Simmons faces charges of tax fraud, identity theft, wire fraud, theft of government property and filing false returns. Law enforcement alleges Simmons accepted federal tax refund checks that he knew were obtained fraudulently “with a much higher value than the price of the vehicles he sold, keeping the difference for himself.”

Simmons was first arrested in late 2011 after police searched his business and found 134 Turbo Tax cards, two Jaguars, a Bentley and $38,000 in cash and money orders. He was charged, at the time, with grand theft and identity theft, not tax fraud.

At the same time the U.S. Attorney announced Simmons’ indictment, the office also announced that Riverview resident Arswaya Ralph pleaded guilty in Tampa federal court to filing a false income tax claim and identity theft. She has not yet been sentenced.

According to her plea agreement, Ralph filed 65 fraudulent tax returns with a value of $467,000 in 2010. Law enforcement authorities said they found $27,000 in Ralph’s bedroom closet when they searched her home.

Both Simmons’ and Ralph’s cases resulted from a yearlong campaign by local and federal law enforcement to combat fraudulent income tax returns. The government calls the effort “Operation Rainmaker” and claims that it has intercepted at least 10,000 fraudulent returns worth more than $100 million.

According to authorities, Deese yelled, “You wanna fight?”, then pulled off his shirt and charged at Cornwell. Cornwell shot Deese once in the chest with a .380 caliber pistol.

The men were strangers and there is apparently no explanation for the fact that Deese began banging on Cornwell’s front door at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, swearing and demanding to be let in. Law enforcement reports that Cornwell’s wife, Traci, was asleep on the couch and woke up her husband, who got his handgun. then yelled through the door, telling Deese to go away.

Cornwell apparently opened the front door and yelled again through the screen door. At that point, Deese opened the screen door and ran into the home. Cornwell accidentally shot one round into the floor and then hit Deese with his second shot.

Deputies said the Cornwells’ 3-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter were sleeping in their beds at the time.

According to the sheriff’s office, Deese had spend the night drinking with friends in Winter Haven. Friends told investigators Deese was “quite intoxicated.”

Before appearing at the Cornwell home, Deese apparently got into a fight at someone else’s house, where had went with a friend. After the fight, the friend dropped Deese off in Cornwell’s neighborhood because Deese said he knew someone there.

A woman who lives next door to the Cornwells called the sheriff’s office when she saw Deese lying on her patio table inside her screened porch. While deputies were on the way, Deese walked over to the Cornwells’ house and began banging on the door.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told the media that Cornwell had a right to shoot Deese. “William Cornwell had every right to protect himself, his wife and his children from this irrational, out-of-control man who broke into their home. The mistake the suspect made by breaking into that home was a fatal one.”

In his press conference, Judd referenced the 2005 Florida Castle Doctrine, which says if a person fears death or great bodily harm to themselves or another, they are allowed to use deadly force while protecting their home or car against someone who has entered illegally.

Deputies are continuing to investigate the shooting. The Polk County State Attorney’s Office will ultimately review the Sheriff’s investigation and decide whether to file charges against Cornwell.

According to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Kendricks and Scott were playing cards with a group of people at a Palmetto rooming house on January 1. Witnesses told investigators that Scott threatened Kendricks with a gun after losing money to him.

Scott fired the gun twice, hitting Kendricks once. Kendricks then pulled out his own gun and fatally shot Scott. Kendricks allegedly fled the scene with both guns.

Someone in the house called 911 and hung up. When 911 dispatchers called back, the shooting was reported by an unknown caller. Deputies responded to the rooming house, where they discovered Scott’s body. Shortly afterward, Kendricks checked himself into Manatee Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound.

When originally interviewed about his injuries, Kendricks told deputies that he was near the rooming house when a stray bullet hit him.

Although Kendricks is not charged in Scott’s death, he was arrested Monday on other charges: possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, tampering with evidence and giving false information to law enforcement.

Florida’s justifiable use of force statute states that “[a] person is justified in using force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself against the other’s imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself.”

Grover sold prescriptions for oxycodone to a confidential informant and an undercover agent on five occasions between April and June 2011, according to court documents.

Grover met a confidential informant twice in a Burger King parking lot in Lutz. On the first occasion, Grover sold the informant four prescriptions, each for 60 80-milligram oxycodone pills. The second sale included eight prescriptions, each for 180 30-milligram pills.

On two other occasions, Grover met with the confidential informant and the undercover agent in a business center parking lot in Palm Harbor. During the first Palm Harbor meeting, he sold six prescriptions. Four were for 180 30-milligram pills and the other two were for 180 15-milligram pills. On the second occasion, Grover sold 12 prescriptions, each for 180 30-milligram pills.

On another occasion, he sold six prescriptions to the undercover agent in a Walgreens parking lot in Palm Harbor. Each prescription was for 180 30-milligram pills.

Grover was arrested as part of a federal drug sweep in October. Nine doctors and two pharmacists were among 22 people arrested and accused of illegally distributing prescription drugs.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder believes Florida is the epicenter of the country’s prescription drug abuse problem. Of the 55 million oxycodone pills illegally sold nationwide, 85 percent were in Florida, Holder said.

For several years now, we’ve seen a local and federal law enforcement focus on alleged “pill mills” and over-prescribing and/or illegally distributing physicians in the Tampa Bay area.

In connection with the tax fraud indictment, federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of more than $26 million either obtained from or linked to the offenses.

Khawaja was sentenced last month to three years in prison on a federal weapons charge. Abdeljalil was arrested in Tampa on tax fraud-related charges when he attended his brother’s sentencing hearing.

The three men are accused of involvement in a type of fraud in which street criminals use stolen personal information to file tax returns with bogus financial information used to get tax “refunds.” According to a federal indictment, the three men used their businesses to launder the proceeds of tax fraud. Authorities say they purchased fraudulent income tax return checks and checks issued for refund anticipation loans and then presented those fraudulent checks for payment at financial institutions in Virginia, Florida and elsewhere. The brothers own convenience stores — Khawaja in Tampa and Abdeljalil in Virginia. Mustafa owns Tampa car businesses.

In total, the three are accused of fraudulently depositing more than $17.5 million.

Khawaja was recorded buying bogus U.S. Treasury checks from undercover detectives, according to evidence introduced in his weapons trial in January. On the recording, Khawaja can be seen paying $280, representing 20 percent of the face value, for a bogus Treasury check. When investigators searched Khawaja’s store, they found four Treasury checks in his front pocket, according to a federal court affidavit. He told agents he often negotiated Treasury checks and sent them to Abdeljalil in Roanoke, Va.

Agents obtained FedEx Express records of 36 packages sent by Khawaja to Abdeljalil between February and July 2010. In addition, agents analyzed 399 of the checks worth almost $1.7 million deposited into Abdeljalil’s accounts, and found a majority of them were payable to out-of-state residents, primarily people in Tampa. At least three of the checks in Abdeljalil’s accounts were prepared by Shawntrece Sims, who was sentenced in December to nine years in federal prison for committing more than $670,000 in tax fraud and mail fraud.

At trial, the jury heard testimony from the victim/drug dealer Daniel Drake as well as other witnesses who had smoked substantial amounts of marijuana at the time of the shooting. Both Jones and Drake claimed the other was trying to rob him. Neither admitted ownership of the gun used in the shooting.

According to law enforcement, Drake and Jones had been conducting a drug deal when the two began to fight. They alleged that Jones pulled out a pistol and threatened to kill Drake. Deputies claimed that Jones then opened Drake’s car, removed the marijuana and attempted to leave. When Drake went after him, Jones allegedly shot at him several times.

Drake said he brought a half-pound of “hydro” marijuana to a yard on Mohrlake Drive in Brandon, intending to make a sale to Jones. Drake and Jones got into a car to make the transaction. Each claims the other tried to rob him in the car. Drake said Jones showed him a wad of cash, which Drake told him he admired, but then Jones displayed a gun and asked, “How do you like this?”

Jones said he wasn’t carrying a gun. He said Drake pulled the gun, but he was able to wrestle it away from the dealer. Then both got out of the car, and they scuffled some more. Drake’s partner said he managed to get the gun away from Jones but, for some reason, gave the gun back to him.

Jones said he took off running with the gun. Drake said Jones grabbed the marijuana out of the car first. They fought some more. Jones said he was losing and slipping into unconsciousness. “I was in fear for my life. I closed my eyes and shot.”

The jury clearly believed that these circumstances did not meet the necessary elements for conviction of attempted murder. With unreliable witnesses and confusing versions of the facts of the case, it is not hard to understand why they returned the not guilty verdict.

Spurgeon’s defense attorney, Bjorn Brunvand of this office, says the state violated the Brady rule, which requires the state in criminal cases to disclose to a defendant all evidence favorable to the defense. Spurgeon was convicted of manslaughter last month by a jury and awaits sentencing. She faces up to 15 years in prison for the death of a one-year-old in her care. Spurgeon was initially charged with first-degree murder. A jury convicted her instead of manslaughter.

The defense recently learned Pinellas County Medical Examiner Jon Thogmartin said another child at the day care could have caused the injuries that killed 1-year-old Maria Harris. Thogmartin made the statement to a law school class while lecturing. A student in the class reported the statements to defense counsel.

Thogmartin is expected to testify at the hearing.

In August 2008, Harris’ grandmother dropped the child off at Spurgeon’s home day care. When she picked up the child that afternoon, Maria was lethargic and soon became unresponsive. She died days later in the hospital. An autopsy determined the child died of blunt head trauma.

During the trial, 11 medical experts testified with differing opinions on what caused the injuries.

Brunvand and co-counsel Ron Kurpiers requested a meeting with Thogmartin to confirm the information. “We said this is the first we heard of that,” Kurpiers said. “You didn’t put it in your report. He emphasized to us that he had on multiple occasions relayed that information to the assistant state attorney.”

The information never made it to the defense attorneys before or during the trial. The defense maintains that if the jury had been presented this critical evidence, it would have returned a finding of not guilty.

Prosecutors say they didn’t hear Thogmartin discuss any new evidence and, if they had, they would have brought it to the court’s attention.

Authorities say Whaley told them he had an argument with family members during a trip to Daytona Beach but that he was so intoxicated he couldn’t recall why they argued. There was some suggestion by the sheriff’s department that the 23-year-old wanted to stay in Daytona a bit longer but his relatives wished to return home to Polk County. When they arrived home in Lake Wales, he allegedly decided to kill his grandmother, Barbara Denmark, and his aunt, who lived nearby.

According to detectives, Whaley slashed and stabbed Denmark with two knives while she was in the bathtub. Leaving her with at least 25 wounds. He reportedly told police that he decided not to follow through on his plan to kill other relatives and dialed 911 instead.

“Come get me,” he said to the 911 dispatcher. Whaley was inside the home when deputies arrived and was kneeling over his grandmother’s body, cradling her head. He surrendered without incident.

Whaley has been charged with first-degree murder. The State will have to decide soon whether or not to seek the death penalty. Prosecutors have 15 days to file a notice if they intend to seek the death penalty. The notice is filed as part of a procedure for cases that have elements that might make the death penalty appropriate.

If they choose not to do so, Whaley faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder. Under Florida law, murder in the first degree is the unlawful killing of a human being “when perpetrated from a premeditated design to effect the death of the person killed or any human being.” The law does not fix the exact period of time that must pass between the formation of the premeditated intent to kill and the killing. The period of time must be long enough to allow reflection by the defendant. A jury might also consider several lesser-included offenses including second-degree murder or manslaughter.

The officer then pulled over Rojo Medina’s 2002 Ford F150. In an arrest affidavit, the officer wrote he could “smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage” emanating from Rojo Medina’s breath. The officer also reported that he spotted cocaine (or what he believed to be cocaine) on the center console. A child was sitting in the backseat.

Police arrested Rojo Medina on several charges, including driving under the influence, child abuse, driving on a suspended or revoked license and possession of a controlled substance. Local media reported that Rojo Medina has been cited in the past for license issues, including driving with one that was suspended or revoked and not having one at all.

Child abuse or neglect counts often appear when caregivers are found to be driving under the influence with children because of the caregiver’s duty to provide a child with the care, supervision, and services necessary to maintain the child’s physical and mental health. Under Florida law, neglect of a child may be based on repeated conduct or on a single incident that could reasonably be expected to result in serious physical injury, or a substantial risk of death, to a child (if that incident is a violation of a caregiver’s duty to provide adequate care to maintain the child’s health). Child neglect charges are categorized as third-degree felonies under Florida law.

Detectives served a search warrant at the 34th Street Mart, seizing 32 packs of K-2, with brand names such as “Heads Up,” “Maui Wowie,” “Knockout,” “Down2earth Climaxxx” and “620.”

The investigation apparently began this month when detectives received information about the illegal use of Electronic Benefit Transfer cards in the store. An undercover officer then purchased several items from Abukhdeir at the store, utilizing an illegal EBT card and PIN number, which Abukhdeir allegedly knew were illegal.

During the transaction, Abukhdeir told the detective that he had K-2 and marijuana, and that he sells K-2 to customers, according to law enforcement. Several undercover detectives then reportedly purchased K-2 and a small amount of marijuana from Abukhdeir.

Abukhdeir is charged with three counts of sale of imitation controlled substance; four counts of possession of imitation controlled substance with intent to sell; three counts of possession of imitation controlled substance; and one count each of possession of cannabis less than 20 grams, delivery of cannabis and maintaining a store for drug use/sales. He faces five years in prison on each of the sale and possession with intention to sell charges if convicted.

Abukhdeir was arrested March 27 on a charge of driving while his license was suspended or revoked, and on Hillsborough County warrants for driving while his license was suspended or revoked, failure to appear on the license charge, and failure to appear on a possession of cannabis charge. He bonded out the same day.