DUI Case Dropped Against Boca Lawyer
Our latest crime report includes a couple of minor sex crimes plus the usual drugs and DUI. One notable case involves a prominent local attorney arrested for DUI. He refused a breath test, and had the charges dropped within two weeks.
William Lowery (41) was arrested by PBSO at the Boca Inn on Federal Highway for a felony failure to properly register as a sex offender. This dates back to a 2003 conviction for lewd or lascivious battery on a victim age 12-15. He was sentenced then to 9 1/2 years for that crime.
The probable cause affidavit notes that Lowery has three convictions in the last few years for failing to register properly. On this new incident he had registered in early April as living in Pahokee, but moved to the Boca Inn to live with his girlfriend and had been living there for 10 days without updating his offender registration.
FDLE records show a substantial history with multiple prison sentences.
Perhaps the weirdest detail is that he was living in the Boca Inn with his girlfriend and her father was paying for the room.
Reo Smith (28) was arrested at the beach near Palmetto Park Road for unlawful exposure of sexual organs. A Boca police officer entered the men’s restroom at the beach and found Smith masturbating in the open area of the facility. Smith told the officer he could “rub his dick” wherever he wants. The officer noted that there were families present outside the bathroom including children who could have come in.
A mental health proceeding was commenced about a week later and it appears Smith is now a patient in a mental health center in West Palm Beach. We see no prior criminal or court history for him in either Palm Beach or Broward.
Steven Maida (54) was arrested on an “out of county warrant”. We don’t see anything for him in Broward or Miami-Dade so we’re not sure what this was about. We do see a present case here in our county for driving without a valid license, as well as a similar case from last year. His reported address is in Southwind Lakes near Kimberly and 441
Kimberly Karczewski (42) of the Reflections subdivision in Mission Bay was arrested in late April and has a couple more cases we’ll cover in our next report.
In this incident she encountered police in Lantana and gave them a false name. It’s not clear why they approached her other than referring to her as “a suspicious person.” They were able to determine her real name and found she had a warrant for violating probation. So in this incident she’s charged with giving a false name while detained.
From the affidavit it’s also not clear whether she was genuinely or legally detained at the moment she gave a false name, so the charge might not fly. But the charges we will cover soon seem more serious so it may not matter.
Claudel Richardson (27) faces a bunch of charges including burglary, grand theft, and driving while suspended. We reported his arrest on our Facebook page earlier today, but now we have more details. Boca PD prepared a thorough affidavit detailing the circumstances of his arrest along with his partner in crime. Police found multiple items in Richardson’s car that belonged to members of the LA Fitness near Yamato and Congress. They also found bolt cutters that were used to cut locks on gym lockers.
Richardson has a previous felony arrest in Sunrise for driving while suspended along with an assault and disorderly conduct in Tamarac. His address appears to be in Fort Lauderdale or Plantation.
Wesly Michaud (32) lives between Dixie and Federal just north of Yamato. He was arrested for retail theft, trespassing and resisting, after stealing a drink and a t-shirt from the City Food Mart on Dixie Highway. Michaud ran from the officer and was difficult in a variety of ways, both physically and verbally, during the course of the arrest. Officer Finne was remarkably patient during the arrest.
Michaud was arrested in 2018 for felonies including burglary, battery on a pregnant woman, and battery on law enforcement. In 2010 he had a felony drug charge. We see 29 total cases in Palm Beach County, plus a couple in Broward.
49-year-old Andrew Pollack lives in the Cypresses of Boca Lago – this is not the guy from Parkland. He was arrested at Congress and Atlantic in Delray when his car stalled out in the middle of the intersection. His breath test result was 0.14, well over the legal limit. His record is mostly clean other than a few minor traffic tickets.
Boca Glades resident Inna Sonosky (41) was arrested on what looks like her third or fourth DUI. That’s usually not a good sign. So far it’s only charged as a misdemeanor. A resident of Southwind Lakes called PBSO about a suspicious car parked in his driveway.
When PBSO arrived they found Sonosky in her white BMW parked in another driveway around the corner. From the affidavit it appears deputies did not have any basis for a traffic stop and there’s no indication Sonosky consented to the encounter. That could save her from this prosecution but it’s hard to say. She did refuse to take a breath test.
Kevin Cohen (27) was arrested for DUI on Palmetto Park Road not far from his apartment across from Boca High. He was stopped just after midnight for going 65 in a 35 mph zone. At the Boca PD testing facility he refused a breath test.
Cohen has a somewhat significant history including a 2016 felony arrest for carrying a concealed firearm without a license, a 2017 trespassing arrest, a controlled substance arrest in Fort Lauderdale in 2015, and some traffic infractions. The 2016 incident started with a 911 call about two men banging on a door in Watergate Estates (the Sandalfoot trailer park) threatening the occupant with a gun, though Cohen’s silver BMW SUV did not exactly match the caller’s description of a silver BMW sedan.
42-year-old Peter Koziol was arrested for DUI on Federal Highway after a stop for failing to stay in his lane. The police report says he refused a breath test. It’s missing a page but what we see indicates that Koziol asked for an attorney when asked to perform a breath test. It appears they did not let him call an attorney, which could be why the prosecution already dropped the case. Or it could be that he’s a prominent local attorney.
Or maybe he has friends in the right places. We reached out to the Boca Police Chief on Twitter. We’ll see if we get an answer.
Update: The Chief responded:
Not someone I know. Twitter, FB, Instagram or other SM connections should not infer particular knowledge of these folks. Many DUI cases are not prosecuted. Can’t say why this one is special. Thanks for asking.
https://twitter.com/bocachief/status/1126502652831883265
Today we submitted public records requests to the city and police department to see if we can find more information, including the arrest videos.
From the Aviara neighborhood within Sandalfoot Cove, Diana Lavayen (30) was arrested on Kimberly Blvd after allegedly running a red light at 441. It’s not clear if she was coming across from Boca Greens or turning onto Kimberly.
The deputy specifically invoked the “Caroll Doctrine” (from Carroll v. United States, a Prohibition case from 1925) to justify searching her BMW after he says he smelled marijuana. Inside he found 21 grams of marijuana, just over the 20 gram limit that allowed him to charge the case as a felony.
In our experience the lab weight often comes in lower so this will probably be dropped to a misdemeanor, and since we see no criminal history for her there’s a good chance the whole case will be dropped
20-year-old Garrett Holmes of Gables Town Place near Town Center was arrested for hashish and drug paraphernalia. Sure enough it’s another “tag light” (license plate) stop, this time on Glades Road. Claiming the smell of marijuana (see the pattern?) the officer found an empty mason jar in the car that appeared to be for marijuana and a “sheet” of hash oil in his wallet.
While represented by the public defender Holmes was initially sent to drug court and ordered to attend two meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, neither of which makes any sense for marijuana. More recently a private defense lawyer took over the case. We see no criminal history for Holmes.
We’ve seen the Vistazo apartments before. They’re just south of Spanish River Blvd near FAU. Kevin Cusati (26) was arrested at his apartment after PBSO tracked a “suspicious package” FedEx was delivering there from Colorado. The investigator claimed that “Colorado is a source state that ships narcotics to Florida”, which sounds like more drug war nonsense but let’s see where this goes.
A trained police dog indicated that the package contained drugs. We’re not sure how Sparky would do on cross-examination but we’re pretty sure the courts will let that go. After delivering the package they saw Cusati leaving, ran his plate, and found he had a revoked drivers license to they stopped the car.
A warrant was issued to search the home where police found various THC edibles and other items including a .40 caliber Springfield Armory XD handgun. So he’s facing some felony charges including possession of a firearm during a felony.
He has a little history in the courts from 2014 and before including a small marijuana arrest and some repeated driving without a license cases.
In the Country Landings II subdivision of Loggers’ Run police found Michael Patruno (36) sitting in someone else’s car. He had the drug diazepam in his backpack so he was charged with trespassing in the car and drug possession. He has a long series of cases in the court system dating back to 2001 including multiple felonies with drugs, burglary and grand theft of a vehicle but appears to have never been in state prison
We are mostly skipping the domestic battery cases this week. Other than Yassin Motii, above, the rest had no other criminal history and the stories were unremarkable. And all but one were in East Boca. Motii has another case we will be covering in our next report so we’ll follow up on this one then as well.