ICYMI

Orange County gets funding for electric buses, OMA trustees say they were misled, OCSO deputies disarm and then shoot a man, and other news you may have missed.

» Bodycam footage shows deputies fatally shooting a man at pointblank range after disarming him

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has released bodycam footage of one of their deputies killing a man in the parking lot of the Heritage Hotel on South Orange Blossom Trail. Cops were called to the scene at midday on Aug. 6 after shots had been fired between two men. When they arrived, they found 21-year-old Dylan Michael Jimenez suffering from a gunshot wound on the ground. A bystander was helping to treat Jimenez and identified himself as a paramedic before describing his injuries. Jimenez’s brother, 28-year-old Bryan Matthew Richardson, was standing nearby holding a handgun that was pointed at the ground. When bystanders alerted the deputies to Richardson’s gun, two deputies ran toward him. He extended his arm out to create space between himself and one OCSO deputy while keeping the gun pointed out the ground. The deputies yelled at him to drop the weapon. The video shows Richardson’s gun being taken by an OCSO deputy.

Immediately after he was disarmed, the deputy whose bodycam footage was shared by OCSO fired his weapon eight times at Richardson from mere feet away. Two seconds elapsed between Richardson being told to drop the gun and the shooting. Both Richardson and his brother later died of their injuries. A third man involved in the altercation with the brothers was shot but survived. The deputy who killed Richardson was placed on paid temporary administrative leave, according to a statement released along with the body camera footage by OCSO Sheriff John Mina.

» Clinics file emergency motion to halt Florida’s abortion ban

Attorneys for seven abortion clinics and a doctor filed an emergency motion last week asking the Florida Supreme Court to halt a new law that prevents abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The motion was the latest twist in a three-month legal battle over the law (HB 5), which the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved this year amid a national debate about abortion rights. Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper on July 5 issued a temporary injunction against the law, ruling that it violated a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution that has bolstered abortion rights in the state for more than three decades. But a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned the temporary injunction, effectively allowing the 15-week abortion limit to be in effect.

The emergency motion, in part, seeks a stay of the appeals court’s decision. If granted, the motion would put the 15-week abortion law on hold while the Supreme Court considers the underlying issues about the temporary injunction. “Granting plaintiffs’ requests to stay the First DCA’s decision and allow the injunction to take effect would restore the status quo while litigation continues and allow Floridians to resume exercise of their constitutional right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term or obtain a pre-viability abortion — a right that this [Supreme] Court has repeatedly recognized is encompassed by the Florida Constitution’s right of privacy,” said the brief, filed by attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the national law firm of Jenner & Block. The clinics and the doctor, Shelly Hsiao-Ying Tien, filed the lawsuit June 1. After Cooper issued the temporary injunction, attorneys for the state quickly appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeal — a move that, under court rules, automatically placed a stay on the injunction.

» Ousted Orlando Museum of Art trustees say they were misled in months before Basquiat raid

Former trustees of the Orlando Museum of Art say they were intentionally kept in the dark by museum leadership about the questionable authenticity of a Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit that led to the museum being raided by the FBI in June. The Heroes & Monsters exhibit of supposedly never-before-seen Basquiat paintings was pitched as a coup for the museum, nearly up until the moment that FBI agents were seizing the paintings. Five former trustees of the museum who were removed from the board last week say that ex-board chairwoman Christina Brumback kept news of the FBI’s interest in the paintings from them. The New York Times notes that former museum director Aaron De Groft and Brumback received a subpoena from the FBI in July 2021. They made the decision to keep the request for communications around the exhibit confidential from everyone but themselves and one financial advisor. “Had we known when we should’ve known, the show would not have happened,” booted trustee Winifred Sharp told the Times. “I am a former judge and a lawyer, and I know the implications of being served with a subpoena: They think there’s probable cause that there’s fraud. Everyone would normally go ‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!’”

The ex-trustees spoke with the paper after Brumback published an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel that seemed to indicate all members of the board knew about the subpoena for months. They spoke out, objecting to the use of the word “us” in the column. “At that time, our then-director repeatedly assured us — through the presentation of documentary evidence — that highly qualified art experts had vetted the authenticity of the pieces in the ‘Heroes and Monsters’ exhibition,” Brumback wrote. “Our director presented us with several authentication reports, specifically one from Diego Cortez, the nowdeceased man widely credited with ‘discovering’ Basquiat and who served on Basquiat’s estate’s official authentication committee. Based on this and the other reports, our director reassured us that everything was in order.” Since the board was not informed that anything was amiss, this reassurance would not have taken place. Former board president and trustee Ted Brown said that Brumback’s secrecy on the matter was “a breach of her responsibilities.”

“The board of directors is the only entity — not the chair of the board, but the entire board — that holds the corporate franchise,” he said. “We are the responsible party for the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between at the museum.” Sharp said that the ouster of several board members came right as they were about to ask Brumback to proffer her resignation. In a less-crowded meeting, Brumback stepped down from her position but remained on the board. The secrecy and scandal seems to be at the heart of the resignation of OMA’s interim director, Dr. Luder Whitlock. He resigned his post mere weeks after being brought into the position, shortly before OMA announced its trustee purge. He also spoke to the New York Times about the state of the museum. “It’s obvious that by resigning, I was not pleased with certain things. And that’s all I can tell you,” he said.

» Orange County to receive funding for electric buses from

Volkswagen emissions settlement

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said this week that $68 million will be divided among 13 counties moving from diesel to electric buses. The money, coming from Florida’s share of a 2016 settlement between Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice over emissions violations, is expected to cover the costs of 227 electric buses in Alachua, Broward, Duval, Escambia, Hillsborough, Leon, Marion, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach, Pasco and Pinellas counties. The state previously announced that money from its $166 million share of the $14.7 billion Volkswagen settlement would go to school districts in Broward, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas and Sarasota counties to buy 218 electric school buses. Also, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that $42 million was headed to the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Lee County and the state for low- and no-emission buses, equipment and worker training.