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Community Foundation aids 38 non-profits. PAGE 7A
Merry Christmas!
SARASOTA
diversions: IT’S A WRAP!
NEIGHBORHOOD 3A
INSIDE | PAGE 1B
De-stress during the holidays with Pam Nadon’s movie picks.
Christmas Confessions Elementary students share their thoughts about the holiday.
You. Your neighbors. Your neighborhood.
PEOPLE, PICS & PLACES
in the driver’s seat
Operation Gotcha
By Robin Roy | City Editor
Courtesy photo
+ Sarasota Elf goes home for the holidays During a quick trip back to the North Pole, the Sarasota Elf took a moment to himself and relaxed with a dirty martini while reading The Sarasota Observer inside the elf break room. Take a cue from Sarasota’s Santa’s helper and make sure to pack your Sarasota Observer on all your getaways. Snap a photo of yourself with your newspaper for our “It’s Read Everywhere” contest, and e-mail your photos to nschwartz@yourobserver.com.
Rachel S. O’Hara
+ Couple bedazzles home with lights Dallas and Lynn Earl, ages 89 and 93, have been dressing their home in thousands of icicle lights for the past nine years. Decorating takes about a week to complete. “We have a lot of lights and it covers the whole front of the house,” Dallas Earl said. “I think it’s beautiful. We’ll have more next year.”
INDEX Classifieds..............................15A Cops Corner..........................14A Crossword.............................14A Opinion....................................6A Real Estate...........................14A Vol. 7, No. 7 Two sections www.YourObserver.com
The plain-clothes deputy radios from outside the courthouse that habitual driving offender Wesley Tunstall is about to walk out the front door and make his way to his pickup truck. “He’s (also) got a history of battery, fleeing and cocaine charges,” the deputy tells the support team. Six cruisers are stationed around the courthouse, ready to pounce. Sgt. Darrell Seckendorf, the commander of the Sarasota County Sheriff ’s Office sting, sits in his unmarked SUV in the small alley between the courthouse and the old police station on Ringling Boulevard. There, he waits. As Tunstall walks out of the courthouse, where he was fined for driving with a suspended license, and heads toward Adams Lane, the plain-clothes deputy radios more background information. “(In the past) he rammed a deputy trying to flee,” says Seckendorf. Seckendorf doesn’t want to take any chances this time, and he again radios to the 14-member team. “Let’s jump on him before he even moves,” he says. “As soon as he gets in the driver’s seat.” A deputy in another unmarked car gets on the radio and says Tunstall is getting in the driver’s seat. Seckendorf hits the gas pedal and speeds onto Adams Lane, with Tunstall’s red pickup straight ahead.
‘Slap in the face’ 7:35 a.m. Dec. 21
Thirteen deputies gather on the third floor of the Sarasota County Sheriff ’s Office headquarters on Ringling Boulevard. Nine are in uniform; four are in plain clothes. A 14th uniformed
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Sheriff’s deputies trail two-dozen drivers with suspended licenses as they leave a courtroom. Some ignored a judge’s order to stop driving and got back behind the wheel.
Robin Roy
Dina King, 32, was arrested as she began to drive down Ringling Boulevard, not five minutes after she left a courtroom, where she was fined for driving with a suspended driver’s license. deputy is on his way. Seckendorf, the DUI Traffic Unit supervisor, briefs his crew on Operation Gotcha. The deputies are targeting habitual offenders who have a court date to face punishment for driving with a suspended or revoked driver’s license. The targets will face the judge, be instructed to pay a fine and stop driving. After receiving the instruction to suspend driving, police suspect they will head out of the courthouse door, climb into their vehicles and drive home. “It’s a slap in the face to the judge,” says Seckendorf. “He warns you not to drive, and you turn around and drive anyway.
It’s like flipping the bird to the judge.” Twenty-four possible violators are scheduled to be in Judge David Denkin’s courtroom at 9 a.m. Operation Gotcha is performed one or two times a year. The last occasion — Oct. 19, 2009 — netted five arrests.
The plan
The four plain-clothes deputies will sit in the courtroom and try to look inconspicuous. Three men are dressed just like many of the justice system’s frequent offenders: jeans, hooded sweatshirts, tennis shoes. Two men have a couple of days’ growth of stubble on their faces. One dons
a light-colored baseball cap with sunglasses perched on top. The lone female in plain clothes is wearing new jeans, black boots, and a mid-length black overcoat. “I’m dressed nicer than most,” she laughs. Their job is to make sure that the suspects do indeed have suspended or revoked licenses and make sure they are not with a friend or family member who may be driving them. After the targets receive their punishment from the judge, the deputies will follow them out of the court and radio descriptions of them and
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SLICE OF THE CITY
Thursday, december 23, 2010
SEE OFFENDERS / PAGE 2A
(The judge) warns you not to drive, and you turn around and drive anyway. It’s like flipping the bird to the judge. Sgt. Darrell Seckendorf, Sarasota County Sheriff's Office