⚖️ Tragedy and triumph
🕊 Good morning, gentles. For you today, difficult news in a child murder case, UF campus in the balance, sticky shoes, voting right, surf's up and a salute to trail-blazing Black women.
Today’s newsletter is a 7-minute read.
Justice delayed, again, in torture death of Nubia Barahona
Jorge Barahona brought his adopted son to Palm Beach County to die. A road ranger spotted Barahona’s truck on the shoulder of northbound I-95 on Valentine’s Day 2011.
Father and son were drenched in a stew of pesticides and acids. Barahona was unconscious. The boy, 10, was convulsing. He survived.
His twin sister, Nubia, was already dead, tortured and killed in the family’s Miami-Dade County home. Her decomposing body was wrapped in a plastic bag and put in the truck bed.
Barahona and his wife were charged with first-degree murder and multiple counts of child abuse.
The child torture case made national headlines. It forced the state to pay millions to the surviving son. It put the failures of Florida’s Department of Children and Family Services on display.
But 12 years later, Jorge Barahona has not stood trial. And after more than a decade of delay, the chances that Barahona will face a jury are fading again.
A March trial date in Miami Dade County Circuit Court will almost certainly be pushed back, Miami-Dade County state attorney spokesman Ed Griffith said. Until then, Barahona remains in the county jail.
Lawyers are starting from scratch. Barahona’s original court-appointed lead defense attorney withdrew two years ago, citing an investigation into whether he overbilled the state for Barahona’s case and other death penalty defendants.
Several months later, two other court-ordered attorneys asked to be removed.
That resets the trial clock to zero. “The new defense lawyers for Barahona are telling the court that they must start the defense from the very beginning,” said Griffith in a statement.
Barahona’s defense counsel declined to comment.
Carmen Barahona pled guilty to first-degree murder in 2020. She is a key prosecution witness against her ex-husband. She is now in her early 70s.
It wasn’t just the twins. In 2020, a series Pat co-wrote for USA Today revealed how Florida put other foster children into the arms of abusers. Read more, here. (Note: Some readers may encounter a paywall. )
UF campus hangs in the balance
Thanks to blockbuster reporting last week by The Palm Beach Post’s Alexandra Clough we know more about the behind-the-scenes dealing that brought the University of Florida to West Palm Beach. And why the proposed $200 million UF downtown graduate school may go up in smoke. According to Clough:
The first news reports in August 2021 credited then-Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner with luring UF. But billionaire downtown investor Stephen Ross told Clough he discussed the campus with UF officials early in 2021, long before Kerner and West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James met UF officials in Gainesville in June 2021.
Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins and developer of CityPlace (now known as The Square), pledged $50 million toward the $100 million in private contributions needed to match a state contribution of $100 million.
It looks like the money is in place but all that could disappear. UF needs 5 acres owned by another local billionaire, Jeff Greene. As Clough relates, Greene believed UF had committed to naming the entire campus for him in exchange for the land. UF later said it couldn’t do that but would name a building for him. That didn’t fly.
Without Greene’s land, the proposal is likely to die. Greene told Clough: "It's so crazy; I'm gaining nothing out of this. I'm unlike Steve Ross, who is giving $50 million to make $500 million."
There have been indications of unease over the years between Ross and Greene, as Greene has weighed construction of his twin, 30-story towers at 550 Quadrille, and Ross has amassed buildings like Phillips Point and Esperante while adding significantly to the city’s skyline.
In 2017, Greene opposed Ross’ proposal to convert the First Church of Christ, Scientist on Flagler Drive into a 25-story office tower, which would have competed with Greene’s One West Palm on Quadrille.
Feb. 28 update: The University of Florida announced today that it was "pausing deliberation" about a West Palm Beach campus "given some regrettable divisions in the local community."
To read Clough’s in-depth reports, check here and here. (Note: Some readers may encounter a paywall.)
Mail theft: A sticky shoe and some nail polish remover
It’s not every government memo that’s worth reading for the footnotes.
But when a thief or thieves made off with five checks worth $78,000 from a downtown West Palm Beach mailbox and the checks had been sent by the government, a four-page footnote-dotted memo seemed to be in order.
What the footnotes said:
“A USPS postal inspector has advised that individuals are using an old shoe or similar object on the end of a string coated with a sticky subject, to ‘fish’ in mailboxes to retrieve letters.”
Once thieves gummy up their shoes and fish out the checks, it’s time for a good washing. “‘Washing’ involves the use of nail polish remover or a similar substance to alter a check’s payee or dollar amount.”
The $78,000 belonged to the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency, which had to dig into reserves to replace the money. Eight checks were taken Nov. 28 and Dec. 13 from the mailbox on Datura Street west of Olive Avenue in downtown West Palm Beach. Five were honored and three were stopped by the TPA’s bank, Wells Fargo.
The agency filed complaints with the U.S. Postal Service and the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, since the thefts involved federal dollars. Agency officials are waiting for results.
Why it matters? It could happen to you. The Postal Service urges people who rely on snail mail to drop it in a mailbox shortly before the box pickup time and never leave it in their home mailbox overnight.
Security? What security? The TPA may have less confidence in banks. The purloined checks were marked “CASH ONLY IF ALL Check Lock SECURITY FEATURES LISTED ON THE BACK INDICATE NO TAMPERING OR COPYING.” And their checks came with the highest industry standard of fraud prevention, including 29 security features and a hologram. The bank is still investigating.
But is it time to give up on snail mail? While digital banking moves millions — even billions — of dollars across the globe every day, TPA isn’t impressed. They’re still using the mail. Just not that mailbox, attorney Paul Gougelman said. “The modern era of paying by internet is not safe either,” Gougelman said. The safest thing, he said, is to insure your bank account.
Ways to make sure your vote counts
👋 Pat, here. I went to vote with a chicken-scratch signature bearing no resemblance to the 10-year-old driver’s license I presented as ID. I expected a suspicious side-eye from the poll worker charged with ensuring I was the real Beall, and I got it.
Matching a signature on an official document to the voter registration signature on file at the Supervisor of Elections Office is a security measure, whether voting in person or by mail.
But it can be a challenge to voters under 30, who rarely sign anything; voters over 60, whose handwriting changes with age; and everyone in between. Mismatched signatures are not the largest cause of mail ballot rejections – deadlines and absent signatures play a bigger role — but they are one of the most subjective.
Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections has some suggestions:
Update your registration: You can do this in person or use this online voter registration application. It will automatically add the signature from your driver’s license or Florida ID card to your voter record.
Or obtain a new DL: A new driver’s license signature will appear as your voter registration signature with the supervisor if you choose to update your voter registration during your DMV visit.
Chicken scratch is OK: Your mark does not have to be a cursive signature. No one is taught handwriting anymore. Different cultures may have different ways of signing. The important thing is the match.
Good to know: When you request a mail ballot — and this now must be done after each general election — your signature on the mail ballot application is the one that will be used when comparing your completed ballot.
Even better: If your two signatures do not match, and your ballot is not accepted, you have an opportunity to “cure” the problem with an affidavit. The affidavit must be returned to the SOE office, with an appropriate ID, no later than 5 pm the second day after the election.
Finally: Take a deep breath before signing. Stress can alter your signature.
Questions? Read more on voting by mail, here. Or call the supervisor’s office. Few things make an election worker happier than helping you cast your vote
The deadline to request that a mail ballot be sent to you for the upcoming municipal elections: 5 pm Saturday, March 4.
The absolute last day to get your mail ballot submitted for counting: It has to be in the hands of the SOE no later than 7 pm Tuesday, March 14.
The quiz answer: Know your surf situations
Last week, we asked: What’s the worst thing that can happen to a Palm Beach County surfer?
Broward surfers muscling locals out of the best Juno pier sets?
Our experts have spoken: Jellyfish! Cannonball jelly, moon jelly, blue buttons; all sting. A Portuguese man-of-war isn’t technically a jellyfish, but its red welts may make it the most painful menace of all.
However, Raphael Clemente, who hits waves when he’s not running the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority, offered this intriguing wild card: Changing weather patterns resulting in fewer days with good surf.
⚖️ 561 insider: Honoring Black women pioneers in law
The newest exhibit at the museum in the 1916 historic Palm Beach County courthouse celebrates trail-blazing Black women attorneys.
“Famous Firsts,” on the third floor of the building that houses the Richard and Pat Johnson History Museum, documents achievements including:
Sheree Davis Cunningham, the first Black woman to be a Palm Beach County Court judge.
Salesia V. Smith-Gordon, the first Black woman to serve on the county’s Commission on Ethics and the first Black woman to serve as its chair.
Portraits of eight women and their stories appear on the walls of the light-filled two-story courtroom that is the centerpiece of the century-old building.
Full-circle moment: Now-retired Judge Cunningham told the well-wishers at the sold-out reception for the exhibit that her judicial swearing-in ceremony in 1993 was the last to take place in that courtroom.
The exhibit helps the historical society fulfill a promise it made to county commissioners in 2003 to celebrate Black history. It is presented in partnership with the Palm Beach County Sheree Davis Cunningham Black Women Lawyers Association and the F. Malcolm Cunningham Sr. Bar Association.
“Famous Firsts” will be on view through March at the museum at 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. Admission to the museum is free.
Find out more: Read John Pacenti’s story on Palm Beach County Black history in The Palm Beach Post. (Note: Some readers may encounter a paywall.)
🌴 We acknowledge being a little relaxed-out from last weekend’s triple threat of the Honda Classic, spring training and street painting. But if you are ready for more, consider this weekend’s Midnight Sun Festival starting Friday evening, March 3, in Lake Worth Beach. Last year, writer-about-town Joe Capozzi explored the festival’s annual Florida Championship Wife Carrying Contest.
🗞️ Thank you to Anne Geggis of Florida Politics for her story about Stet’s journalism in the public interest and our commitment to Palm Beach County. And thank you for joining us.