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West Boca Man Killed in Flaming Car Accident

Hernando “Joe” Nieto (46) has been identified as the man who was killed in an early-morning pickup truck fire. The accident occurred on Powerline Road just south of the county line in Deerfield Beach.
Mr. Nieto’s reported address is in the Banyan Lake community off Boca Rio, only a couple miles from the accident location. The accident led police to block southbound travel on Powerline from SW 18th for several hours.

From Broward Sheriff’s Office:

An early morning crash in Deerfield Beach left one man dead after his car jumped the curb and struck a tree in the median, bursting into flames.
Broward Sheriff’s Office Communications received the call around 3 a.m. Hernando Nieto was heading north in the 600 block of Powerline Road when he somehow lost control of the vehicle causing the accident. A visual inspection of Nieto’s black pickup and the scene revealed no signs that any other vehicles were involved in the crash. Nieto was unable to escape the burning vehicle.
Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue extinguished the fire and pronounced him dead at the scene.
BSO Traffic Homicide detectives are investigating.

We see no meaningful criminal history for Mr. Nieto in the three counties.

Arrest Report: Child Porn and a Little Person Hit for Big Theft

There were four notable arrests recently. The two men on the right are facing child pornography charges. Brian Jackson (34) was arrested on 15 counts of possession of child pornography. He was previously arrested in 2010 on felony drug charges which were dropped by prosecutors. He remains in custody at this writing with $5000 bond for each count, making total bond $75K. Mr. Jackson’s reported address is just east of Boca Regional Hospital, but the arrest was by PBSO suggesting that it may have happened in West Boca or another area of the county.
The second child porn case involves Mr. Daniel Saull (41), reportedly a resident of Coral Springs and a youth baseball coach in the Boca city league. From the Broward Sheriff:

Saull downloaded child pornography from internet sites and saved them on to flash drives. In his home, investigators found videos and pictures of mostly female children ranging in age from one to 12 years old engaging in sexual activity with adults and other children.
During a search of the home, investigators found cannabis and two glass pipes containing cannabis residue. Saull is facing 24 counts of possession of child pornography, as well as charges for possession of cannabis and possession of drug paraphernalia. Several electronic devises were seized from Saull’s home and will undergo forensic exams which may result in additional charges.

Broward records are harder to read but Saull has retained a private attorney and bonded out. His next court date is in mid-April. If you’re thinking you could try this out and are considering looking online for child pornography, then don’t as you will get caught and quite rightly so as no-one should ever be involved with child pornography and get away with it. Cases like these are one of many reasons why people look to censorship when it comes to pornography. Pornographic censorship is always a hot button topic, but it is universally agreed that no one should watch, make, or distribute the material when it includes minors. It should not exist, and anyone interested in porn should look for alternative shows to watch or don’t watch it at all.

Patricia Godley (28) is a little person accused of grand theft of a vehicle. We see four previous mostly minor criminal cases from 2005 to 2012 including three in Palm Beach County and one in Broward. In a 2007 battery case it appears she did just short of one month in jail. She was arrested Wednesday morning and released that evening. Her reported address is near Palmetto Park and Boca Rio.
And last for this report we have Morgan Murphy (46), a resident of Sandalfoot Cove near Boca Dunes. His latest case involves an alleged June incident involving grand theft, fraud and dealing in stolen property. A warrant was issued in December and he was arrested on that warrant a few days ago. Mr. Murphy has quite a history including:

2001 felony grand theft motor vehicle – probation
2005 DWLS 30 days jail
2008 felony grand theft motor vehicle – mostly dropped but got DUI and 90 days jail
2009 felony grand theft motor vehicle – dropped by prosecutors

We also found a substantial incarceration history from the state:

Mr. Murphy remains in custody awaiting what seems like a low $11,000 total bond considering his history.

More Poker Face Arrests

Clockwise from top left: Erik Bishop, Patsy Capolongo, Darren Klein and Michael Dangelo

Details are still sketchy but we’ve learned of five more individuals arrested in what appears to be a large racketeering and gambling investigation. Perhaps if they’d stuck to going to visit swankybingo.com, things would have been better for them. Alas, it seems they preferred the wrong kind of cards.
Earlier today we reported on three West Boca residents arrested with poker connections.

Devon Shalmi, Thomas Cuce and Joseph “Joe” Petrolino

Now thanks to tips from readers and to the Sun-Sentinel we’ve got more, but the prosecutors and police are withholding full details for now.
This case shows there is a big difference between the games offered at https://www.best-casino.net/ and the kind of underground racketeering that remains rife in our society. The gambling aspect appears more certain now so we’re sticking with our original nickname for this: the Poker Face Case. At this point, we should remind our readers that they should only gamble through legal avenues like pay by phone slots games. Moreover, we’ve found a total of five additional people involved in the investigation so far. Not pictured is Allen (or Allan) Klein of Margate, reportedly age 77. In the mugshots at top we have Erik Bishop (35, Parkland), who has significant West Boca connections, along with Patsy Capolongo (65, West Palm Beach), Darren Klein (36, Coral Springs, son of Allen), and Michael Dangelo (or D’Angelo, 58, Pompano Beach).
Capolongo is in PBSO custody with bond set at $1 million. We don’t know what his charges are yet.
Update: Thanks to another reader tip, Capolongo has other illegal gambling charges against him, per LoHud, and also from a NY Times article from 1997.
Bishop is in BSO custody facing a total of 9 counts including 2 of racketeering and 6 involving bookmaking.
D’Angelo is listed by BSO with 10 counts, mostly the same as Bishop but also with a high level count for money laundering which adds $150K to his bond amount.
Darren Klein has 6 counts listed though his bond is set much lower. Per the Sun-Sentinel the elder Klein faces 22 counts which might make him the top dog.
BSO declined to provide us with any documents. Similar to what they apparently told the Sun-Sentinel, BSO says they are under seal from a judge so they can’t release them. Hopefully we will have more details this weekend or next week.
We’ve found minimal or no criminal history for most of the defendants. Bishop had a felony Broward case in 2012 with 2 counts, something to do with securities fraud from 2009. That case also had several defendants.

False Imprisonment in West Boca?

A Tampa man is accused of “kidnapping” his ex-girlfriend by breaking into her West Boca apartment and keeping her trapped there for a few days.
Liam Heinz (age 31) faces four counts including kidnapping or false imprisonment of an adult, tampering in a misdemeanor proceeding, battery, and criminal mischief damaging property.
Heinz was arrested on Thursday and remains in custody. Court records indicate the incident occurred in late May, and he was arrested on a capias warrant. A motion was made to release him without bond and that will be heard in a few days. Heinz retained a defense attorney from Coral Gables.
Court records from Hillsborough County (Tampa) show a few cases for Mr. Heinz including some petit theft charges and one felony case involving grand theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. He also has a pending drug felony in Broward County that was filed in late May.
Of course, all defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
The Sun-Sentinel has additional details but we cannot verify their version at this time.

West Boca High's Tommy Covella Arrested on Warrant

West Boca High grad Thomas Covella (19) was arrested last night by PBSO on an “out-of-county warrant.”

Our readers might remember Mr. Covella. He was previously mentioned in our West Boca High arrest article from March. Shortly after we mentioned him again in an editorial, How Stupid Are You?
We checked the FDLE warrant database and don’t see anything for Mr. Covella there.
We do see that he had a prior arrest in Coconut Creek (Broward County) for burglarizing a “conveyance” (that usually means a car) and grand theft.

The “disposition” in that case was some kind of probation:

So our best guess is that this is for a violation of probation. That is often minor and we hope for Mr. Covella’s sake that it’s nothing big. It’s our impression that he may have had a few bad moments but otherwise he might actually turn out to be a good kid.
We also see that his earlier case involved another West Boca High grad, Brandon Navarro (also 19). Navarro’s case is still pending and has a calendar call in September. So there’s a small chance the warrant for Covella relates to him being a witness in that case.