Clips

Update: Tampabay.com has started putting reporter profiles on the site. Clicking here will take you to my profile, where you’ll find a list of stories I’ve written since Feb. 2008. For reasons I can’t explain, not all of my stories carry over into that list, though.

Here are some of what I consider my best work published in the St. Petersburg Times:

(Clicking headline will launch .pdf of original published story)

Treatment of disabled man attracts national spotlight
Feb. 13, 2008

TAMPA — Hardly anyone noticed last month when a Hillsborough County detention deputy unceremoniously dumped quadriplegic Brian Sterner out of a wheelchair and onto a jail floor.

Tuesday, everyone noticed.

Police uncover eBay art scam
Jan. 17, 2008

TAMPA — Posing as a customer, Tampa police Detective Bob Baxter placed a bid for paintings by Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall on eBay. He won.

Deadly mix of fog, smoke create mayhem on I-4
Jan. 10, 2008

WINTER HAVEN — Jacque Provau was driving to see a doctor in Orlando early Wednesday morning when her Mazda van entered a thick fog. Traffic ahead on Interstate 4 abruptly stopped.

Murder suspect found dead
Dec. 6, 2007

TAMPA — Humberto Cruz walked into the small front office Tuesday, demanding keys to his estranged wife’s apartment, claiming he wanted to install a plasma television. It was going to be a surprise. For the holidays.

DUI Deputy may have wrongly jailed dozens
June 15, 2007

TAMPA — Daniel Brock won high praise for jailing impaired motorists. Mothers Against Drunk Driving honored him. So did his bosses.

But one of Hillsborough County’s most aggressive DUI deputies may have wrongly sent dozens of people to jail, the Sheriff’s Office acknowledged Thursday.

Officials close jailhouse door to Buddhist chaplain
Feb. 26, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG — Buddhist chaplain Frank Tedesco has instructed murderers to “feel the cool air over the tip of their nose.”

He has counseled drug dealers while they “followed their breath” during guided meditations. And by the dozens, inmates at the Pinellas County Jail requested his Saturday afternoon services and asked for literature about the Eastern religion.

But earlier this month, Tedesco learned a valuable lesson in a lifetime full of teaching them: Jail officials stripped him of his duties, citing a breach of contract after three bins of spirituality books found by jail officials were deemed contraband.