Man accused of beating woman, killing fetus

A Fort Lauderdale man is accused of attacking a woman who was carrying his unborn child with a metal baseball bat in Pompano Beach last month, killing the five-month-old fetus.

Wearing a ski mask and clothed in all black, a man attacked the woman shortly before 1 a.m. Feb. 23 as she was walking toward her apartment through the complex’s parking lot. The woman told detectives the man started walking quickly toward her with the bat, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Underneath the mask was allegedly Emmanuel Prevaly, 34, who the victim said she had been friends with since she was 8 years old and who she was dating.

She told Prevaly about their baby when she was seven weeks pregnant. He told her that he was not prepared, according to the affidavit.

After the attack, doctors could not detect the baby’s heart beat, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Friday.

Prevaly in an interview with detectives denied being the attacker and that “they grabbed him instead of the guy,” the affidavit said.

He was arrested Feb. 23 on one count of attempted felony murder and one count of depriving the victim of calling 911, the Sheriff’s Office said. An autopsy determined the fetus died from multiple blunt force injuries and Prevaly was charged with killing an unborn child.

Keen files to run for full term in November

After capturing his seat in a January special election, state Rep. Tom Keen, D-Orlando, will run for a full term this fall.

Keen on Thursday filed paperwork to run in November in House District 35 in Orange and Osceola counties, according to the state Division of Elections website.

Keen won a Jan. 16 special election to succeed former Rep. Fred Hawkins, a St. Cloud Republican who was named last year as president of South Florida State College.

Keen defeated Republican Erika Booth, who also has opened a campaign account to run again this fall. In addition, St. Cloud Republican Dianna Liebnitzky has filed paperwork for the race.

Pinellas schools prepare for new cellphone rules

Pinellas County public school students could face added restrictions on their cell phone use when they return to classes in the fall.

Following a state and national trend, school district officials are proposing that students keep their phones and related devices, such as smartwatches and ear pods, off and out of sight during classes and events unless teachers give permission otherwise.

The limitations would be strictest for elementary and middle schools, with a bit more flexibility for older grades.

High school students would be allowed to use their phones during lunchtime and between classes.

The rule would make accommodations for students with special needs, and during emergencies identified by the school principal.

It’s similar to what Pasco schools implemented in August, with plans to go further in the fall.

The recommendation goes to the Pinellas School Board for workshop discussion Tuesday.

It would replace the current policy, which discourages phones in schools but leaves the guidelines to individual principals.

It comes months after board members called for changes — including a possible complete ban — in the weeks before students were set to resume school in August.

Error by medical examiner led to mix-up of remains

The remains of two men who died from fentanyl overdoses in 2022 were mislabeled by staff in the Pinellas County medical examiner’s office, an error that led to cremation of the wrong body, CNN reported Friday.

The report said the remains of 30-year-old Kane Mitchell and 31-year-old Luke Comiskey were shipped to Ireland, where their families lived. Comiskey’s body was mistakenly cremated and Mitchell’s was buried in the Comiskey family’s plot.

The families, according to CNN, later noticed “discrepancies in the autopsy reports” that led them to realize the labeling error.

William Pellan, director of investigations at the medical examiner’s office, said in an interview Saturday that he began investigating and interviewing staff when his office was first alerted to the inconsistencies.

What he found was that two staff members at the scene of the death in Pinellas Park failed to follow protocol.

A later confirmation of identities with the families was also not properly documented, leading to the error, he said.

The District Six Medical Examiner, which serves Pinellas and Pasco counties, sent an investigator to Dublin, where they worked with the equivalent office there to confirm the error, Pellan said.

As a result, he said, two District Six employees were fired later that year, including an investigator who worke

The office also added procedures to avoid a similar occurrence and detect if it were to happen aga

— Compiled from wire reports