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Your Florida Daily: Medical examiner’s investigator accused of stealing credit card info from the dead

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Your Florida Daily: Medical examiner’s investigator accused of stealing credit card info from the dead


ORLANDO, Fla. – A Broward Medical Examiner’s Office investigator is in trouble with the law, accused of stealing the credit card information of a dead person and using it to swipe $450.

According to an arrest warrant, 38-year-old Darrell Reid worked for the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office documenting scenes by taking photographs.

The records show Reid was called to a home in Coral Springs last October where a man had been dead for more than two weeks.

Three days after the man’s body was discovered, his daughter reported some suspicious activity happening on her father’s account.

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Two payments of $150 were made to a CashApp account belonging to Reid and another $150 payment to his girlfriend, according to the arrest report.

Investigators said they looked at Reid’s CashApp account and found 25 debit and credit cards as payment sources with some linked to other people who recently died in Broward County.

Coral Springs police also linked his account to the credit card of a man who died in New York City in 2022 when Reid was an investigator for the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.

Reid resigned just a few days after he was arrested and charged with three counts of criminal use of a dead person’s ID and one count of fraudulent use of a credit card.

Each charge carries a maximum prison term of five years.

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Members of the Florida House of Representatives give Speaker of the House Chris Sprowls a standing ovation after Sprowls gave his farewell speech and had his official portrait unveiled during a legislative session at the Florida State Capitol, Thursday, March 10, 2022, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee) (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Florida lawmakers want to make constitutional amendments harder to pass

Florida lawmakers are moving forward with a proposal making it harder to pass amendments to the state constitution.

A house panel approved the measure on Tuesday.

If it becomes law, proposed amendments would need two-thirds support from voters to pass instead of the current minimum of 60%.

Supporters of the change argue it’s too easy to change the constitution but critics say the measure is a way of stifling the voice of the people.

“I can’t think of a better way to protect our Constitution than to raise the bar,” said State Rep. Rick Roth, R-West Palm Beach.

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Democrats have a different take.

“It is the content of some of these amendments that certain members of this body don’t like, and that’s why we are making it more difficult,” said State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Ocoee.

The legislature does not have the final say on this. The issue will be on the November ballot and if approved in Tallahassee would need 60% support to take effect.

Universal Helios Grand Hotel (Universal Orlando)

Universal Orlando unveils Epic Universe theme park

Universal Orlando giving us a first look of its newest park, Epic Universe, set to open in 2025.

The park will include brand new hotels, various thrill rides and themed lands such as Super Nintendo World and “How to Train Your Dragon” – Isle of Berk.

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News 6 spoke to theme park expert Dr. Duncan Dickson who says the new park is expected to bring in hundreds more high-paying jobs and tourists to Central Florida.

“Every theme park that opens, adds to the luster of the town and the size and the expanse of Epic — they are going to be able to hold a lot of people there,” said Dr. Dickson.

Universal Orlando made the announcement back in 2019, though the pandemic did put some of the construction of Epic Universe behind.

Random Florida Fact

Today marks 66 years since the first satellite was successfully launched by the United States, lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

Explorer 1 was launched in response to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik 1, setting off the U.S. Space Age.

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About the Author:
Katrina Scales

Katrina Scales is a producer for the News 6+ Takeover at 3:30 p.m. She also writes and voices the podcast Your Florida Daily. Katrina was born and raised in Brevard County and started her journalism career in radio before joining News 6 in June 2021.



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Cocaine, guns reported found after gas station surveillance in Florida

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Cocaine, guns reported found after gas station surveillance in Florida


A 37-year-old man was jailed June 29 after Port St. Lucie Police reported finding nearly 5 ounces of cocaine, other drugs and firearms at his home, according to an affidavit.

Wallick Cooper, of the 800 block of Southwest Monica Street in Port St. Lucie, was arrested on charges including a single count of cocaine trafficking; two counts of possession of controlled substance without prescription; and three counts possession of firearm or ammunition by a felon.

Police conducting surveillance June 25 at a gas station in the 300 block of Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard reported a Mercedes-Benz arrived and backed in. Detectives reported seeing a suspected drug transaction between the driver and a man who approached the driver’s window.

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Investigators stopped the Mercedes after it left, alleging the window tint was illegal. Cooper, the only occupant, reportedly “immediately began lying about where he was coming from and where he was heading,” an affidavit states.

He let police search the vehicle. They found no drugs but turned up about $1,000 they suspected came from drug sales, though Cooper “smirked and denied accusations,” the affidavit states.

Cooper was released from the scene.

Police told his probation officer about the encounter, and the probation officer on June 29 reported finding suspected drugs in Cooper’s home.

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Ultimately, police got a search warrant, and they reported finding about 4.92 ounces of cocaine; about 12.9 ounces of marijuana; three firearms; and a small amount of pills.

Cooper has a medical marijuana card, but hadn’t gotten pot since February, according to police. Police reported the recovered marijuana wasn’t packaged “consistent with legally possessed marijuana.”

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Cooper was held July 1 in the St. Lucie County Jail on no bond, a jail official said.

Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.





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Kids with autism are prone to drowning. Florida is trying to prevent that

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Kids with autism are prone to drowning. Florida is trying to prevent that


Garland Jones, recreational therapist and senior program director of the YMCA of South Florida’s special needs program, teaches Mackenzie Wesley, 5, to breathe safely in water by using a ping pong ball as a visual aid.

LA Johnson/NPR


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WESTON, Fla. — Mackenzie Wesley sports a big grin and bright blue Lilo & Stitch swim gear as she runs into her weekly swim lessons. It’s fitting, because the 5-year-old has something in common with movie character Lilo: She adores water.

“Whether it’s the pool or beach, she enjoys it fully,” says her dad Steven Wesley.

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Mackenzie isn’t alone: Many kids with autism share a natural love for water because it can be sensory bliss — the feeling on their skin, the pressure and the sparkle of the water can all be soothing. Lucky for her, Mackenzie lives here, less than an hour outside of Miami in a state that’s dotted with bodies of water.

But there’s a tragic reality tied to that fact, as Mackenzie’s mom, Brittany Bucknor, is all too aware. “In Florida, there’s water everywhere, and also with kids her age, and also just being on the spectrum, it’s a very — way higher — rate of having an incident of drowning.”

Kids with autism are 160 times more likely than other children to die from drowning, according to a seminal 2017 study from Columbia University. In fact, in Florida, most children drown in backyard pools. That’s largely because about half of autistic children have a tendency to wander from safe settings. That fact, combined with an attraction to water can make for a dangerous combination. Quality swim lessons can help.

That’s one of the reasons Mackenzie’s parents enrolled her in Swim Buddies, the YMCA of South Florida’s low-cost program aimed at children with disabilities. It’s also why the state of Florida, which has one of the highest childhood drowning rates in the nation, is expanding a voucher program on July 1 that will put children ages 1-7 who have autism at the front of the line for subsidized swim lessons. “We have tragic circumstances and stories across the state of Florida of young children with autism that are wandering away, they’re eloping from their homes, from their classrooms,” says Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, and one of the lawmakers who sponsored the bipartisan bill that changed the state’s swim vouchers.



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New details in deadly Florida alligator attack

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New details in deadly Florida alligator attack


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Nightly News

Officials say 31-year-old Brittany Clark died after being attacked by an alligator while swimming in a river. Clark was hiking in a state park outside Orlando when the attack happened. NBC News’ Liz Kreutz has more.

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