Thanks to a reader tip we learned of a major drug bust that took place in the West Sandalfoot area known as Watergate Estates. Seven residents of that community were arrested, and all were booked around the same time between 5 pm and 6 pm.
Tiffany Ercolano (top left, 24) was charged with possession of drugs without a prescription and of drug equipment. She is in custody at the moment with bond set at $3000. We see nearly 20 cases in her past dating back to 2008 in the Palm Beach and Broward courts.
Jessica Pugliese (top center, 36) is charged with one felony count for heroin possession and over 10 counts for possession of drug equipment. She’s also in custody with bond at $5000. Her reported address is actually east of 441 on the south side of SW 18th. Her history shows multiple felonies dating back to 2003.
Terry Utter (top right, 60) is charged with one count of possession of drug equipment. Hassan Jones (bottom left, 42), with the same address as Ms. Utter, also faces one count of possession of drug equipment. Jones was released shortly after 9 pm without bond. Utter will probably be released as well. Ms. Utter and Mr. Jones both appeared in one of our articles in October after another Sandalfoot drug raid. We detailed their criminal histories in that article.
Also at the same address, Christopher Cerenzio (2nd from left, 28) faces one count of heroin possession and two drug equipment charges. His bond is set at $5K. We see felonies dating back to 2004 for him.
Richard Utter (2nd from right, 46) faces two heroin counts and his bond is set at $10K. He also appeared in West Boca News back in June on a burglary charge, where we detailed his significant history.
Finally Reginald Thomas (bottom right, 37) faces heroin, marijuana and drug equipment charges and awaits $5000 bond.
Of course, all arrestees are innocent until proven guilty. And as our regular readers are aware, West Boca News opposes the War on Drugs. It obviously isn’t working and turns troubled people toward more serious crimes.
Tag: felony
Burglary & Weapon Charges Against West Sandalfoot Felon
Emmanuel Padilla (above, 28) was arrested Wednesday on several felony counts including burglary, grand theft, grand theft of a vehicle, marijuana possession, giving a fake ID to a police officer, resisting, grand theft of a firearm, and possession of a weapon or ammunition by a convicted felon.
Mr. Padilla, a resident of the Watergate Estates community in West Sandalfoot, has a substantial history in the Florida court system. Most notably he spent nearly four years in state prison from 2010 to 2014, on similar charges to his current arrest, from Palm Beach and Broward. He was released on May 27th of 2014.
Before that he had felony cases in Broward in 2006 and 2008, and a 2008 felony case in Palm Beach. He even picked up a disorderly conduct in Miami-Dade in 2005.
Court records indicate that two of the new counts against Mr. Padilla are for offenses that allegedly took place in July of 2014, a little over a month after he was released from prison.
Mr. Padilla also had a DUI case in June of 2014, less than a month after his release, but prosecutors dropped that one. He remains in custody at this writing with bond set at over $200,000.
Of course all defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
Repeat Felon Arrested: Boca Entrada
Nathan Yohannes-Mason (31) of Boca Entrada, or the Emerald Bay Club apartments, was arrested late Friday night on a felony drug charge along with a fake ID misdemeanor. Mr. Yohannes-Mason has a substantial history in South Florida courts, including two minor charges in Miami-Dade, two felonies in Broward along with multiple criminal traffic cases there, and four separate felony cases in Palm Beach County from 2000 to 2012.
Two of those Palm Beach felony cases involved firearms, and his 2008 Broward felony involved battery on law enforcement officers. As seems typical for South Florida, a number of these cases were dropped or reduced. His 2004 case included two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm but those were dropped by prosecutors and he got a year of probation for discharging a firearm in public. In 2005 he was accused of shooting into a building, adjudicated guilty and got a year in jail, minus substantial credit time.
The most recent Palm Beach felony, habitual driving on revoked license, was reduced to a minor driving without a valid license and a small fine.
Mr. Yohannes-Mason remains in custody at this writing awaiting $3000 bond.
Felony Battery: Knockout Takes Sean Downes Down
Update: We received a phone call from Mr. Downes’ grandmother (as well as a Facebook comment – see bottom of article). In the call she informed us that we have no right to publish such an article (First Amendment be damned) and that her grandson is a sweet kid. She also admitted that he was involved in the fight described in the affidavit, though she disputes some of the facts and had all kinds of negative things to say about the alleged victim and the witness. She then threatened to sue us, saying: “You’ll find out how much money you have.” Nice family.
Events at a West Palm Beach party in September has “Sean Downs” facing felony battery charges and his alleged victim left with permanent facial scarring and disfigurement. The Sheriff’s records indicate this Mr. Downs is a resident of The Oaks, a gated community on the north side of Clint Moore. As best we can tell this is actually Sean D. Downes. If we are correct (we’re pretty sure but you can never be positive), his father Sean P. Downes is CEO of Universal Holdings, Inc. who received an eye-popping $9.4 million last year in executive compensation according to BusinessWeek at only 44 years old.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the younger Downes was at a house party with a bunch of teens, running around looking for a fight. When the victim was leaving Downes confronted him to start a fight. The victim turned to leave and Downes then hit the victim in the left temple, knocking him out and to the ground. While the victim was unconscious on the ground, Downes continued punching him as many as ten times.
The victim woke up in the ER, had suffered four large bruises on his face, multiple cuts on the left side of his mouth requiring sutures and likely to leave substantial and permanent scars, and an additional injury on the back of his head where it hit the pavement.
West Palm Beach police referred the matter to the State Attorney, who waited over 3 months before filing this case in court in early January. Mr. Downes was booked Wednesday morning, minutes before his “first appearance” court session began and released a few hours later on $3000 bond. The timing suggests that he may have been represented by an attorney who surrendered him at the right time to make sure things moved smoothly. Court records do not yet indicate any attorney appearance, nor how the bond was posted.
The home address for the younger Downs listed in the blotter is owned by Lori Downes, who is divorced from the father. The 7-bedroom, 7000 square-foot house was purchased for $1.4M in 2013. The date of birth for the arrested Sean Downs matches this Sun-Sentinel article showing his birth in 1996 to parents Sean and Lori Downes.
A couple years ago Downes was an avid basketball player with the St. Thomas Aquinas school in Fort Lauderdale.
It’s unclear why but he’s no longer on the team roster. As always, anyone arrested is innocent until proven guilty.
Update: We found a highlight film from Downes’ freshman year on the St. Andrews varsity basketball team.
5 Drug Arrests on Tuesday
Between them the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and Boca PD made 5 felony drug arrests yesterday, with four of the arrestees having West Boca addresses. The first three were all in West Boca and were booked within a fairly short time of each other so the arrests may be related.
Serge Sando (top left, 23) was charged with two felony counts of selling an opiate in a protected area along with one count of possession. He has a history of a marijuana misdemeanor 2009 that was dropped, and a drug felony in January 2014 we covered that was resolved with diversion. He also had a couple of misdemeanor theft cases in Broward in 2010. The West Boca High grad’s reported address is in the Timberwalk townhomes near Loggers’ Run Middle School. Sando was released on $35K bond this morning. The new charges do not show up yet in the court system’s database.
Kristina Lewis (top center, 23), also a West Boca High graduate, has a reported address off Judge Winikoff just west of 441. She is currently charged with selling a synthetic narcotic, 2 counts of possession without a prescription, and resisting an officer. An August cocaine felony charge was dropped by prosecutors. She was released early this morning. Substance abuse is something employers will want to root out of their businesses and so the use of Countrywide Testing drug tests has become more commonplace because of the inherent risks associated with having people under the influence in the workplace. It’s true that drugs destroy a person’s health and relationships, but it’s important not to forget the threat to their livelihood that they themselves pose entering a situation where they may fail drug testing Honolulu required by their employers.
Kenney Desilien (top right, 21) was arrested for possession of MDMA and Alprazolam. His reported address is in Sandalfoot Cove off SW 65th near Boca Dunes. He has a substantial history. This is his 10th felony case in the Palm Beach courts, plus one in Broward. Previous cases include:
- Grand theft and trespass 2011 – guilty
- 2010 armed burglary – consolidated
- 2010 burglary arrested 2011 – dropped
- 2011 carrying a concealed firearm in Broward
- 2011 dealing in stolen property w/ residential burglary – consolidated
- 4 counts of dealing in stolen property with residential burglary, all dropped
- Grand theft over $20K plus burglary – consolidated and/or dropped
- Burglary and grand theft, both dropped
- 2010 armed burglary – found not guilty in a jury trial in 2014
- 2 incidents in 2012 indecent exposure – dropped;
- 2013 cocaine felony dropped
- 2013 assault on law enforcement officer – dropped
- 2013 indecent exposure – dropped
Mr. Desilien was one of the subjects of a Boca PD press release back in 2011 (see bottom). He remains in custody at this writing.
Meanwhile Boca PD arrested two men several hours apart in cases that are probably unrelated. Zaven Barsoom (bottom left, 31) of the Hidden Lake neighborhood east of I-95 was charged with possession of drug equipment, marijuana and cocaine. His case is not in the court system yet. We see a previous drug felony from 2012 that was dropped, along with 9 previous felonies in Broward. He was released in the evening.
Caleb Toole (bottom right, 20) was charged with possession of hash oil and Adderall. He’s had several traffic cases along with a drug misdemeanor last month that was resolved with a diversion program. Court records indicate his arrest was actually Monday, though he was booked after midnight on Tuesday. He was released last night.
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