A judge on Thursday decided to allow prosecutors to use a taped conversation between a former teacher and a teenager she is accused of molesting. ...more

January 9, 2009

A judge this afternoon decided to allow prosecutors to use a taped conversation between a former teacher and a teenager she is accused of molesting. ...more

January 8, 2009

The parents of two boys who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in 2007 are suing a homebuilder and their then-landlord. ...more

January 7, 2009

Polk County deputies arrested a fifth person Saturday in connection with a shooting that left a 12-year-old bystander wounded in the leg. ...more

January 4, 2009

TAMPA A 78-year-old mental health therapist faces up to life in prison after being convicted this afternoon of a federal charge that he drove to the Tampa area to sexually and physically abuse two boys he thought would be made available by their father. After the verdict was read, Charles Friedlander was overcome with emotion, according to his attorney, George Tragos. He was led away to jail in a wheelchair. ...more

December 16, 2008

Charles Friedlander is "a 78-year-old lonely man whose only social life is on the Internet," and not a pedophile who attempted to sexually and physically abuse two boys, Friedlander's lawyer told a jury today. ...more

December 15, 2008

Fort Myers mental health counselor Thomas Jackson Friedlander was described today as being either a sadistic pedophile or a lonely 78-year-old homosexual who was arrested for describing his corporal punishment fantasies. ...more

December 8, 2008

TAMPA Former Department of Children and Families spokesman Al Zimmerman is set to go on trial Jan. 26 on child pornography charges. U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew scheduled a trial this morning after Assistant U.S. Attorney Colleen Murphy-Davis said she would like to tell the seven victims in the case a definitive trial date. ...more

November 12, 2008

A former teacher at a Hudson preschool today admitted to molesting two former students. ...more

November 6, 2008

A Citrus County medical examiner ruled Saturday that the deaths of Alicia Chomic and her three young sons are consistent with a murder-suicide. ...more

November 2, 2008