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Judge sets $1.4M bond for pastor accused of fleeing to Texas after sexually abusing girl in Florida Keys

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Judge sets .4M bond for pastor accused of fleeing to Texas after sexually abusing girl in Florida Keys


MARATHON, Fla. – A 62-year-old man who served as a First Baptist Church pastor when a teenage girl accused him of giving her a spiked drink and sexually abusing her appeared in court on Saturday in the Florida Keys.

Rev. Monte LaVelle Chitty, a registered police volunteer, appeared before Monroe County Circuit Judge James W. Morgan III at the Marathon Courthouse wearing a light blue jumpsuit and handcuffs.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Chitty on March 4 after they found incriminating text messages to the girl including, “I prefer you pass out after I play not before” and “You can’t even remember what I did.”

He was released on a $75,000 bond.

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“While you were out on bail, you committed a new crime,” Morgan said about his failure to appear in court.

The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Rev. Monte LaVelle Chitty on April 5 on a warrant out of Monroe County. (US Marshal Service – Monroe County Sheriff’s Office)

According to deputies, Chitty had fled to Texas, and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him on April 5 at Woodville on Morgan’s warrant.

Chitty was facing charges of sexual battery on a child, delinquency of a minor, and lewd and lascivious molestation on a child.

Morgan set his bond for the sexual battery charge at $1 million. The bonds for the other two charges were $300,000, and the bond for the failure to appear charge was $100,000, so the total bond is $1.4 million.

“If you post bail, I am ordering you to report to pre-trial services once a week,” Morgan told Chitty in court.

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Mug shots of Monte Chitty taken after his initial arrest in March (left) and after he was extradited back to South Florida after fleeing to Texas in April (right) (MCSO)

The judge also ordered Chitty to wear a GPS ankle monitor and cover its cost.

According to Alaska Public Media, in Southwest Alaska, authorities feared there were other victims since he had also served as a pastor at the Cold Bay Chapel and as a village public safety officer in the Alaskan communities of False Pass and Akutan.

Local 10 News Reporter Janine Stanwood and Assignment Desk Editor Joyce Grace Ortega contributed to this report.

Copyright 2024 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.



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2 dead after small plane crashes into Florida lake

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2 dead after small plane crashes into Florida lake


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2 dead after small plane crashes into Florida lake



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Florida man allegedly dumped mother-of-four’s cremated remains alongside 500 pounds of trash on roadside

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Florida man allegedly dumped mother-of-four’s cremated remains alongside 500 pounds of trash on roadside


A Florida man allegedly dumped a mother-of-four’s cremated remains and 500 pounds of trash on the side of a road late last month, according to reports.

Daniel Rolando, 26, was arrested and charged with one felony count for littering over 500 pounds of commercial or hazardous waste after Charlotte County Sheriff deputies discovered a massive pile of trash in Punta Gorda on Oct. 30, ABC7 reported.

Daniel Rolando, 26, allegedly dumped a woman’s cremated remains alongside 500 pounds of trash. Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office

Among the heap of waste was a labeled bag with human ashes, according to the outlet.

The cremated remains belong to 39-year-old Nina Monica Brown, who died of sickle cell disease in 2024, Gulf Coast News Now reported.

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“It was a straight box and plastic bag from the funeral home, like you would pick her up. It wasn’t even an urn, nothing,” resident Heather Lemcool told the outlet.

“Her name, day to day, date of birth, and date of death, and the funeral home was all on this, ID card attached to the ashes,” she said.

The cremated remains belonged to 39-year-old Nina Monica Brown, who died in 2024. Gulf Coast News

After sifting through the 120 cubic foot pile of trash, police found mail belonging to a woman in Sarasota and contacted her, the outlet said.

She positively identified 80% of the discarded items as hers and told deputies that she had recently had two of her units at a local storage facility auctioned off after defaulting on her contract, the outlet reported.

But the woman was dumbfounded as to how her mail and trash ended up on the side of the road and had no clue how the cremated remains wound up in the pile, according to the publication.

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Employees at the storage unit then confirmed to police that Rolando had purchased the two units at the auction.

He was arrested after returning to the trash pile to clean up with a friend, the outlet reported.

Brown was a mother-of-four who defied her life expectancy while battling sickle cell disease. Gulf Coast News

Rolando later confessed to purchasing the goods and dumping the ones he didn’t want, according to the report.

Precious Tunstall, a friend of Brown, described the woman whose ashes were carelessly dumped as a “walking miracle” who battled sickle cell disease far longer than doctors predicted.

“As growing up, they didn’t expect her to live past the age of 21. She wasn’t supposed to,” Tunstall told Wink News.

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“They told her that she would never bear children. She had four beautiful children, two girls, two boys, and she did everything that she had to do to provide for those babies,” she said.

She is currently working with the police to retrieve Brown’s remains and return them to her children.

“It was very inconsiderate of him to just dump her on the side of the road,” Tunstall said.

“I would like to have her ashes back, her remains back, so her children can have her remains.”

Rolando was released from jail on Thursday on $2,500 bond, the Venice Gondolier reported.

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The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.



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Kentucky owns Florida and Kroger Field again

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Kentucky owns Florida and Kroger Field again


The home crowd of Kentucky Football fans had forgotten what it felt like to celebrate in Lexington. As we all know too well, Kroger Field had become a place where visitors took over and Big Blue Nation left rivalry games before the final whistle.

But all of that finally changed on Saturday night when the Wildcats buried Florida, 38-7, snapping the 11-game home losing streak against conference opponents and Louisville. For the first time in more than two years, Lexington belonged to Kentucky again in a meaningful game.

Nov 8, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Cutter Boley (8) looks for a receiver during the first quarter against the Florida Gators at Kroger Field. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

A fun fact, it had been 2,247 days since Florida last won in Lexington, and Kentucky didn’t just protect that streak on Saturday night, it extended it to three straight wins over the Gators at home. And the third in a row was complete domination in the 2025 SEC home finale. Cutter Boley again played like the quarterback of Kentucky’s future, completing 18 of 23 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns, while the defense suffocated Florida’s offense from the opening drive, with four takeaways. It could’ve been a shutout if not for the muffed punt early in the game, which set up Florida’s only red zone appearance.

This wasn’t the same Kentucky team that kept falling short in its own stadium game after game for the last two-plus seasons. The Wildcats played with confidence and had their way with Florida, running for 233 yards and outgaining the Gators 401-247 in total. It was the kind of night that hits the reset button on a struggling program, as Mark Stoops has strung together consecutive league wins with his back against the wall.

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Unlike the last time Kentucky was at home, fans stayed and celebrated as the clock wound down for this one, then the fun continued into the parking lot and on into the night. It was great to see BBN happy again at home, especially against a logo team like Florida that had UK’s number for so many years.

4 out of 5 over the Gators

Stoops’ dominance over Florida isn’t just at home. He, of course, first snapped the decades-long streak in Gainesville in 2018, then won in the Swamp again in 2022. Overall, Kentucky has now won four of the last five meetings in a series that once felt impossible to flip. There’s a new streak in town.

Enjoy this one, BBN.



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