Crime News

Police Beat: May 17, 2008 - Collier County Full story »

Following Thursday’s arrest of 25 suspected illegal aliens who were working on the new Lee County jail, deportation hearings will determine how many of the workers will return to their home countries and how many will remain within the United States. Full story »

South Lee Police Beat: May 17, 2008 Full story »

When Pamela DeMeo and Bill Gonsalves developed the Naples Police and Fire Department’s youth academy last summer, their goals were modest. Full story »

Nearly five years after his downtown Naples gay and lesbian bar closed, Mike Rodriguez got the justice he was seeking. Full story »

Though some questions will never be answered, a recently completed investigation by the Collier County Sheriff’s Office reveals that shortly before a North Naples murder-suicide, Rick and Sherri Bell had been arguing over financial issues and had discussions about getting a divorce. Full story »

A mother of a shooting victim had wanted to keep a younger child from seeing his brother’s death. A defense attorney had argued that graphic footage would keep his client from receiving a fair trial. Despite those arguments, a judge ordered this week that some — but not all — of the surveillance footage from a 2007 convenience store robbery be released. Full story »

A nearly 12-hour standoff came to an end Friday night after a 22-year-old man, who had been holed up in his East Naples home since about 7:30 a.m., came out peacefully. Full story »

Collier County sheriff's deputies arrested a 74-year-old man Thursday after they say he grabbed a 14-year-old girl and tried to lure her away as she sat outside a North Naples bagel shop. Full story »

Golden Gate schools were on lockdown for about 40 minutes this morning after a prekindergarten teacher at Golden Gate Elementary School saw a man walking down the street with a gun in his hand. The lockdown has just been lifted. Full story »

A group of soccer players stopped a trio who tried to steal their personal belongings at an East Naples park on Thursday night, according to Collier County sheriff's deputies. Full story »

Two people were arrested on felony charges Wednesday after Collier County sheriff’s deputies say they stole body piercing rings from an East Naples tattoo parlor while customers were getting tattoos. Full story »

In December 2006, Smith Joseph of Golden Gate was sentenced to 20 months in a state prison for stalking a woman four years earlier. This February, a year after his release from prison, Joseph was arrested on charges he stalked a former neighbor for three months by sending the 26-year-old Golden Gate woman text messages, joining her gym and showing up at her place of employment after she repeatedly refused to date him. Full story »

A 12-year-old boy who started a small brush fire in East Naples this evening was caught by Collier County sheriff’s deputies. Full story »

In the eyes of 19-year-old Jason Mitchell, one of the five Lee County men charged in the death of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor, that man had “one of the coolest things” ever: the center console of Taylor’s BMW held a refrigerator. Mitchell noticed it, he later told investigators, while taking the opportunity to sit in the car — without Taylor’s knowledge — during a visit to the football player’s Palmetto Bay home just a few months before the fatal shooting. During that early October 2007 visit to Taylor’s home, as Mitchell stayed in the football player’s home and slept on his living room couch, the frills in the BMW weren’t the only surprising indicators of wealth that Mitchell saw. Full story »