at 4700 NW 27th Ave. shortly before midnight night while his girlfriend waited in their van. They were returning from dropping off family members after a Christmas gathering when they ran out of gas near Northwest 49th Street and 23rd Avenue.

Brackett made it to the gas station and paid for his gas.

While there, he encountered several drug dealers, according to the Brackett family’s attorney. They asked Brackett if he was interested in purchasing from them, and when he said no, they took offense, the attorney said.

They threw a lit cigarette at cigar on him, which in combination with the gasoline he had just purchased made him go up in flames.

Brackett ran into the street, where a woman passing by directed him to a median where he rolled on the ground in an attempt to put out the flames. “Why did they do this to me?” he asked at the time.

He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was treated in the burn center until he died Friday.

Although for the first part of his recovery Brackett was unable to communicate, he was doing well enough about three weeks ago that he could nod and use hand movements to speak with his family and Michaels. It was during those conversations they were able to learn better what happened that Christmas night.

Then, after that one week when he could communicate, Brackett took a turn for the worse, fell back into a coma and died.

Brackett’s mother, Bridgett Brackett, said her son would be remembered as “a people person.”

“Everybody loved him,” she said Wednesday. “He had a sweet personality and was just a fun-loving guy. Every time you saw him, he had a nice smile. He was a great child.”

Brackett’s family has filed a lawsuit against Urbieta Oil Inc. and HDEZ Oil Corp., which own and operate the U-Gas Station. Trial is scheduled for Aug. 12.

The family’s attorney, Todd Michaels of the Haggard Law Firm, a Coral Gables firm that specializes in personal injury cases, said the companies’ gas stations in South Florida have operated negligently for too long, without proper security measures in place.

The Haggard Law Firm previously represented the family of Trinard Snell, who was killed in 2009 while working at a Valero gas station in Liberty City. Snell’s family won a $5.7 million lawsuit in that case on Dec. 2 after expressing their concern that the station did not sufficiently protect its employees, according to Miami Herald news partner CBS4.

“There is a staggering amount of crime going on in these premises, and pretty much nothing going on in terms of security,” Michaels said. “Security can’t be something you put on the back burner . . . It’s happening too much that [gas stations] are throwing caution to the wind as far as securing their premises goes. People are being attacked and robbed.”

It is too early in litigation to determine how much the suit will amount to, but because of Brackett’s two months of medical bills, Michaels said the number will likely be high.

“The family just wants to see they achieve some sort of justice for him,” Michaels said.

Ignacio M. Urbieta, an attorney for Urbieta Oil Inc., said safety has always been the company’s top priority.

“The Haggard Law Firm alleged unsubstantiated facts about the incident and made dishonest statements disparaging our personal ethics,” Urbieta wrote in a statement to The Miami Herald. “We vehemently deny their version of events and will address their accusations at the appropriate time and place.”

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More state spending on roads, ports

TALLAHASSEE --
If you think there’s too much road construction now, just wait.

The state plans to increase transportation spending by 11 percent in an effort to boost jobs, build more roads, and get the state’s ports ready for the expansion of the Panama Canal. For motorists, that means navigating through more orange cones and thicker clouds of construction dust throughout the state.

Florida’s proposed $9.1 billion budget was released Tuesday. On tap in Tampa Bay, $420 million of additional lanes on Interstate 75 in Pasco, Hernando and Sumter counties; $27 million for the expansion of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard; and $69 million to add lanes on the Veterans Expressway in Hillsborough County. In South Florida, new construction would include $112 million for new lanes on I-75 in Broward County; $154 million to add lanes and reconstruct the Homestead extension of the Florida Turnpike and $25 million to add lanes and reconstruct State Road 823.

An unprecedented flood of money is getting steered to ports in an attempt to get them primed for the Panama Canal expansion, which should be completed in the next two years. The proposed budget includes $30.6 million for the Port of Miami, $26.7 million for the Port of Tampa, $19.5 million for the Port of Manatee and close to $100 million across the rest of the state.

“We’re leveraging what’s going to happen with post-Panama Canal expansion,” DOT Secretary Ananth Prasad recently told a House transportation committee. “Florida’s truly going to be the gateway to the Americas.”

Gov. Rick Scott was in Jacksonville on Tuesday to tout the proposed budget as an economic tool. He estimates the $917 million increase in spending from this year will help create 500,000 jobs, one third related to highway construction — employment opportunities that would be on line as he gets ready for re-election in 2014.

While Scott claimed credit for the budget, about two-thirds of it is the work of regional metropolitan planning organizations staffed with local elected officials, and port and airport authorities that he only partly controls through appointments. But the proposed transportation plan, which will be included in the larger $74 billion budget bill during the upcoming legislative session, reflects a consensus among lawmakers and local leaders that an increase in transportation spending will spark the economy.

“The construction industry was the most hurt by the recession,” said the chair of the House transportation appropriations committee, Rep. Ed Hooper, R-Clearwater. “So the industry will only be helped by more spending.”

In many ways, it’s an approach that’s a throwback to 20th century road politics, where highway construction was viewed as a job creator and a solution to gridlock. While other states have moved to road alternatives like transit and rail, Florida’s spending includes only about $400 million in direct spending on transit, or less than 5 percent. Scott is still remembered for rejecting $2.4 billion in federal dollars that would have paid for a high-speed rail link between Tampa and Orlando.

“You can’t construct enough highways to build our way out of congestion,” said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a Democrat. “Tampa Bay is the only area of our size without mobility options, be it light rail, bus rapid transit or high occupancy vehicle lanes. This puts us at a competitive disadvantage.”

Buckhorn said he and several other cities, such as St. Petersburg and Miami, will lobby the Legislature this year to get permission to ask voters for approval of light rail projects without having to appeal to county voters as well. In 2010, Hillsborough voters rejected a proposed light rail system in Tampa that city residents supported.

Scott sees roads as not just creating jobs, but accommodating growth for a state with a population of 19 million that’s projected to grow past 26 million by 2040.

To the chagrin of environmental activists, Scott has resurrected a project of toll roads that former Gov. Jeb Bush supported but his predecessor, Gov. Charlie Crist, rejected. The toll roads would be built in rural areas and help bring development to landlocked parts of the state.

“Under Crist, transportation dollars were spent in areas where there already was congestion, not where they thought growth would go,” said Charles Pattison, President of 1000 Friends of Florida. “The interesting thing about this budget is that the governor has put about $1 billion more than he did last year, and it’s going to one agency for roads. But are roads going to be the solution in 2040?”

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Pension reform plan put on hold

TALLAHASSEE --
House Speaker Will Weatherford’s push to close the state’s $136 billion pension system to new state employees is on hold.

A report released Friday was supposed to provide an estimate of how much the change would cost to pay out benefits to the employees currently in the system while switching new state employees into 401(k)-style retirement plans.

Instead, the report was deemed incomplete. Weatherford said Monday he wants the missing information before he can decide his next move, and that won’t be until at least March 1.

Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has made ending pensions for new employees one his top priorities of the coming legislative session. He says change is needed because the state’s current pension — which has about 145,000 current and future beneficiaries — is unsustainable and will require a mammoth taxpayer bailout sometime in the future.

Unions oppose the move because they say it shifts costs and risks to workers.

A report released Friday by Milliman, a Virginia actuarial firm, concluded that closing the state’s pension system to future employees would endanger the benefits of those currently enrolled in the pension plan. The problem: Because Weatherford’s proposal would turn away new workers, the pension plan would be forced to rely on a shrinking payroll base on which contributions to retirees are made.

To make up the shortfall, either workers or taxpayers would chip in more, the report stated.

Weatherford said he wasn’t surprised that the $70,000 report, which he had ordered, concluded it would cost more money to reform Florida’s retirement system.

“We know that doesn’t come free,” Weatherford said.

But what the report didn’t include were costs associated with keeping the pension plan intact, making it difficult to compare costs between reform and status quo.

Weatherford said he didn’t know why that estimate wasn’t included.

“We do need, I believe, to have that baseline so that we can give the citizens of Florida and the Legislature all the information necessary to make a decision,” Weatherford said.

Ben Wolf, a spokesman for Florida’s Department of Management Services, said as soon as the report was received, state officials notified Milliman that the study was incomplete. He said another study, this one costing $25,000, will be sent to the state explaining how much the current pension system will cost.

So far, at least, Senate President Don Gaetz hasn’t publicly matched Weatherford’s enthusiasm in reforming the retirement system for state workers, teachers and college and local government employees.

The Senate is preoccupied instead with reforming smaller pension systems that are run separately by local governments. Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, who chairs the Senate committee that is handling pension reform, said he doesn’t see a pressing need to reform the state pension plan.

“With municipal pensions, there’s a legitimate need for reform,” Ring said. “But the Florida Retirement System is a completely different discussion because it’s difficult to define the urgency. I don’t believe moving to a 401(k) system is a bad thing. The challenge, however, and it’s a big however, is that it could be a bad thing in terms of how much it could cost to close down.”

Ring said he’s received little guidance from Gaetz on the issue.

“And that’s because he wants to wait for all actuarial reports to come out,” Ring said. “Ultimately, he’ll have to get engaged and give us some direction.”

But with the confusion over the Milliman report, that would have to wait.

Gaetz’s spokeswoman, Katie Betta, said in an e-mail he was reviewing the study and couldn’t comment.

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Key West Lotto ticket wins $17 million jackpot

A Lotto ticket sold in Key West was the only one to match all six numbers in Saturday night’s drawing, and is worth $17 million, the Florida Lottery said Sunday.

Saturday’s numbers were 8, 21, 26, 27, 30 and 40. The winning ticket was sold at the Publix supermarket at 3316 N. Roosevelt Blvd. The jackpot for the next drawing, on Wednesday, will ratchet back down to $2 million.

In the multistate Powerball game, no one matched all six numbers: 15, 16, 46, 50, 58 and the Powerball, 29. The jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing will grow to $70 million.

Three Fantasy 5 tickets matched the five numbers drawn Saturday night: 11, 26, 33, 34 and 46. They were sold in Jupiter, Riverview and Altamonte Springs. Each of the winners will receive $94,037.57.

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Parents decry closing of two Broward schools for special-needs kids

If you ask parents why they value Broward’s Wingate Oaks Educational Center — and why they’re so furious about its imminent closure — the answer often boils down to trust.

The school for medically fragile children is a place where students might need help going to the restroom, and parents trust the teachers and staff to respect their child’s dignity. David Martinez’s 7-year-old daughter, Anabelle, must eat lunch through a feeding tube, and it took time for Martinez to let Wingate Oaks’ nursing staff handle that delicate procedure.

“It’s not right, it’s not right,” Martinez says about the school’s closing. “On the backs of our children, they want to save money.”

Broward’s school district has defended its plan to close Wingate Oaks, along with another special-needs school, Sunset Learning Center. Both Fort Lauderdale schools are set to shut down at the end of the school year. The district calls it a move toward operational efficiency, as both centers are at well under 50 percent capacity — combined, they serve fewer than 200 students. The district says that students who are relocated to the county’s remaining four centers that focus on kids with special needs will benefit from expanded programming. Any savings realized from the closures will be reinvested in the classroom, Superintendent Robert Runcie said.

“I recognize that people don’t like change, but they also need to have an open mind about this,” Runcie said. “This is going to provide better outcomes for their students.”

Parents at the schools remain angry — one group in a growing chorus of special-needs families who are upset with the school district.

In recent weeks, a whole other group of infuriated parents (unaffected by the two school closures) have trekked down to Broward School Board meetings to criticize the system as flawed. They accuse district staff of having a combative attitude with parents, forcing parents to go to court for reasonable requests, and pushing disabled students off the academic path to a traditional diploma.

Parents’ verbal exchanges with School Board members have at times turned nasty — one parent recently turned her back on board members while she spoke to them to symbolize how the district had turned its back on her daughter.

Unhappy parents have formed a special-needs task force to plot strategy. There’s been talk of filing a class-action lawsuit.

“People react when they’re not heard,” said Broward parent Rhonda Ward, who is part of that task force.

Ideally, decisions regarding special-needs children — how difficult their courses should be and what support services and therapies they should receive — are made by a cooperative team that includes parents, teachers, school psychologists and other district staff. In many cases, everyone successfully works together to create an individualized education plan for a disabled child. A well-thought-out plan will allow the child to reach his or her full academic potential, while avoiding unrealistic expectations that doom the student to repeated failures and disappointment.

The problem is, parents and school staff may not agree on what goals are realistic, and those differences of opinion can easily end up in court. For example, a parent who is unhappy with the district’s evaluation of her child can request the hiring of an outside independent evaluator — at taxpayers’ expense. The district then has two options: Pay the outside expert, or take the matter to a state administrative judge in a “due process” hearing, and argue that an outside second opinion isn’t needed.

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‘Alarmed’ by missing cash from Hollywood evidence room, city official calls for a full review

Saying he was “alarmed” to learn that as much as $175,000 in cash could be missing from the police department’s evidence vault, Hollywood Assistant City Manager Frank Fernandez asked Friday for a full review and meeting with anyone who was aware of problems there.

Fernandez, who was hired in August, said although he had been briefed by outgoing Police Chief Chad Wagner, he was not aware of the extent of the problems in the evidence locker until he read The Miami Herald’s story about the missing money Friday.

“I think anybody would be alarmed with any amount missing — let alone that much,” said Fernandez, who oversees public safety for the city. “But there has been no confirmation,” he added.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have launched a criminal investigation into cash — estimates range from $125,000 to $175,000 — that went missing, although it’s not clear when. The FDLE investigation is focusing on a retired police sergeant who supervised the vault from 2006 until his retirement in April 2011.

The sergeant, John Nevins, told The Miami Herald on Friday that he never misplaced, stole or knew about a substantial amount of money missing during his tenure.

However, Nevins did say that about a year before he retired, he reported about $90 missing from a safe to his then-supervisor. He said he went to retrieve the money from the safe after it was requested in connection to a closed criminal case.

He was startled to find the cash had disappeared and asked his supervisors to conduct an audit. Sources said he and others scoured the vault but could find no evidence of the cash. To his knowledge, there was nothing else found missing before or since.

“I’m not hiding anything,’’ Nevins said.

The vault or locker, as it is sometimes called, is actually a group of several secured rooms in the station in which valuables and other evidence seized during a criminal investigation is stored. The evidence can include, guns, money and forensic information.

In addition to Nevins, a civilian employee is also under scrutiny by the FDLE because he was seen helping Nevins remove boxes from the evidence area on Dec. 16, 2011.

Surveillance cameras captured Nevins removing the boxes, sources said.

Nevins said he did take some empty boxes — but they were from the supply room — not the evidence vault. The supply room is a storage area for office supplies and is separate from the evidence or property locker which is secured.

“I have never taken anything out of the property vault,’’ he said. “I only took some empty boxes from the storage area.’’

The boxes, he said, were used to pack gifts for the needy.

Four city commissioners contacted by The Miami Herald said they were not informed about the investigation until Thursday night. City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, Wagner and Fernandez had kept a lid on the probe so as to not jeopardize the case, they said.

“The investigation from what I understand has been going on for quite some time,” said Commissioner Linda Sherwood. “I know they are doing a very thorough investigation. I have confidence they will find the truth.”

Mayor Peter Bober, however, said he was aware of the probe before Thursday.

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Body found floating in a Doral lake

Miami-Dade police are investigating the discovery of a body floating in a lake in Doral.

The body was found Thursday afternoon in a lake at Northwest 25th Street and 95th Avenue, police said.

It’s unknown how long the body had been in the water, or if the death is a homicide.

Investigators will now try to identify the victim.

An autopsy will help determine the exact cause of death.

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Come 2016, Sen. Rand Paul could be the anti-Rubio choice for tea party faithful

WASHINGTON Sens. Marco Rubio’s and Rand Paul’s delivery of back-to-back rebuttals of President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress — Rubio as the Republican response, Paul as the tea party rejoinder — raises some tantalizing questions:

With Rubio being stamped as the early favorite in the 2016 Republican White House race, is Paul emerging as a leading alternative among tea party faithful and other hard-line conservative activists?

If so, does he risk further fracturing a Republican Party that’s trying to move toward the center and soften its rough edges in the wake of Obama’s decisive re-election three months ago?

Paul, who joined Congress at the same time as Rubio in January 2011, acknowledged Wednesday that he is weighing a presidential run.

“I’m thinking about it, but I haven’t made my mind up and won’t until 2014,” Paul said in an interview. “I’m mostly concerned with trying to do my job as a United States senator from Kentucky, and making sure I’m paying attention to problems in Kentucky and to the national problems we can deal with. Being part of the national debate and doing my job as a Kentucky senator sort of overlap.”

While some analysts contrasted Paul’s hard-edged remarks Tuesday night — he rejected bipartisanship and urged voters to “send them home” if lawmakers don’t drastically cut federal spending — with Rubio’s more nuanced comments, the junior senator from Kentucky downplayed a potential competition with the charismatic Cuban-American from Florida.

“I see our responses last night as complimentary and not necessarily (indicative of) any kind of rivalry,” Paul said. “I don’t think it’s my job to characterize other senators or their voting patterns. I’ve got enough work trying to set an agenda for the direction I think the country needs to take. That’s more important than any differences or similarities with any other senator.”

A poll released last week by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm in Raleigh, N.C., placed Rubio in the lead for 2016 among Republicans at 22 percent.

He was followed by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 vice presidential nominee; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Paul placed sixth with 10 percent support among those surveyed.

Such polls, though, have little concrete meaning at this stage: Four years ago, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had single-digit support, yet he was the next to last man standing in the hard-fought 2012 Republican primary contest won by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Whether Paul runs for president, many view him as the natural successor to former Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who reveled in his nickname, Senator Tea Party, and became a hero among conservative activists nationally for his unyielding opposition to all manner of federal spending.

DeMint, who retired last year, endorsed both Rubio and Paul in their 2010 Senate campaigns. He contributed millions of dollars to them and other conservative candidates who challenged Republican establishment choices in contentious primaries that highlighted the party’s internal splits.

But while Paul remains an unapologetic tea party booster, leading the movement’s charge within Congress could prove as much a hindrance as a help to his political ambitions.

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‘Tony Montana’ pleads guilty to millions in jewel thefts

Eight months after his arrest in a South Beach hotel, the jeweler who called himself “Tony Montana” pleaded guilty Tuesday to organizing the thefts of and later reselling millions of dollars worth of diamonds and other jewels.

Juan Guardarrama, 49, received a reduced prison sentence of 10 years in exchange for cooperating with authorities on other cases related to the criminal enterprise of stealing and fencing diamonds.

In the agreement, Guardarrama acknowledges his “willingness to cooperate in bringing to justice” others who have been involved in crimes including theft, racketeering, money-laundering and fencing of stolen properties.

The night of his arrest, Guardarrama thought he was buying more than a half-million dollars worth of stolen jewelry when he asked undercover cops whether they would “take out” a partner from his side business of growing medical marijuana in Colorado. He had earlier asked the cops if they would be interested in selling some of that marijuana in Miami.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Guardarrama with more than a dozen felony counts, from racketeering and money-laundering to dealing in stolen property and soliciting first-degree murder. The jeweler, whose nickname comes from a character in the 1983 Miami crime noir film Scarface, starring Al Pacino, faced more than 30 years in prison.

On Tuesday, Guardarrama pleaded guilty to the majority of the counts related to the jewelry operation, and authorities agreed to dismiss charges related to the marijuana and soliciting murder. As part of the deal, Guardarrama will surrender about $2 million in jewelry and money that was confiscated from his apartment in Denver.

His attorney, David Raben, declined to comment after Tuesday’s hearing before Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Thomas Rebull.

Detectives from a multiagency task force had been investigating Guardarrama for more than four years when the arrest took place last June at Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Guardarrama had worked as a wholesale jeweler for close to two decades, and was a familiar face in the Seybold building in downtown Miami, a hub of diamond and jewelry commerce.

But much of what Guardarrama sold was stolen. Authorities say he was a key player in orchestrating heists and robberies for international jewelry thieves who have operated in South Florida and across the country since at least 2005. He worked with a group of mostly Colombians who targeted traveling jewelry dealers for assaults, and a separate group of Cuban-born welders who blowtorched their way into jewelry store safes.

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Papal transition won’t lead to big changes in South Florida parishes, archbishop says

Like millions of other Roman Catholics, when Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski woke up Monday morning and heard the news that Pope Benedict XVI had announced his resignation, he thought it was just rumor.

When he realized it wasn’t, Wenski called Mary Ross Agosta, the Archdiocese’s communications director, and told her: “ ‘Get ready for a busy day.’ ’’

And so it was, as he gave interview after interview on how the pope’s resignation — the first in nearly six centuries — might affect the Church and its believers.

Wenski doesn’t anticipate “radical shifts’’ in the church with a new leader at the helm.

“Whoever comes on as pope will be Catholic, so...he’ll present the Catholic teachings and there’s not going to be any changes in those teachings, because the pope is not an absolute ruler who can make it up as he goes along,’’ Wenski said.

Still, he said, “most people live their faith on a local level,’’ so that a papal transition isn’t likely to shake things up in South Florida parishes.

Wenski, 62, said he understood how demanding the pontifical duties are.

“When the pope says he doesn’t have the strength anymore, considering my own schedule in this little archdiocese, I get it. It’s a grueling job...He embraced the suffering that comes with the job but he doesn’t have the physical health and energy to continue it.

“His doctors have been telling him to restrict his travel, and the ability to travel has become a requisite for a modern-day pope.’’

Anne Llewellyn of Plantation, a parishioner at St. Gregory the Great, applauded the pope for understanding his limitations and for making “the difficult decision for the good of the church.’’

She called Benedict “a brilliant man’’ who deserves thanks for his leadership. However, she remains “angry with the U.S. Church’’ over sex scandal cover-ups, and no longer supports the archdiocese.

Barry University theology professor Edward Sunshine acknowledged the pope’s resignation comes at a time when the church sex-abuse scandals ”have weakened the moral authority and credibility of church leaders,’’ and when 10 percent of U.S. adults identify as former Catholics.

By bowing out, Sunshine added, the pope “is setting a modern precedent that is necessary for the church to function well in the world today.”

With people living longer — Pope Benedict XVI is 85, his predecessor Pope John Paul II was 84 when he died after 27 years as head of the church — there is an increased chance of someone suffering from a debilitating condition, such as infirmity or senility, Sunshine said.

“An orderly transition of church leadership if necessary is much better than a long, agonizing wait for an infirm pontiff to die in office,” Sunshine said. “Pope Benedict has set an example for world leaders and everyone else that there comes a time when it is better to let go of power.’’

When it comes to Benedict’s successor, Karen McCarthy, of Hollywood, is hoping for someone more moderate. She’s angry about certain church positions, and no longer attends Church of the Little Flower

“The Vatican has treated women horribly, like we are less than men,’’ she said. “What they have done to the nuns is repulsive...I hope we get a more moderate pope and one in tune with the times.’’

Archbishop Wenski said he doubted Pope Benedict XVI would interfere with his successor once he leaves the post Feb. 28.

“There’s still going to be only one pope, and I don’t think there’s any danger of any polarities of power, one against another.’’

This article includes comments from the Public Insight Network, an online community of people who have agreed to share their opinions with The Miami Herald. Sign up by going to MiamiHerald.com/Insight.

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