It’s Tuesday, September 20th - and NBC 6 has the top stories for the day.
No. 1 - A Texas County Sheriff announced Monday that his office was opening an investigation into the transportation of two planes filled with migrants that were sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Wednesday.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement Monday his office will investigate if a crime took place when 48 migrants from Venezuela were "lured, under false pretenses into staying at a hotel for a couple of days, at a point they were shuttled to an airplane where they were flown to Florida and then to Martha's Vineyard under false pretenses." Salazar said another Venezuelan migrant was paid "what we would call a bird dog fee" to recruit the migrants. Records showed the two charter jets flew from San Antonio, Texas to Crestview, Florida Wednesday morning. Both landed in Martha's Vineyard shortly after 3 p.m.
No. 2 - The judge in the Parkland school shooting sentencing trial has denied a motion by the gunman's defense attorneys to remove herself from the case.
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Attorneys for Nikolas Cruz on Friday filed a motion to disqualify Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer from the case, claiming the judge had revealed her animosity toward lead defense attorney Melisa McNeil, and that it has "infected" the entire trial. Scherer denied the motion in a brief written order, as a hearing was being held Monday afternoon. "The allegations set forth in the instant motion are legally insufficient to merit disqualification," Scherer wrote. Scherer scolded defense attorneys on Wednesday when they abruptly rested their case after calling only a fraction of their witnesses.
No. 3 - A Broward County circuit court judge may have set bonds totaling $750,000 for a man accused of leaving dead animals at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas memorial site, but Robert Zildjian Mondragon won’t be going anywhere soon.
The 29-year-old Margate man was arrested August 4 and is facing nine charges that include three for disfiguring a tomb or monument. Bond was set at $250,000 for each of the three charges, in court Monday, but Mondragon remains in the Broward County Jail without bond for violating probation, battery, and indecent exposure, records show. The Broward Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest Sept. 2 saying Mondragon left a dead duck, raccoon, and opossum on a bench at the MSD Memorial Garden since July 20. The site honors the memory of the 17 students and staff that were killed in the Parkland school shooting February 14, 2018.
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No. 4 - A strengthening Hurricane Fiona barreled toward the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as it threatened to strengthen into a Category 3 storm, prompting the government to impose a curfew.
Forecasters said Fiona could become a major hurricane late Monday or on Tuesday, when it was expected to pass near the British territory. “Storms are unpredictable,” Premier Washington Misick said in a statement from London, where he was attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. “You must therefore take every precaution to ensure your safety.” The intensifying storm kept dropping copious rain over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where a 58-year-old man died after police said he was swept away by a river in the central mountain town of Comerio. Another death was linked to the blackout — a 70-year-old man who was burned to death after he tried to fill his generator with gasoline while it was running, officials said.
No. 5 - Volunteers in South Florida are stepping up to help those affected by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) will send the first shipment of family necessity kits in the next 48 hours. "We fortified partnerships during our involvement with Hurricane Maria so that allows us to act much more swiftly and quicker with this disaster and so we'll move in faster than we could have then and get goods into the hands of people in all areas of Puerto Rico," said Emily Fullmer, COO of the Global Empowerment Mission. Three members of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Urban Search and Rescue team have also been deployed to Puerto Rico. This team will support local responders with integration of all search and rescue teams as well as logistics.
No. 6 - Recent video posted online by Only in Dade shows some of the chaos as lines continue to be long at DMV locations across South Florida.
NBC 6 has been looking into the issue and uncovered a big part of the problem are third-parties who are booking multiple appointments to sell for a profit. It’s a simple case of supply and demand. Appointments are booked up months out and there are long lines for walk-ins, leaving taxpayers desperate to get in. It didn’t take long for NBC 6 to find someone who purchased a DMV appointment. Virginia Montenegro said she paid $60 in cash because it was cheaper than continuing to pay for an Uber while she waited to get a new license. Other drivers who waited for months are appalled to hear about the loophole. Click here for more in a report from NBC 6’s Heather Walker.
