Devaris Frederick of Hollywood FL. This photo is from the FDLE offender database.
A wild incident took place on Saturday at the Sandalfoot Publix here in West Boca Raton. Devaris Frederick of Hollywood Florida allegedly stole a woman’s purse while in the line waiting to pay the cashier. He ran out of the store and into a waiting U-Haul van. Comically as the van drove off, witnesses say Frederick fell out of the back door of the van.
Narrative from the PBSO probable cause affidavit. We redacted the victim’s name.
Witnesses then chased Frederick, tackled him, and held him down until deputies from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office arrived. Deputies also found a crack pipe in Frederick’s possession, but no lingerie.
FDLE records indicate Frederick has a substantial criminal history including two lengthy stays in some of the finest all-inclusive resorts the State of Florida has to offer.
Broward County court records reveal Frederick had just been released from jail on a pending felony grand theft charge with an electronic monitoring agreement that means he should have had a GPS device on his ankle. It was not mentioned in the probable cause affidavit. He may be returning to a state prison in the near future.
Broward County mugshot of Devaris Frederick
We are hoping to get video from this incident, either from PBSO or possibly from locals who were reportedly recording on scene.
A Boynton Beach couple displays an amazing Before and After look. Left image from Facebook; right image from PBSO.
A crime drama unfolded right on the edge of West Boca. Almost as interesting as the crime is the story of their dramatic change of appearance over the past year. The photo above left was taken in early 2017. The photo on the right is from their recent mugshots.
Details from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) indicate:
On June 26, 2018, the HUSBAND/WIFE team, suspects; Brandon Froum, and Mirabehn Froum, were inside 7-Eleven when they attempted to steal/conceal items and flee, when confronted by the clerk, Mirabehn sprayed a chemical spray in the clerks face. After a brief struggle the suspects fled in a Toyota 4Runner.
Both suspects were apprehended during a traffic stop in unincorporated Delray Beach on Thursday, July 19, 2018. This husband and wife team are now currently residing in the PBC Jail.
PBSO released photos from inside the robbery scene:
Images from PBSO, supplied by store security system.
The Mobil Gas Station is located in the 13500 block of S. Military Trail, Delray Beach, a few miles north of the Boca-Delray line. The arrest was reported to be in “unincorporated” Delray, which is generally what we call West Delray, again just north of us.
As usual there’s more to the story. Mrs. Froum has had two misdemeanor cases this year, retail theft in January, and possession of narcotics equipment in March, both resolved in May with guilty pleas. Mr. Broum had a felony arrest in March which is still pending in the courts. In that case he’s accused of “aggravated battery”, and the probable cause affidavit indicates Mrs. Froum was involved. Part of that affidavit is below, and even the police officer notes Mr. Froum’s change in appearance:
Froum allegedly stabbed the victim in the arm with a large kitchen knife. His bond in that case had been set to $50,000 ($25K each on two counts) and he was bailed out on April 9th. The aggravated assault count was dropped but the aggravated battery remains pending. His bond was revoked as a result of the new arrest. Mrs. Froum’s bond on the new charges is set at $100,000 on each of two counts – Felony Petit Theft and Felony Battery.
We don’t know how their criminal case will work out but they may have potential for a reality TV show about weight loss and makeovers.
It should be noted that the appearance of the two individuals is so dramatically different that we can’t rule out the possibility this is some kind of identity theft or fraud. We think they’re the same people, but we’re not sure.
Image from the fight in South County Park Last week we shared a Facebook video of a fight in South County Regional Park. The video had been posted by Shakeel Munshi and a reader tagged us in a comment. The video shows his daughter being hit by two or three other girls while several other kids watch. Mr. Munshi’s post claims that she “was getting bullied … because she was Muslim.” In his original post (before he edited it) he also claimed that it happened at West Boca High School, that his daughter was wearing an anti-bullying t-shirt, and that she did not fight back. Mr. Munshi’s Facebook video now has over 2.7 million views. It went viral because of his lies and that led to a surge of phony outrage from around the world. We received numerous comments, negative reviews, threats, etc. from just about everywhere. The City of Boca Raton and their police department were wrongly targeted by this mob, even though the incident happened outside city lines and had nothing to do with them. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and the school district were also besieged by the mob. The father’s lies contributed to all of this. First of all as we learned from numerous sources and now confirmed by the Sheriff’s investigation, this had nothing to do with religion. The Sheriff’s office sent out an update this morning:
PBSO deputy met with West Boca Raton High School officials and confirmed the identity of all the suspects involved. The suspects and their families have been interviewed. All participants agreed the fight was over “a boy” and “a video that was circulated”. All parties AGREED to meet and to fight and a specific location and time. PBSO Deputy is preparing paperwork to charge the suspects involved with Simple Battery. Once complete, the investigation will be submitted to the state attorney’s office. THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF A HATE CRIME.
It should be noted that generally the police and schools are required to protect the privacy of minors. We do not expect that they will publicize the kids’ names, the specific charges filed against them, nor the results of any court proceedings or school discipline. It is also unclear whether the “victim” will also be charged since the evidence indicates she agreed to meet and fight and there is video evidence of her fighting. Among other lies, the father’s claim that she was wearing an anti-bullying t-shirt was obviously false. In the video you can easily see that she’s wearing a Bulls Football t-shirt. The West Boca High football team is known as The Bulls. Munshi wearing a Bulls Football t-shirt He has since edited his post to remove that claim. He continues to maintain in his post that his daughter did not raise a hand to fight back: “She didn’t picked up a hand because don’t want to fight back.” This is also a lie as demonstrated in a video showing a different angle of the fight:
If you look at Munshi’s video post again, you can see that the video was edited. It starts after the beginning of the above video so you don’t see her fighting back. And it also leaves out a portion between when his daughter is on the ground and gets back up. We still do not have a full video of this incident so we don’t know what really happened – and neither does the horde of trolls, social justice warriors, etc. Another lie was the original claim that it happened at West Boca High. Anyone familiar with the school would recognize from the video that it was not on school grounds. We are told this happened in nearby South County Regional Park but we still haven’t gotten a straight answer as to where this was in the park. And his claim that all girls were from West Boca High appears to be inaccurate as at least one of the other girls is reportedly a student at Olympic Heights High School. Mr. Munshi even misled us about his own location, offering to meet with us at his home in West Boca. But from an NBC Miami report he wasn’t even in the country at the time. We have published a number of teen fight videos over the past few years. None of them got this much attention, but none of them made phony claims of racism or religious bias. Some of our sources indicate that Ms. Munshi was bullying one or more of the other girls in the video. At the same time we have another source that tells us one of those other girls has a history of misconduct. Again, we don’t know what the truth is. And neither does the unruly online mob. One key ingredient to the video’s virality is the depiction of Ms. Munshi as a completely innocent victim. Any suggestion that she was at all responsible for anything that happened, regardless of its truth, was met by a rage from the online mob. The simple reality of this incident is that it wasn’t much different from the other fight videos we’ve shown. It does not appear that Ms. Munshi was seriously injured. There was no report that she was taken to a hospital or even that she needed to see a doctor. The “simple battery” charge mentioned by the Sheriff means no serious injuries. Had there been serious injuries the charge would have been aggravated battery. One big difference noted by many is that three girls were hitting Ms. Munshi, rather than it being a one-on-one fight. Everyone agrees that this was wrong. Everyone agrees that the fight itself was wrong. But any questions raised about Mr. Munshi’s lies or the “innocent victim’s” role led to false claims that the questioner supported violence. This is, of course, nonsense. It is a common ploy for political partisans of all stripes to use (or manufacture) an innocent victim in order to support whatever agenda fits their goals. What’s particularly disturbing to us is how this incident has painted West Boca High kids as racist or prejudiced. We know a lot of kids in West Boca including the area high schools and younger kids. It is our general experience that they are almost entirely unbiased when it comes to race, religion, LGBTQ issues, etc., and certainly less biased than many adults in the community, in the country, and around the world. The biggest social issue they confront is the stark contrast between rich and poor that one sees in Boca Raton, with some kids living in multi-million dollar mansions in gated communities while others live in trailer parks. The kids seem to handle that well too. There’s also the gifted vs. non-gifted classification in the elementary and middle schools, which translates into Honors and AP classes for the gifted kids and regular classes for the non-gifted. Again in our experience the kids handle this pretty well. It should be noted that some in the online mob asserted that West Boca News was biased in some way, in particular biased in favor of the Sheriff or the school district. Anyone who actually follows us knows that we have had significant disagreements with both over the past several years. Our two most popular videos on the West Boca News YouTube channel are of confrontations with PBSO:
We have also been publicly critical of the school district, especially Superintendent Avossa.
Verdenia Baker, the County Administrator for Palm Beach County, issued an illegal curfew order on Friday morning. The curfew is set to take effect at 3 pm today (Saturday). Sheriff Bradshaw made an unclear statement about the order saying that the curfew applies to anyone who is not out for “legitimate purposes” without explaining what might be legitimate. County prosecutor Dave Aronberg indicated that people will be arrested for violating the curfew. Under state law the county has no authority to issue such a curfew. Section 252.36 of the Florida Statutes, specifically subsection 5, authorizes the Governor (not the county) to take a variety of actions in an emergency. This includes ordering evacuations and in rather vague terms: “Take measures concerning the conduct of civilians, the movement and cessation of movement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic.” It does also authorize the Governor to delegate emergency responsibilities to local officials. The Governor’s Executive Order does not indicate any curfews and does not delegate curfew authority to local officials. One of the biggest problems with this curfew order is that many people may be unaware of the curfew and in particular they likely will not know what constitutes a “legitimate purpose” – the term used by the Sheriff whose deputies will enforce this curfew in West Boca and other unincorporated areas of the county. The curfew order itself does define what purposes are allowed: Put simply, we can travel for medical care, work and/or school, and we can facilitate the transport or distribution of essentials. Of course if a deputy doesn’t believe or accept your reason, or is unaware of the details of the order, you might be arrested even if you’re within these exceptions. Some residents are planning to travel from less secure locations to more secure locations (i.e. from unshuttered homes to shuttered homes), or to pick up vulnerable people and bring them to safer locations. These are not protected under Ms. Baker’s order. In other words, if you drive to Century Village to help a distressed elderly person you are violating the curfew and subject to arrest. Journalism is also not on the list of permitted purposes, a particular concern for us as we are (or were) planning to go out and document the effects of Irma on our community. Another concern is residents of other counties. Deerfield News questioned what would happen to Broward residents who travel into Boca. They would be even less likely to know about the curfew and its details. West Boca News recommends that residents stay off the roads after 3 pm today. While the latest hurricane forecasts indicate we are unlikely to face hurricane force winds, anyone outside after 3 pm faces the risk of unlawful arrest by PBSO deputies and prosecution by State Attorney Dave Aronberg. If you’re thinking of suing, they will probably be immune from civil suit. We did reach out to county commissioners Mary Lou Berger and Steven Abrams, who purportedly represent West Boca, for clarification. Neither responded.
Saam Rajaei mugshot from Palm Beach Sheriff In January of last year there was a highly publicized incident involving a few Olympic Heights students. One of them, James Cartigiano, was reported to have been accidentally shot in the head. Cartigiano was 16 at the time. James Cartigiano The Palm Beach Sheriff (PBSO) has now arrested and charged Saam Rajaei. Rajaei, now 18 and a student at Florida State, was 17 at the time and a student at Olympic Heights. Court papers and the blotter indicate his address on Madria Circle in the Escondido neighborhood. While the earlier reports simply described an accidental shooting, the probable cause affidavit (see bottom) provides much greater detail as to what happened. The incident took place at the home of Jeffrey Zager on Sawpine Road in Delray Lakes Estates, just southwest of where Atlantic meets the Turnpike. Jeffrey P. Zager (from Chapes JPL channel on YouTube) The teens were visiting Zager’s son Jordan. The affidavit notes that the Zager family moved out of state within weeks of the shooting. Jeffrey Zager is the CEO of Jewelry Purchasing & Loan Ltd, a Georgia company which operates as Chapes JPL and has or had an office in East Boca. It appears that the Zagers are now in the Atlanta area where JPL is based. The affidavit indicates that Jordan Zager, his girlfriend and Rafaei were in the house initially. Zager and Rafaei were “dry firing” a revolver in Zager’s bedroom. Dry firing means the revolver was not loaded and they were pulling the trigger. Later Zager loaded the revolver and placed it in the kitchen. It appears that Rajaei thought the gun was still unloaded. A lawsuit filed by the Cartigiano family alleges the revolver, a “38 special Smith & Wesson,” belonged to Jeffrey Zager. Cartigiano came into the home some time after the dry firing, saw the revolver in the kitchen and picked it up. Rajaei then tried to take the gun away from Cartigiano and it went off, striking Cartigiano. Cartigiano died a few days later. There is at least some indication that Rajaei pulled the trigger. From our read of the facts this appears to be a tenuous case at best. Rajaei did not know the gun was loaded and had reason to believe it was unloaded. While those trained in firearms safety know you always treat any gun as if it was loaded, there is no indication that either Rajaei or Cartigiano had such training. With that in mind we recommend all parents show this video to their children (skip ahead to 2:30 if you’re impatient):
Portions of the probable cause affidavit are below. We have redacted the name of Zager’s then girlfriend. While she is now 18 and was in the home at the time, she was a minor then and it does not appear she was a witness to anything material.
