It was a mixed bag of arrests this week in West Boca with no real pattern. First up in notoriety is Dr. William Marrocco (above left, age 55), who is accused of being involved with others practicing medicine without licenses. See the Sun-Sentinel article for details of this investigation, most of which appears to have been in West Palm Beach. His reported address is arguably in West Boca, between Powerline and St. Andrews, south of Glades.
We don’t know the full story, but we suspect it may be difficult to prove anything against Dr. Marrocco and he may well be innocent. Also, research suggests that he may have been associated in the past with Cenegenics of Boca Raton, but we can’t tell for sure.
Next up, in a case that got some publicity, Alexandra Westover (above right, 21) was charged with making a false report and perjury. Various media reports suggest that she contacted police about an alleged sexual assault in order to create an excuse for being late to work. Our research on her background was not definitive but she may be a Spanish River High graduate and a current or former student of USC. Her reported address is in Newport Bay in the northeast corner of West Boca, and we see no prior criminal history.
The next pair seem to be better at smiling for mugshots. Joseph Kane (above left, 44) is accused of battery on a victim over 65 years of age. His reported address is near SW 18th (Marina) between 441 and Lyons. Per court records the battery took place back in October. They show several cases for him dating back to 2004.
Kenneth Mack (above right, 54) was charged with violating a county ordinance. Court records indicate it’s for public possession of alcohol within 500 feet of a school. The timing seems to fit with reports we heard of some arrests Friday near the northwest corner of Glades and Lyons Road. He was charged a similar offense last year, and with domestic violence back in 2007 and 2009. His reported address is in the Timbers of Boca.
There were two DUI arrests in recent days. Marla Shrem (above left, 53) was arrested Thursday night by Boca city police. Their blotter indicates the arrest resulted from a crash investigation, with breath results of .131 and .128. These are fairly low numbers considering the unreliability of breath testing devices. Her reported address is in Boca Isles South.
Alisa Johnson (right, 42) was arrested for DUI late Friday or early Saturday by Lantana police. Her reported address is in the Emerald Bay Club apartments near 441 and SW 18th (Marina). There’s a chance she’s from Riviera Beach, but it’s only a guess.
Craig Mastrony (above left, 30) was arrested by Delray Beach police on Wednesday on a warrant from another county. It may have been related to a case in Broward where he was sentenced to probation, but that’s unclear because the Broward court system reports that case as “disposed” and we don’t see any warrant in the public FDLE database. We see another report of an October arrest in Broward but that one doesn’t seem to show up in their court records. His reported address is not far from Mr. Kane, near SW 18th and a little closer to Lyons.
Alexandra Coates (center, 46) was arrested Wednesday for grand and petit theft. Her reported address is in Boca Winds, and she may have moved here recently from New Jersey. Depending on the circumstances, such theft charges are often difficult to prove.
Last in our report, Galen Kinsey (right, 25) of the Lago Del Mar apartments was arrested Thursday on a drug equipment possession charge and a probation violation. Court records for Palm Beach show a 2012 felony that was resolved with pre-trial diversion. Broward records show a few cases including two disposed with probation. One of the previous cases also involved drugs.
As always, those arrested are innocent until proven guilty.
Category: Crime
Arrests: Wild West Boca Weekend
The most serious arrest of the weekend involved Taylor Gilson, who may also be known as Tyler Gilson. Mr. Gilson (18) appears to be a Boca High graduate. He was booked early Monday morning on 2 counts each of robbery, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, grand theft, and one count of a small marijuana possession charge. His reported address is in East Boca, but he was arrested by the Sheriff suggesting that the incident occurred outside the city. He remains in custody at this writing.
Next up, three people were booked within a fairly short time of each other and on similar charges, from late Sunday night into early Monday morning.
Tiffany Hausbach (above left, 22), faces three mostly minor drug charges. Her reported address is just south of Boca Del Mar Drive near Powerline. She was released Monday afternoon, which should give her time to make the sexy lingerie party she’s promoting on her Facebook page.
Matthew Goldman (center picture of the three mugshots, 22) faces two counts of a drug charge that’s the same offense as one Ms. Hausbach faces. His reported address is East Boca, on the intracoastal, but he was also arrested by PBSO, again suggesting his incident was outside the city. Even though his name is so common in Boca, we’re pretty sure he’s the guy on the right, yet another Spanish River High graduate making the arrest pages. Mr. Goldman was released early Monday morning on bond.
The third of the threesome, Christina Ortiz (right, 26), also faces the same charge of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. She remains in jail as of this writing. Her reported address is very close to the Glades library. A Sun-Sentinel story from several months ago indicates a person with a similar name and age was arrested related to stolen golf clubs in West Boca. Per court records she has had many cases dating back to 2006 or earlier including several felonies.
We can’t find any clear connection between the three of them, but it seems odd that they’re all about the same age, were arrested about the same time, by the same police agency (PBSO) and for similar offenses.
For our last group, Derek VanWeenen (above left, 23) was arrested for a minor drug charge and what appears to be a domestic violence battery. Court records show several cases in his past.
Celia Fajardo (2nd from left, 44) was arrested for battery on Saturday and released the same day. She might be an employee of an area hospital. Her reported address is in Boca Pointe.
James Coulter (2nd from right, 36) was arrested for DUI on Saturday evening and released early the next morning. He might be a financial adviser and bond trader. With Palm Beach County’s DUI diversion program, the case will likely be resolved with a reduction to reckless driving. His reported address is in Country Landing off Ponderosa north of Palmetto.
Of course all arrestees are innocent until proven guilty.
West Boca Arrests for Early February
In the first week of February we have six arrests to report. Fortunately all are relatively minor. First up, Ms. Griblin (26) and Mr. Davis (23) were each arrested for what we think are unrelated “grand theft” charges. Mr. Davis was also charged with dealing in stolen property. She was arrested Thursday afternoon and he was arrested this morning. Both remain in custody for now.
Ms. Griblin, who lives just off the western edge of Sandalfoot Blvd, was arrested last month in Broward County on a petit theft charge.
Mr. Davis, who lives just east of the Turnpike and north of Palmetto, was arrested last month for a battery charge. We weren’t able to find out much more about Ms. Griblin.
Next we have what appear to be the very low end of the world of arrests, with Emily Pirtle (20).
Ms. Pirtle was picked up on an “out-of-county warrant” and then released “per TTY”, suggesting that the charge is so minor the other county doesn’t even want her.
A West Boca High graduate, Ms. Pirtle might be serving you at a local restaurant, and as might be expected she looks better than her mugshot. Her reported address is just south of Palmetto near Loggers Run Park and the Boca Woods entrance.
Last and maybe not least we have a pair of Perrs.
Michael Perrotto (31) is accused of battery. He’s a former student of Olympic Heights High School and his reported address is just off Lyons Road south of Boca Lyons Plaza. Which makes it a short walk to Yokohama Sushi, a place where Nichola Perrelli (43) may not be welcome because he’s otherwise known as the Sushi Thief. Mr. Perrelli has made a few appearances in our arrest stories, this time apparently for a bounced check and also for some kind of contempt of court. A couple of readers have also contacted us about him with negative comments. We had our own brief encounter with him a few months back and he seemed like a pleasant fellow. But if we ran a restaurant we’d only serve him if he paid cash up front.
Please remember that all arrestees are innocent until proven guilty. And that doesn’t seem to happen much in Palm Beach County.
4 Batteries Charged in West Boca
The Sheriff’s blotter shows four arrests in the past few days. All of them are for battery, which seems to be the most common charge we see. Battery cases in West Boca usually are domestic incidents, or at least the cases are handed in the domestic violence section of the courts.
James Hasson (51) of Boca West was arrested on Monday afternoon for battery. The case is not in the court dockets yet, but it appears that he was in court that morning on another domestic incident where he was charged with criminal mischief. That charge has been “down filed” to a misdemeanor. It looked like it was going well in the docket entry, headed for a disposition in early March. The new arrest probably won’t help.
Mr. Hasson appears to work in substance abuse counseling, and may be here as a snowbird with his usual residence in New York City. He was released early this morning on bond.
Miles Lorio (45, Lakes at Boca Raton) was booked early Monday morning, both for battery and also on a probation violation. We think the probation violation relates to a 2010 incident in Hallandale Beach. Court records from Broward indicate that was a domestic violence incident resolved with probation.
Mr. Lorio may work for an airline. And if our research is correct, he’s a huge sports fan, mainly of local teams like the Dolphins, Heat, Marlins and Panthers.
Franklin Mesa (46) lives north of Judge Winikoff near the Hammock Street Church. He may have worked in property management and/or for a sandwich shop. He was booked Sunday afternoon for battery and released Monday. Mr. Mesa had a previous domestic violence case in 2004 where it was originally charged as a felony and resolved with probation. The new case is assigned to the domestic division.
Joseph Armstrong (29) was arrested on Saturday for battery. He was released without bond the next day. His case is also in the domestic violence division. His reported address is in the Timberwalk townhouses off Ponderosa. We haven’t found a lot more about him, but he may do some acting or modeling work.
Grand Larceny: Over $100K?
All arrestees are innocent until proven guilty.
We have a second arrest this week that seems like a bigger deal that the usual stuff. Earlier this week we reported on a case with numerous counts of sexual assault on a 12-year-old. Now we have a major grand larceny case. Mr. Franco Nicolas Abugattas (age 21) was arrested Friday morning for an offense that court records say happened in November. The charge is Grand Larceny in the 1st Degree, and the specific section cited in the case typically involves theft of something worth more than $100,000. The subsection also includes “theft of a semitrailer that was deployed by a law enforcement officer”, but that seems unlikely.
The Boca Raton address reported in the blotter seems to be an error. There is an Abugattas family living in Boca Raton, but we did not see any other connection between this man and that family. We did see an indication that he has ties in Weston, a place some refer to as Westonzuela (after Venezuela) though the Abugattas name appears to be from Peru.
One other curiosity in the case is that as best we can tell his address is in the city of Boca Raton, but the arrest was made by the Sheriff rather than Boca PD. Normally the Sheriff makes arrests in West Boca and other unincorporated parts of the county. We hope to find out more in the coming days.
Next up is the arrest of Denice Martin (45) on Wednesday. Ms. Martin is accused of a felony involving possession of cocaine and of “drug equipment.” Back in September we reported her arrest in a cocaine bust in Sandalfoot. That case, charged as a felony sale, was “no-filed” by the county prosecutor. In between that arrest and now she’s had a couple of civil cases relating to animal ordinances, but there’s nothing else we can find in the records.
Ms. Martin’s reported address is deep into the Sandalfoot trailers south of Judge Winikoff, not far from Tradewind Road. She was released on bond early Friday morning.
Representing the youth movement in our arrest news, Justin Bowman (17) was arrested Wednesday on what looks like burglary of an emergency vehicle. He was released on bond the next evening. His reported address off Lakeridge, northwest of 441 and Yamato. The property is owned by an absentee landlord based in Maryland.
Mr. Bowman appears to be a past or possibly current student at Olympic Heights High School. We weren’t able to find much about him, but we did find what appears to be a school survey project that includes him, and it sheds some light on the situation. The presentation is embedded below, but may be hard to navigate for some. Here’s a statement that seems to come from Mr. Bowman:
Bullying, crime, gangs and self-image appear to be important topics within his world and for those around him as well. Maybe, just maybe, our system is not doing a great job of helping kids like him.