Thursday, October 29, 2009

Dr. Adams

Dr. Vernard Adams is the Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. He explains the behind the scenes of what the examiners really do and its nothing like what you see on television.


Dr. Adams has been the examiner for 18 years and has been in the news multiple times. A Web-site called Zoominfo has the news stories that Dr. Adams has been involved in. However, an interesting story that I found out about Dr. Adams, was that he was involved in the Billy Mays tragic death case.



“Adams said authorities had ruled out prescription drug abuse. Mays was taking prescription painkillers Tramadol and hydrocodone for hip pain, but the pill counts showed that Mays had taken the correct amount, according to the medical examiner,” according to The Times.
The examiner has two investigative tools which are inquiry and examination.

Inquiry consists of looking at records and talking to people. They have to get hospital records and doctor’s records. And they have to talk with the doctors and with the families. The examiner relies upon the police for a lot of the scene investigation; however they do a lot of them ourselves but work closely with them.

Examination is the close inspection of a dead body at the scene or at the office; and an examination can include an autopsy report and an internal examination, which is done at the office; also included are insulin tests done on specimens from an autopsy such as bacterial cultures, chemical tests, and most frequently test for drugs.

So what does all of this have to do with public records? Well, like any other government based organization, everything must be opened to the public and in order to do that a public record must be produced.

“We generate records such as autopsy reports, toxicology reports notes from telephone conversations, notes from hospital records. All are public accept when if the investigation is considered an active criminal investigation. The custodian of records, me, gets to determine if it is a public records,” said Dr. Adams.

Something that I found interesting was that all the files are all color coded.
· Red files are homicide
· Black files are traffic accidents
· Yellow files are suicides
· White files are non-traffic accidents
· Orange files are undetermined

“Records that we shown go back about 4 years, but they have room for 10 year old records; once they reach the stage where they need to move out they go to the County’s Record Center. Basically by then they become archives and have to be accessed by appointment,” said Dr. Adams.

Everything in the records can be accessed except the photos unless it’s under active investigation.

I researched the County’s Record Center and found a very usable Web-site called The Records Project. The site has great information and it really sums up everything that we have learned all semester in Public Affairs Reporting class. It has Hillsborough Adoption Details, Hillsborough Background Checks, Hillsborough Births, Hillsborough Cemetery Records, Hillsborough Court Records, Hillsborough Death Records, Hillsborough Genealogy Resources, Hillsborough Marriage Records, Hillsborough Obituaries, and last but certainly not least, the Hillsborough Police Records.

I feel that Gil was right on the money to leave Dr. Adams for the last tour. I found myself understanding Dr. Adams when he was taking about the traffic accident reports and the Clerk’s office. Overall, I enjoyed this video and Dr. Adams, he was funny (in a dry-sense of humor way).

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Mr. Integrity: Steve Andrews

Mr. Integrity

Hard working and integrity is the key to good reporting says Steve Andrews.

Andrews is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Executive Producer of Investigations WFLA News Channel 8. He gave a lecture to the Public Affairs Reporting class and I must say he showcased some powerful thoughts about integrity. One thing that he said that hit home for me was to be tough but be polite.


“As you go through your career and as you begin your career you need to know how to be polite… you don’t have to be in your face. You can be tough and hold people accountable but you don’t have to be a jerk,” said Andrews.


For myself being a waitress for 11 years and completely understand what he means. I have been doing it for so long; I had forgotten that my skills can apply to other careers. In terms as reporting career, I think that Andrews’s advice is important because reporters can become de-sensitized and forget that people have feelings.


An example of Andrews not becoming one of those de-sensitized reporters was shown back in June 2007. He was the reporter that demanded the public records from a DCF Investigation to be open. The story was about the neglect of a 85 year old man in a nursing home. Andrews demanded that DCF take a closer look at this problem and sure enough the case was re-opened. In the end, the director of the nursing home told Andrews thank you and that this will lead to more aggressive investigations on the nurses that are hired.

All of this happened because Andrews followed what he preached. That you can get the job done by being tough and being polite and that the people you come across will respect you for that.
During the lecture, Andrews showed a news story about a judge that was corrupt. Not in his court room but in his personal affairs.

Former Judge Thomas Stringer was the first black man to graduate from Stetson Law School. Andrews said this statement several times in his story. For me, the focus statement for the story was not so much that the former Judge had hide money for a stripper but that his reputation has become tarnished. That the young black men going to school for law once looked to Stringer as a public figure, now is looked at as just another black criminal.



Andrews care was for those that who did look up to him. And when Andrews had that microphone in Stringers face, Andrews wanted an answer for all those young law students.


His reporting style should be noted to all young journalists coming up. Be honest to the people in the story you are reporting and have integrity. If anybody wants to email Andrews to ask him any questions go to http://www.wfla.com/personalities/andrews.htm


If you think there is something out there to be investigated in the Tampa Bay area, call News Channel 8 (813)-221-5779, they are waiting to here from you.

Thursday, October 15, 2009


Preston Trigg, Director of Administration and Special Projects for the Hillsborough County Tax Collector, gave the public affairs reporting class a lecture on what exactly the tax collector does. However, I want to talk about something that really interested me. The tax collector office works with the Department of Motor vehicles.


The tax collectors office can issue driver licenses, license tag renewal, titles for boat and cars, hunting & fishing licenses, and handicapped/disabled parking permits. When Trigg started about 10 years ago, people were waiting in line at the DMV for an hour to be seen. Trigg along with others began to change the way of thinking at the DMV and the Tax Collectors Office. They wanted to train their employee’s to other fields of service. So now, employees could issue driver’s license and also hunting licenses. This cut down the time at the counter.

“Now we can pin point the problem and they try to make wait times less than 15 minutes,” Trigg said.

The new system is an electronic system with numbers. You when you walk up to the front counter, you tell the clerk what you are there for, and then they can place you at the right counter. Because of this, wait times have cut down to 15 minutes.

So why is the DMV such a concern with the tax collectors office? Well, all the money collected has to be given to the tax collector’s office. And if they can make the wait times faster, then they can get their money faster. Makes sense, right!

So what records can I get from the tax collector’s office pertaining to motor vehicle records? Well, years ago, as a reporter you were able to get the records. They were wide open. However, that all changed with the Driver Privacy Protection Act of 1994.

A "motor vehicle record" means any record that pertains to a motor vehicle operator's permit, motor vehicle title, motor vehicle registration, or identification card issued by a department of motor vehicles. According to the a website called consumerprivacyguide.org, “Congress passed the Driver's Privacy Protection Act as an amendment to the Omnibus Crime Act of 1994; it restricts the public disclosure of personal information contained in state department of motor vehicle ("DMV") records.

While Driver's Privacy Protection Act generally prohibits DMV officials from knowingly disclosing personally identifiable information contained in department records, it delineates several broad exceptions.

In January of 2000, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Act in the case of Reno vs. Condon. The Court held that personal, identifying information from drivers' licenses and motor vehicle registrations is a "thing in interstate commerce" that can be regulated by Congress like any other commodity.”

Also, Trigg had mentioned that a show called “My Sister Sam” dealt with the same issues. I did some research and found that Rebecca Schaeffer was an actress on that show. An obsessed fan, Robert John Bardo, stalked Schaeffer for years. Until, finally Bardo saw Schaeffer in a movie doing a sex scene and became outraged. Living in Oregon, Bardo approached a Tucson detective agency and paid them $250 to get her home address through California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records.


Following Schaeffer's, California laws regarding the release of personal information through the DMV were drastically changed. The Driver's Privacy Protection Act was enacted in 1994, which prevents the DMV from releasing private addresses. The law's effect has subsequently been diminished by online address search services. Schaeffer's life and death became the topic of the first E! True Hollywood Story, which originally aired on March 29, 1996.

In conclusion, Trigg discussed many things in his lecture, but these particular things I had found interesting. It just goes to show you that as a person you do have control with your government. Whether that be a customer complaining on wait times or an actress who needs justice, things can be changed.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/zsFF9fq-Russert-tosses-softballs-at-HRC-re-Norman-Hsu

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/zsFF9fq-Russert-tosses-softballs-at-HRC-re-Norman-Hsu

Web-Browsing as fast as the Wind

Dirt digging, money laundering, open secrets…Oh my! William “Windy” March gave a lecture and a tutorial about some Web-sites that he uses as a political reporter. And boy, did he show you where you can find the dirt, fast!


To begin with he explained what money laundering was and how it can easily be abused by political candidates. Money laundering is where one person gives money to another person and tells them what to spend it on. Well, you say, how can I get arrested for that? You can’t but…if you do it 500 times with large quantities of money such as $1000, then you’re looking at some time sitting on a hard wooden bench in court, explaining yourself.

An example of this was in 1996 during Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign. March explained that a man by the name of Mark Jimenez, donated $1000 to the Clinton campaign. But he didn’t just donate $1000. He used his business Future Tech International and his employees to launder money into the campaign.


Norman Hsu, who was also apart of the fraud, had donated $850,000 of his own money. According to a Tampa Tribune article Hsu helped raise $1 million for the Democratic candidates through about 75 people he knew. He got these people to make contributions to the party. Also, Hsu gave another $3.5 million to charitable causes.



So following March’s advice, I searched for Norman Hsu through the Web-sites that he discussed. First, I went to http://www.sunbiz.org/ and search his name. No results were found there. Next, I went to http://www.opensecrets.org/ another Web-site had mentioned. And again nothing turned up. A man by the name of Paul Hsu came up who had donated several years a row, but nothing on Mr. Norman.


So, even though I came up empty handed, doesn’t mean you will. If you are looking to write about politics, these two Web-sites have some great information.

March continued his lecture and began to take about two companies.
“Accurint and Auto Track are companies that what they do is collect data, nationwide, and they sell what they have found back to you,” March said.

I used Google and researched these companies to learn more about them. Accurint according to their Web-site “is a locate-and-research tool available to government, law enforcement and commercial customers. Its proprietary data linking and analysis technology, LexisNexis® Link ID, securely and intelligently analyzes billions of partial and complete records, and then filters and links that information based on relevance to provide a complete picture of an individual—all in a matter of seconds.”

Wow, I thought to myself pretty cool. So how much would this cost someone? I don’t know. I researched the Web-site and it gave me no clues. I called the 1-866 number provided on the site to see if I could speak with a representative but in order to get through you must have a “LexisNexis” user ID number or else they will not call you back. So…again I turned up empty handed, but if anybody has the answer as to how much this service would cost, I would be interested in knowing.

William “Windy” March has opened and unlocked doors or Web-sites I should say that I never would have thought about. His intelligence on digging for dirt on political candidates is vast and creditable to his character as a reporter. Overall, Windy blew my mind away!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Superwomen

The Clerk of Court video tour, I would have to say, was by far the most boring video. Perhaps it was because the Clerk of Court has many offices within it. The panels of speakers included Pat Frank, the Clerk; Joann M Constantini, Director of Official Records; Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations; and Douglas Bakke, Director of Family Law, Domestic Violence, Collections, and Expungement. The entire panel covered many of the duties each office had to accomplish.


However, I am only going to talk about what really interested me. Pat Frank is an incredible interesting speaker and her work shows that she is an extremely driven person. In her life time she as accomplished so much such as being on the Hillsborough County School Board (1972), being elected to the Florida House of Representatives (1976), being elected to the Florida Senate (1978-88), being elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (1998 and 2002), and finally in 2004, Mrs. Frank was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County. Some could say that she is a Superwomen!

Also, she was the first woman elected "Most Effective First-Term Member" by the House and also the first woman nominated "Most Respected Senator" by her Senate colleagues. All if this information can be found on the Clerk of Circuit Court Web-site. Also, Frank has a blog called Frank Talk Blog.


During the lecture from Pat Frank, she spoke about the power struggles between the Courts and the Clerks office, which got really confusing, but as a woman who has been around the block, I suppose she was allowed to vent.


“We technically are not a part of the courts system. I don’t work under the judge, I’m not a lawyer, and we have about a 1,000 duties under the statue and even more after this last legislative session that we must take care of. But the Principle purpose of the Clerk’s office is to work for the people”, Frank said.


Another thing that Frank brought up was how important their office is to the public. Early this year, a breaking story hit the Tampa Bay about four former Walker Middle School flag football players having been charged with the crime. The crime was a sexual assault, but that’s not why the story is important in regards to the Clerk’s office. The state attorney’s office did omit a declaration from the boys and therefore it was processed and made public. That declaration was later used as a confession by the prosecutor.





“The story was taken down from the Web site after a judge signed an emergency order stopping TBO.com, The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8 from running stories with the teen defendants' statements. That order was reversed Friday after the media outlets' attorneys appealed the injunction at a hearing,” according to KATE CALDWELL, News Channel 8 and JOSH POLTILOVE, The Tampa Tribune.





Overall, I feel that the lecture contained some very interesting information, and all of the speakers knew much about their particular office. Pat Frank just happened to be the most interesting speaker to me and therefore I felt she deserved to be the topic of my blog. However, if you want to know more about the other offices or people that were on the panel, start by going to http://www.hillsclerk.com/.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Jailhouse Blues



On the tour through the Hillsborough County Jail, I found myself very interested when the tour guide, Officer Scott Smith, reached the confinement area. Although, Smith covered the entire jail including the booking area and the psychiatric ward, just to mention a few, I still found myself strangely draw to this small area of living space.



Misbehavior can cause an inmate to receive confinement. How does their behavior get determined into whether they receive confinement? The jail system at Hillsborough has what is called Administrative Hearings. These particular hearings not only decide whether they receive confinement, but also how many days an inmate will spend in their new home. And some inmates can get up to 30 days.



Because this area of living is filled with misbehaved adults, the officers on duty increase. In population, or the common area of inmates, there is one officer per 72 inmates. But in confinement, there are three officers per 64 inmates.



Smith states that inmates could spend up to 22 hours in solitaire confinement. I would defiantly have the jailhouse blues if I had to be by myself for that long. Also, if inmates wanted magazines they would have to get them from the publisher. You and a magazine seem pretty lonely.




Smith continues to explain that the officers on duty have to know what restrictions each inmate has in order for the officer to be safe. An example of this would the magazine that is issued. If an inmate is under suicide watch, the officers have to be aware of this because the inmate may take out the staples and poke out their eyes.




“There is a book with why they are in confinement,” said Smith.





So I went to the Internet to do some research to get some more details about these four white walls and this intimate book of the inmates. I found a Web-site about the Florida Department of Corrections that had some exceptionally interesting data under the “FAQs” tab.



Confinement is also called “Closed Management”. The definition of closed management according to the Web-site is “designed to house inmates who commit acts that threaten the safety of others, threaten the security of the institution, or demonstrate an inability to live in the general population without abusing the rights and privileges of others.”



I also learned that there are three different levels of closed confinement, CM I, CM II, CM III. One is having the most extreme security and three being the least.



In conclusion, my research turned up some more very interesting questions such as what is the difference between jail and prison, and what are the gangs like in prison. The Web-site has some great information and I’m lucky that I can find this knowledge through Web-sites like these; otherwise I would have jailhouse blues.