Ladies Night: Crime Report

Our mid-April crime report features a bevy of beauties accused of being naughty or otherwise not nice. Plus over a dozen more stories, all for paid subscribers.

Don’t worry. The ladies are coming soon, but we’re starting with some bad boys.

We just covered Adam Bennett’s arrest in early April for walking out of a liquor store with a bottle of vodka. He’s back and this time it’s big time. He faces 13 counts of burglary along with a few other charges.

According to Delray PD Bennett was walking around with a shopping bag at night opening car doors and stealing “large amounts of change” out of them to support a heroin and crack cocaine habit.

Jose Velasco (45) of the Country Park community near SW 18th and Boca Rio was arrested for violating a domestic violence injunction after he sent her a threatening text message. The ex lives in Lakes at Boca Raton.

Michael Rubel (32) was arrested by Boca PD after he led them on a chase near Mizner Park. Rubel, an employee of Ruth Chris Steakhouse, was driving a motorcycle, blew a stop sign and cut off a police car at a high rate of speed. He then fled, going in between stopped cars. Eventually he parked the bike and ran, but gave up when another officer confronted him.

Rubel is currently on probation from a serious DUI accident that happened back in 2015. He has a suspended license so he’s got that charge, the fleeing, and a violation of his DUI probation facing him.

Jacob Stroup is another repeat appearance. We covered his late March arrest for heroin possession before. This time he was arrested for trespassing at a McDonald’s on Federal Highway.

The first of lady of this report is Barbara Shortt (43) from East Boca near the Kmart. This arrest was for stealing $25 worth of cutting boards from Macy’s in Town Center.

Shortt has quite a few cases in the court system including three felony cases, one of them open, and at least two burglary charges. She also has an open warrant for possession of prescription drugs.

47 year old Stephen Chiapperini of the Sandalfoot Villas was arrested after walking out of the Delray Home Depot with two drills. Since they’re valued together at over $300, he notched a felony grand theft out of it. Chiapperini works at Meineke in Sandalfoot. We don’t see any other criminal history for him.

Patricia A. Pereira (41) of Meadow Lakes Estates was picked up on an active warrant from Broward County where she faces what looks like a shoplifting case from the Deerfield Target. Oddly the underlying documents from the case are not in the online court system in Broward.

She has had quite a few cases in the Palm Beach courts including a couple of Baker Act involuntary mental health proceedings, a trespass, a contempt charge and a domestic battery. The problems seem to have started in 2017 but we’re not sure about that.

Nothing good happens after 2 am. Abbe Neumann (29) of Vistazo, near FAU and the Boca airport, was arrested in Delray for DUI. She was stopped at 2:30 am after driving the wrong way on a one-way road. The breath test results were roughly 0.20, about 2 1/2 times the legal limit. No criminal history seen for her.

Barbara Gagliardi (64) of Camino Real Village in Boca Del Mar was arrested for DUI on Congress in Delray. It wasn’t after 2 am, but close as she was arrested after 1:30. Like Ms. Neumann she was stopped for driving the wrong way, along with driving over a median to get to the correct side of the road.

The breath test results were over 0.22, nearly triple the legal limit. She did invoke her right to an attorney and according to the arresting officer all questions “seized”, which probably means ceased.

We see no criminal history for Ms. Gagliardi.

Less than two months ago we reported on Sharon Caruana’s arrest for abusing the 911 phone system. She’s back. In her latest arrest for 911 abuse, she called 11 times since February, “to let deputies know her dogs were staying with her son.” Just a hunch but we don’t think this problem is going away soon

Ballroom dancer Helena Del Grosso (24) and her housemate Austin Harris (also 24) were arrested after PBSO raided their home on a warrant and found a lot of pot.

The report indicates they found over 5 kilograms or nearly 12 pounds of marijuana, along with THC cartridges, edibles, and a 9mm Beretta handgun.

Because the home is about 300 feet from St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church (near Mizner Park), they face charges of possession with intent to sell near a church, along with trafficking in synthetic cannabinoids.

We see no significant history for Del Grosso. Harris has multiple prior felony arrests. Pro tip for the ladies: If he has just one felony arrest it’s not great. If he has multiple felonies, maybe he’s not the one.

Jesus Palomino Marin (34), a pet stylist in Mizner Park, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. This was another late night incident that began with a traffic stop just after midnight for speeding. After detecting the odor of marijuana the officer searched the car and found a tube with CBD oil and a bag of white rocks that tested positive for amphetamines.

He’s having a bad month as he was also just ticketed in a criminal traffic case in Broward. Other than that we see no history.

Michael Levine (48) of the Gables Marbella apartments off Boca Del Mar Drive was arrested on drug charges. Acting on a tip from a “reliable source” (cough cough) PBSO obtained a search warrant and raided Levine’s home.

The search revealed 14 bags of white powder which tested positive for cocaine with a total weight of over 25 grams. They also found over $6000 in cash, including a $100 bill with a serial number matching one used in a controlled buy by undercover agents.

Levine was arrested on felony drug charges in 2017 receiving an 18-month probation sentence which was just ended early in March.

20-year-old Adolfo Vela lives, or lived, on Camino Real near Dixie Highway in East Boca. He’s accused of slapping and choking his live-in girlfriend, after an argument where she accused him of cheating on her based on a text she saw on his phone. The choking makes it a felony.

Vela has three prior felony cases in Broward including armed robbery with a firearm, grand theft of a firearm, etc. Maybe he’s not the one?

Adrian Barceli (19) of Sandalfoot Cove was arrested for domestic battery after he sucker punched his stepfather. We see no priors.

50-year-old Robert Divet of the Oaks of Boca complex near Boca Regional Hospital was arrested for domestic battery. He invited his ex-wife over for Easter dinner, for the children. Then he got drunk, punched her and threw a knife at her.

We see no priors for him. Happy Easter.