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FORT MYERS, Fla. -

Justified shooting or cold-blooded murder?

A Fort Myers father is asking Gov. Rick Scott to decide after the state said the man who shot and killed his son was acting in self-defense.

The family of Ryan Modell is frustrated that more wasn't done to figure out what happened in his shooting death. They say they don't understand why a grand jury wasn't the one to make the decision if the killing was murder or justified.

James Taylor is a free man after a March ruling that his shooting of Ryan, 33, was justified based on Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law. Modell was trying to enter Taylor's condo, which looked identical to his.

The case was reviewed by Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg.

"This was a questionable shooting at the very least," said Mark O'Mara, the Modell family attorney.

"The threat that you perceive has got to be immediate, and it's got to be one of great bodily injury."

In March, Sandy Modell confronted Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox about the lack of charges, which until then a decision hadn't been announced. It was the next day the State Attorney's Office said charges would not be filed.

"That looks to me like a call that should have been made by the grand jury, not some prosecutor," O'Mara said.

Modell and his attorney want Scott to assign a different state attorney to take a second look at the case.

Mark O'Mara, who rose to fame after successfully defending George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, says a critical component for "Stand Your Ground" is missing from this case.

"The fear has to be immediate. You're going to do it to me now, and it has to be that you can cause great bodily injury," O'Mara said.

For now, the SAO is sticking with its original decision and says they won't be taking any other actions in the case.

Scott has shown a willingness to get involved in judicial issues.

In April, he took 21 first-degree murder cases away from Orlando State Attorney Aramis Ayala when she said she would no longer seek the death penalty in any cases, including the case of Markeith Loyd, who is accused of killing a police officer.

James Taylor, the man who shot Ryan Modell, had no comment.

See more here:
Fort Myers family asks Scott to review 'Stand Your Ground' ruling - NBC2 News

The parents of a teen killed in 2012, sparking outrage when his shooter was acquitted, took the stage at Florida Memorial Universitys commencement in Miami Gardens today to accept an honorary degree for their son,WSVN in Miami reports.

Trayvon Martin's bachelor's degree in aeronautical science was bittersweet, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin said, but they were encouraged by the community's support. "Just watching all the 2017 graduates come across the stage, and just to share that moment with them, it was very powerful," Martin said. Fulton is a graduate of Florida Memorial.

Earlier,the university said it was awarding the aeronautics degree, with a concentration in flight education, to Martin "in honor of his love for planes and the steps he took during his young life toward becoming a pilot."

The teen was shot and killed in Sanford by George Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense on the grounds of a gated community in which Zimmerman and Martin's father's fiancee lived. Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder in 2013.

More here:
Trayvon Martin's parents accept posthumous aeronautical science degree - Palm Beach Post

Knight News gave University of Central Florida Deputy General Counsel Youndy Cook until May 15 to explain why UCF is hiding certain records about who will help spend nearly $20 million in public funds even though the University of Florida and Florida State University make them public.

If Cook cant convince Knight News that UCF is right and UF is wrong by that deadline, Knight News will file its fourth lawsuit aimed at protecting the publics right to know how UCF is spending public money. As of last count, UCF has spent more than $220,000 in public money defending its position that routine Student Government Association records like budget expenses and job applications are not subject to public scrutiny.

UCF believes that records created and kept by SGA, in connection with SGA business, are a part of a students educational record and therefore are protected under FERPA. FERPA stands for the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act. FERPA was created to ensure that students educational records and information like SAT scores are kept secure. A few years ago, UCF started applying FERPA to SGA, resulting in unprecedented secrecy, like the closure of election violation hearings.

This idea of redacting an accusers name and closing election hearings under the guise of FERPA, is not consistent with either UFs or FSUs Student Governments. Knight News Adviser Sean Lavin, who is attending law school at UF, requested election violation records from UF Student Government and was given non-redacted Election Violation reports. During that time, Lavin also learned that UFs student body president is the Student Government records custodian the one with the say over what information can or cannot be released. UCF, on the other hand, claims that the UCF SGA president has no decision-making power to release his own records.

UF and FSU are treating Student Government the way Floridas Legislature intended as an entity created by law to spend about $20 million in state funds in order to give Student Government participants the chance to learn how to serve the public that elected them with honesty, transparency and accountability, Lavin said. UCF has ripped away that valuable learning experience from its own students, so UCF students wont be prepared for the real world, while their competition at FSU and UF will.

The latest UCF records battle is over who applied for paid positions on the new UCF SGA presidents cabinet, and whether UCF is breaking the law by keeping them secret.

On May 1, Knight News reached out to UCFs SGA asking for the applications and resumes of students who have applied to be in Nick Larkins and Cristina Barretos Executive Cabinet.

On May 5, Knight News received an email from the Assistant Director of the Office of Student Involvement David Oglethorpe that said, There are no releasable documents responsive to this request. An education record is a record that directly relates to a student and is maintained by the institution, which includes student employment records. The records you requested meet this definition, at least in part, therefore, all documents have been withheld.

Knight News believes that FERPA does not apply to the applications of students who are trying to obtain roles inside SGA. In fact, UCFs decision to not release these applications and resumes runs counter to UCFs actions in the past.

Back in November, Knight News made a public record request for the resumes of students who have applied for a justice position inside SGA. UCF complied with this request and Knight News was able to investigate the applicants.

The denial of Knight News request is just the latest chapter in what may be an attempt to hide information from the student body. As Knight News previously reported, Larkins was found not in violation of bribery after his accuser, SGA Facilities, Safety & Transportation Coordinator Bobby Sells failed to attend Larkins bribery hearing.

After the hearing, Sells told Knight News that he believes Larkins did in fact promise positions to certain individuals. But he decided not to attend the hearing because he did not want to negatively affect SGA.

Prior to Larkins bribery hearing, Knight News requested and received a redacted document where the names of Larkins accuser and the students who Larkins allegedly bribed were redacted. UCF later updated the record to show Sells name, only after Sells agreed to his name being released.

After learning that the UF Student Body president decides whether to release or hide records, Knight News reached out to Larkins to find out what role he played in the denial of our request.

I have had absolutely nothing to do with the rejection of your public records request, Larkins said.

I was locked out of my Chief of Staff account a few weeks ago and I still have not gained access to my Presidential email, so other than the back and forth emails Ive been ccd on between Ms. Cook and Mr. Lavin, I know nothing about this request, Larkins continued.

Larkins went on to explain that he does not know what role he plays in public record request and also that Oglethorpe is the person that all request go through.

David Oglethorpe is the person that we forward all of our public records requests to. I have only been the President for about a week so I have never gone through the process of releasing records, so at this point, I honestly dont know what my role is, Larkins stated.

Lavin said that the Florida Legislature enacted a statute clarifying that SGA as a whole is maintained by students not the administration and that it could be a major legal problem if UCF administrators are interfering with SGA President Larkins custodial duties.

When I was covering the George Zimmerman case for an Orlando TV station, the special prosecutor insisted that the City of Sanford could not release its own records even if Sanford believed they should be released, Lavin said. Sanford listened to the special prosecutor, kept the records secret, got sued and the appellate court ruled Sanford broke the law by keeping the records secret. If UCF forces Knight News to sue Larkins to access SGAs secret application records, we feel confident the result will be the same as in the Sanford case a ruling rejecting the bad advice defense.

Lavin believes UF is right to recognize that the Student Body president is the custodian who must decide whether the records should be released, and that whoever is calling the shots at UCF to do things differently refuses to admit it because that mystery decision-maker pulling the strings is wrong.

Larkins was elected Student Body President, not David Oglethrope, Lavin said. It doesnt make any sense for Oglethrope to tell Larkins he cant release his own records when Larkins sits on the Board of Trustees and occupies the SGA Presidential office created by the Legislature to appoint SGA officers to help spend $20 million and Oglethrope doesnt. If UFs student body president can decide what records to release, why cant UCFs?

Lavin said that if FERPA really does apply to SGA, then UCF broke the law repeatedly back when he was Speaker of the Senate at UCF and all SGA records were released to the public without a second thought.

We never hid any of this stuff and the FERPA police never came and took away UCFs federal funding, because everyone knows SGA records are not education records, Lavin said. If I were President Larkins, Id have some tough questions about why UCF cant follow UFs lead and let the students run SGA so UCF students can get the same valuable experience that will benefit them in the real world. If administrators are going to make all the decisions, why bother having a student government at all?

Go here to see the original:
UCF Covers-Up Records that UF, FSU Make Public - KnightNews.com

Innocent? Seal that arrest record

I can't agree with the Sentinels Tuesday editorial, "Don't scrub arrest record, guilty or not." Even the title seems wrong, because what editors are really advocating is to retain arrest records "innocent or not." It doesn't matter whether the premise behind this bill is that anyone arrested and charged but not convicted was wrongly accused. Presumably, anyone charged but not convicted is innocent that is what "presumption of innocence" means, after all.

Failure to convict for whatever reason means the state didn't prove its case. If innocence, indeed, is presumed, then why should people who are arrested but not convicted have to have an arrest record and mug shot hanging around their necks for the rest of their lives? Don't such people have a right to privacy?

A prospective landlord or employer could decide on the basis of an arrest record alone not to rent to or employ that person.

So what that records for Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman would be automatically sealed? The millions of words the media have written and broadcast about them are public record enough to keep the citizens of Florida informed.

I understand the Sentinels concern about keeping public records open, and I almost always would agree with the editors but not in this case. I think the right to privacy should prevail over the public's right to know when a person has been arrested but subsequently found not guilty or had the charges dismissed.

Robert Kreps Oviedo

The Republicans were right to celebrate their House victory repealing Obamacare in the Rose Garden with President Trump and champagne all around: The majority of them have admitted that they have not really read the bill; they have neither data nor facts on the true cost in economic and humane terms; they don't know what the Senate bill will look like; and none of it applies to them or their staffs.

This could be their only opportunity to congratulate themselves. Those up for midterm re-election could find crying in their beer not nearly as satisfying.

Susan Schaidt Averill Altamonte Springs

Regarding Randolph Bracy Jr.s guest column, Mary McLeod Bethune worthy of D.C. pedestal, on Tuesday: There is no doubt that Mary Bethune was a great person and distinguished for her accomplishments.

However, I was perplexed when Bracy stated, Put Bethune in the statuary in Washington now, and stop fighting the Civil War over again.

Everywhere monuments, flags, school names and anything pertaining to the Civil War and our history have come under fire and been removed in the name of political correctness. Whether it is removing a Confederate statue or changing the name of Robert E. Lee Middle School, our history is disappearing. Now its Gen. Edmund Kirby Smiths turn to go away. So who keeps fighting the Civil War over again?

Smith was a native Floridian. Bethune was almost 28 years old before she stepped foot in Florida. He was dead by the time she arrived. Smith was a well-decorated war general, including the Mexican War and the fight against the Indians. He later taught at his alma mater West Point. Somebody in 1922 decided he was well worth a statue. And now almost 100 years later, somebody else is second guessing that?

It is impossible to compare one generation/time in life to another. So it is also impossible to compare Smith to Bethune. Instead of this P.C. replacement mentality, how about agreeing to add a statue?

Nobody today would condone what happened during Civil War times. Why cant we as a society get over it and move on?

Donald R. Zimmer Longwood

More here:
Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman seal their arrest records for ... - Orlando Sentinel

Florida Memorial University is planning to award Trayvon Martin a posthumous bachelor of science degree in aviation during its commencement ceremonies this Saturday.

Didnt think of Trayvon as the scholarly type, did you?

Since his death in 2012, Martin, the 17-year-old thug who was fatally shot during a fight with George Zimmerman, has been made into a martyr.

According to Sybrina Fulton, Trayvons mother, Trayvon wanted to be a pilot or an airplane mechanic. But he was far from a model student. According to reports, Trayvon had been suspended twice that school year before his death for offenses that should have gotten him arrested once for getting caught with a burglary tool and a dozen items of female jewelry, the second time for being found with marijuana.

In 2010, Chief Charles Hurley of the Miami-Dade School Police Department implemented a policy that lowered the number of criminal reports, altering statistics to create the impression that crime was dropping within the school system. Crimes were being reported as disciplinary infractions. If Chief Hurley and the Miami-Dade School District had done their jobs, Trayvon may have gotten the wake-up call needed to change his life.

As I write in The Antidote, Trayvons parents failed him. Stable, married parents are the foundation for life, but Trayvons mother and father abandoned him. The only real mother he knew was his stepmother, Alicia Stanley, with whom he lived for eight years. That was taken from him when his father, Tracey Martin, started seeing another woman, Brandi Green, and gave up full guardianship to the biological mother, Sybrina Fulton.

Trayvon was stripped of the only family and mother he knew. As a result, he grew angry, used drugs and turned into a thug. It was his own anger not racism that caused his death.

Trayvon was in Sanford, Florida, visiting his fathers girlfriend at her home in the townhouse community where Zimmerman was in charge of the neighborhood watch.

Trayvon was from Miami Gardens a crime-ridden city located in north-central Miami-Dade County. The city violent crime rate for Miami Gardens in 2012 was higher than the national violent crime rate average by 116.45 percent.

Trayvons biological parents, along with phony black leaders and the mainstream media, have been complicit in falsifying the narrative about Trayvon.

OrderRev. Jesse Lee Petersons book, The Antidote: Healing America from the Poison of Hate, Blame, and Victimhood.

Patrisse Cullors, whom I interviewed on my radio show (she ran from me), is a radical black lesbian and an organizer in Black Lives Matter. She and others created the BlackLivesMatter hashtag soon after Martins death. Since then, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Barack Obama and other human leeches have used Trayvon as the poster child for false racism.

Trayvons failing parents especially his mother are using his name to gain fame and money. They now have the Trayvon Martin Foundation. According to the website, its a social justice organization committed to ending senseless gun violence, strengthening families through holistic support Whatever that means.

Fulton has been traveling and giving speeches, and she has been acting as though she was a model parent. She campaigned with Hillary Clinton in 2016, and she was recognized at the Democratic National Convention along with other Mothers of the Movement (aka Dirty Mothers of the Movement).

So how much has the Trayvon Martin Foundation raised, and where does the money go? No one seems to know.

What we do know is that Trayvons parents settled a wrongful-death claim against the homeowners association in the gated community where he was killed. The final settlement is believed to be more than $1 million.

Within three days of Trayvon Martins death, his family hired a media-consulting firm. Within two weeks of Trayvons death, his mother filed legal documents to trademark his name. Soon after, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton set out on a cross-country tour and even went to Europe to collect money. While Sybrina Fulton already had a $68,768 salary with the Miami-Dade County government, she also received an eight-month paid vacation worth $40,825.

Rapper Jay Z and the Weinstein Company are partnering on a series of film and television projects about Trayvon. The projects are reportedly based on two books Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story of the Trayvon Martin Injustice and Why We Continue to Repeat It by attorney Lisa Bloom (daughter of Gloria Allred) and Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. Hows that for objectivity?!

If Trayvons parents were honest, they would admit they failed him, but theyre not, so theyre pushing a lie and exploiting their dead son.

We know Trayvon is being given a silly posthumous degree to continue falsifying his life story. Just like the gentle giant Mike Brown and others. Their stories are altered to make them appear as victims who were unjustly cut down. Making them look better than they were also absolves the rotten parents of their failing.

What message is being sent out to society, and to young black men? Like suicide bombers, young black men are made to think theres heroism in their lives when many have been nothing but a menace to society.

Rampant immorality caused primarily by the breakdown of the black family is ultimately to blame for black anger and violence. Canonizing thugs and excusing bad black parents only perpetuates the problem.

OrderRev. Jesse Lee Petersons book, The Antidote: Healing America from the Poison of Hate, Blame, and Victimhood.

Media wishing to interview Jesse Lee Peterson, please contact media@wnd.com.

Read more:
RACE IN AMERICA - WND.com