Motorcycle Victim ID'd: Jeffrey Valarezo of Delray

WARNING: This article contains photos that may upset some readers. If you don’t want to see them, don’t scroll down.

A fatal motorcycle accident backed up traffic on Palmetto Park Road and horrified drivers passing by on Monday evening.

Reader photo looking westbound on Palmetto Park Road.

Sources led us to think we knew who the victim was and the Sheriff’s office just confirmed it was Jeffrey Valarezo (20) of Bolero Circle in Delray Beach.
We think Mr. Valarezo may have been a student at Spanish River High in the past, but we’re not sure. We also think his family may be from the country Ecuador. He was registered to vote here in Florida.
One reader told us she saw it happen:

There was no driver at fault: I saw what happened. He was on the lane next to me going the opposite direction. He just tried to switch from the middle lane to the right hand lane right at that curve right before the bridge and he lost control. I saw it all and I haven’t stopped crying because I’m still in shock that I just witnessed this.

From this reader it appears Mr. Valarezo was traveling eastbound on Palmetto Park Road coming up to the bridge over Boca Rio and the Turnpike. The police report does not provide much detail as to how the accident happened or if anyone was at fault.

V-1 was traveling eastbound on W. Palmetto Park Road approaching Boca Rio Road. V-1 struck the center median. D-1 lost control of the vehicle and came to final rest on the median. D-1 was ejected off V-1 and struck a tree. D-1 died on the scene from injuries sustained in the crash.

Valarezo’s motorcycle ended up in the median of the roadway.

WARNING: This is where the photos get more troubling for some readers. Stop now if this bothers you.
SERIOUSLY — IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN



Further west his body lay on the ground near a tree. Not long after it happened several passers by attended to his body in the hope they might be able to help.

Later the body was obscured by a yellow covering:

Friends of Mr. Valarezo expressed their sadness:

He was a beautiful soul with a smile always on his face. He was loved by all his friends and he will be missed.

He was an amazing person and didn’t deserve what happened to him, even if it were his fault or another. Today heaven gained an angel and he will be riding in the skies smiling down at us. You will be greatly missed Jeff

We noticed expressions of concern from a wide variety of places including Ecuador, Cuba, South Africa and more.
This location on Palmetto Park Road has seen many serious accidents. Readers complained that something should be done to make it safer, though it’s not clear what caused this accident or that any change to the roadway would have prevented it.
It should be also noted that Mr. Valarezo was wearing a helmet.

50 FBI Agents Raid Wimbledon Health on Palmetto

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Readers reported a raid this morning by the FBI (and/or a SWAT team) and one reader sent us the above photo. Multiple sources tell us the raid took place at the office of Wimbledon Health Partners, a company that does diagnostic testing of student athletes.
Our first tip came from a very reliable source:

Wimbledon Health [at] 7000 West Palmetto Park Road, Suite 205 was just raided. Looks like Wolf of Wall Street here. At least 50 FBI agents.

I spoke briefly with the company’s Chief Legal Counsel, Robert Grabemann, who works out of Chicago. He politely declined to answer any questions about the incident. He would not even admit or deny that anything took place (and I specifically asked that). The Miami FBI office has so far not responded to our inquiries and the Washington office told us we probably won’t get a response from them.
Readers were unsure what the company does. Their website says:

Wimbledon Health Partners has provided cardiovascular testing to over 151 schools nationwide to help prevent sudden cardiac arrest in student athletes—nearly 20,500 students tested, and counting!

Mitchell Rubin is listed on the company website as Founder and CEO. It is a common name but a “Mitchell Rubin” was named in an article about a lawsuit in Chicago involving Veridian Health.
The building is on the southwest corner of Palmetto Park Road and Powerline, near Olive Garden and McDonald’s. The same building has had some notoriety in the past for activities at a currently defunct nightclub including shootings. It otherwise seems to be a normal and even upscale office building.
Update from one source:

There was no SWAT team – just regular FBI agents and analysts to go through the computers and files in the office.
The reason you see FBI members on multiple floors in the picture sent in is because Wimbledon Health has offices on 2 floors.
The reason they had that amount of FBI agents was solely because of the number of employees. They needed to be able to assure no one destroyed files during the raid and the manage that many individuals needs a manageable ratio of employee to FBI agent.
To my knowledge, no one was arrested at the scene. There were a number of people questioned then let go. All that was seized were computers and files. The owner Mitchell Rubin was not present at the time of the FBI raid. His car was not in his reserved parking spot all day.

Second update: WPTV reports that this was a search warrant related to possible healthcare fraud. “Rubin says he is not aware of any allegations regarding healthcare fraud.”
Third update: We found a Complaint from a federal civil lawsuit in Chicago that appears to be against a “Mitchell E. Rubin”. We can’t confirm it’s the same guy.
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/rubin-fraud-chicago.pdf”]

New Restaurants Coming to East Boca

Ouzo Bay Boca Logo
Three new restaurants will open soon in East Boca. Mizner Park will host two of them. Ouzo Bay will open in the space formerly occupied by the Jazziz nightclub. Ouzo Bay has one other location, in Baltmore, and is part of the Atlas Restaurant Group which also has the Azumi (Japanese) and Loch Bar (seafood) restaurants in Baltimore. This appears to be their first venture outside of Maryland.
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Replacing Ruby Tuesday in Mizner Park will be Junior’s Restaurant, a New York City based restaurant that is best known for its cheesecake. We’ve had their cheesecake, love it, and gained 10 pounds just by hearing the news.
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Last and probably not least, Louie Bossi will open in the new Hyatt Place hotel. The building is under construction now at 120 East Palmetto Park Road (near Federal Highway). This is a second location for Louie Bossi. The original is on Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale.

Big Changes in Loggers' Run Shoppes

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Things are happening in the Shoppes at Loggers’ Run plaza (Palmetto Park Road about 2 miles west of 441, across from the middle school). As we’ve reported in the past, Dunkin’ Donuts is coming. It’s more than just donuts. We now have more detail on several changes.
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As you can see on the map above (full flyer at bottom), the plaza is marketing four separate spaces available for lease. Starting with the new “outparcel” building, there are three spaces, each with about 1450 square feet of space.
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The Dunkin’ Donuts will be the furthest west and it looks like it will have a drive-thru window on the western wall (see photo at top of this article).
Also available is another small space in the middle near the post office and Mama’s Pizza.
One of the bigger spaces is a story we’re sad to see. The Player’s Edge indoor baseball facility, next to Monkey Joe’s, has closed. This sign was in the door.
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For those who don’t realize it, it’s tough to run a business. The nearly 15,000 square feet (about twice the size of the proposed Benihana in the Home Depot plaza) in this space means monthly rent in the ballpark of $27,000. You have to generate a lot of revenue to pay that, plus all the other expenses.
That also means it will be tough to fill that space. It might be deep enough for some 50-yard rifle lanes, but that probably won’t happen. And it’s way too big for our dream of an Indian restaurant (maybe one of the other spaces?).
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There are two other new businesses in the plaza. We noticed one between Monkey Joe’s and Kumon. The owner of Creative Elephant Arts and Crafts Studio is apparently Inna Marty Nenko, but she was not in when we visited. They will offer a variety of classes as well as summer camp sessions (maybe they’ll advertise in our summer camp directory?).
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There’s also a gym coming – FitRX, just west of Monkey Joe’s. Other than the photos we took we don’t have any more details on it.
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The full flyer for the plaza is below:
[gview file=”https://westbocanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/loggers-rent-flyer.pdf”]

Body Found Hanging Near Logger's Run: Possible Suicide

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Multiple readers reported to us about a serious incident near Logger’s Run Middle School. Around 4:30 pm we started hearing about a substantial police presence at the intersection of Palmetto Park Road and Ponderosa. Those reports indicated as many as twelve PBSO cars, a crime scene van, and a fire truck.
Police were seen talking to numerous people on the side of the road, including school kids.
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Multiple sources have indicated that a body was found hanging on a nature trail on the northeast corner of the intersection. Initially we heard that it was a “kid” but we are now getting more sources indicating that the individual found was a male, age 21.
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We have made multiple efforts to get answers from the Sheriff but we haven’t gotten any response. It’s likely that they’re trying to inform next of kin before making any public statement.
Update: PBSO informs us that this was a suicide.
Most of our sources indicate this appears to be a suicide, and that the hanging was done with a dog leash.


Update: Initially we reported the missing dogs might be related. It now appears they were not.
It may or may not be related, but we were notified by a reader that she found two loose dogs in Country Landings III, which is about a mile north of the location.
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