1A SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2013 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | $1.00 Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM Chamber Diva Day: INSIDE: SUNDAY Suwannee EDITION looks to light Catering River Jam up Lake City. to women. special 1C 1D section Evidence Workers’ Light of hope tossed in comp cost murder raised at Relay of guard weighing Prosecution does not contest loss of on county suspect interviews. By TONY BRITT Officials look for ways to cut [email protected] claims, reduce extra premiums Two interviews conducted resulting from excess payouts. with convicted murderer Richard Franklin by state By DEREK GILLIAM Department of Corrections [email protected] personnel immediately after the stabbing death Over the past 10 years, Columbia Cunty has of Columbia Correctional paid more than $1.2 million in additional pre- Institution Sgt. Ruben miums for workers’ compensation insurance Thomas III were suppressed because the county’s compensation claims in court Friday. reflect bad safety practices, according to Franklin, who is serving county records. two life sentences for first- County employees, including those in the degree murder and robbery sheriff’s office and other constitutional offices, with a firearm in 1994, is are covered by the county’s policy. accused by prison officials of Lisa Roberts, county administrative manag- stabbing Thomas in the neck er, said a number of factors determine the cost with a homemade weapon on of workers’ compensation insurance. The state March 18, 2012. sets mandated rates, but there’s also a modi- On Friday, Third Judicial fication to that rate that looks at employer’s Circuit Judge Paul Bryan claims in four-year increments. granted a motion from the Last year, the county received a penalty of 24 public defender’s office to percent or $88,652 on top of the regular cost of suppress the information workers’ comp insurance. during a pre-trial hearing in Penalties levied against the county have Court Room 2 at the Columbia fluctuated the past 10 years from a low of 12 County Courthouse that percent penalty or $72,787 in 2009 to a high of lasted less than 20 minutes. 29 percent or $202,394 in 2007. Franklin could face a death The workers’ comp premium decreased sentence if convicted of from a high of $905,810 in 2007 to 422,514 Thomas’ death. in 2011. The actual premium fell as the state Bryan accepted an agree- set lower rates, but the penalty premium has ment between the state stayed at or above 20 percent for all but three attorney’s office and public of the last 10 years. defender’s office to sup- County Commissioner Stephen Bailey called press the information from the situation unacceptable. two interviews taken at CCI “We have got to implement a good, solid immediately after the inci- safety program into the county to drive these dent occurred. Public Defender Blair CLAIMS continued on 3A Payne said corrections per- sonnel secured Franklin after the incident and put him in the medical building at CCI, where he was interviewed two times — in a commons area and in a conference Photos by JASON MATTHEW WALKER/Lake City Reporter room. Payne said there are Colby Blake, 8, watches as his mother, Kim Johnson, of the Fort White Elementary Relay for Life questions whether Franklin team, prepares to release a luminary into the sky Friday night. ‘This is the most worthy cause one was properly informed of his can support,’ Johnson said, who has been supporting Relay for Life for 16 years. ‘Helping people constitutional rights before makes my heart happy.’ the interviews. He said that Chair: Fundraising goal topped HEARING continued on 3A Cancer survivors celebrated, victims Local man remembered. injured By TONY BRITT [email protected] critically n 2005 Dawndi Pincus, of Lake City, was diag- in crash nosed with cervical From staff reports cancer and her doctor told her she only had A Lake City man was hos- Isix months to live. pitalized in critical condition “I looked at the doctor and ABOVE: Cancer survivors take to the track for the first lap. after his motorcycle struck told him, ‘You’re not God, BELOW: Volunteers set up dozens of small luminaries around a car in Bradford County on and I’m going to fight this’,” the Columbia High School track Friday. Friday. she said. “I found a really DEREK GILLIAM/Lake City Reporter Joseph Rizzi, 59, was taken good doctor and a really to Shands at the University good support system, went Drug take-back program of Florida in Gainesville, through treatment and I’ve according to a news release Kavin Catalfa, a Lake City resident, drops off been seven years strong and from the Florida Highway old prescription drugs Saturday from when his I beat the cancer.” Patrol. His passenger, wife was battling a terminal illness. She passed Although Pincus sur- Danielle B. May, 48, Lake away, and Catalfa missed the last prescription vived her bout with cervical City, suffered minor inju- cancer, her mother Joyce drug take-back day. He said he knew flushing ries and was treated at the Pincus, lost hers last year them down the toilet would be bad for the water scene. when breast cancer turned supply. “I’ve been waiting six months to get rid of Rizzi was headed west into lung cancer and finally these,” he said. The Lake City Police Department on State Road 100 at spread into her brain. and Columbia County Sheriff’s Office participated 5:30 p.m. when his 1996 in the National Take-Back Initiative sponsored by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. RELAY continued on 3A WRECK continued on 3A Vol. 138, No. 324 Opinion . 4A CALL US: TODAY IN COMING (386) 752-1293 BusinessPeople. 5A2A 9183 6460 Obituaries . 5A PEOPLE TUESDAY SUBSCRIBE TO T-StormIso. T-storms Chance Obituaries . 6A THE REPORTER: Advice.Advice & . .Comics . .. 5D8B Willie Nelson Local news Voice: 755-5445 Puzzles . 3B, 5B Fax: 752-9400 WEATHER, 2A8A Puzzles . 2B celebrates 80th. roundup. 2A 2A LAKE CITY REPORTER SUNDAY REPORT SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2013 Page Editor: Jim Barr, 754-0424 Friday: Friday: Saturday: Saturday: Wednesday: Wednesday: 8-11-20-41 18 9-10-22-26-32 Afternoon: 7-7-8 Afternoon: -7-2-8-5 12-14-27-30-36-44 9-19-31-56-59-2 Evening: N/A Evening: N/A x3 AROUND FLORIDA Legislators work to reach deal on $74B budget TALLAHASSEE — Wildlife Service hired National Seashore. Florida legislators have entomologist Marc Minno Researchers from the signed off on a long line of to perform the survey. In Hubbs-SeaWorld Research spending items, covering reports filed late last year, Institute have been col- everything from tuition Minno concluded that lecting organs and bones hikes for college students the Zestos skipper, the spread across the beach, to pumping in money for rockland Meske’s skipper, including 18-inch-wide the state’s environmental- the Zarucco duskywing, vertebrae. The bulk of the land buying program. the nickerbean blue and whale’s carcass was left in But they are still racing the Bahamian swallowtail a remote area to wash back against the clock to finish had disappeared from the out to sea. up work on a number of pine forests and seaside Research assistant high-profile items, includ- jungles of the Florida Keys Teresa Mazza tells Florida ing pay raises for state and southern Miami-Dade Today that the whale likely workers and a final deci- County, the only places died about a week ago. sion on how to parcel out where some where known a $480 million teacher pay to exist. raise. Minno said he spent Man flees while House and Senate bud- six years on a survey that jury deliberates get negotiators are work- was only supposed to take WEST PALM BEACH ing through the week- ASSOCIATED PRESS two. He said neither he end to put the finishing State House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, answers questions from reporters nor other butterfly experts — A South Florida man touches on a proposed $74 ever saw these species in fled as jurors were deliber- after the conclusion of the day’s session Friday in Tallahassee. The 60-day legislative session ating on his third-degree billion budget. will end Friday. any stage of life, from lar- They must wrap up their vae to adult butterfly. murder case. The Palm Beach County work by Tuesday in order employees who work in Friday when a state House session. Federal officials said it jury found 33-year-old for the session to end on the state’s prison system. panel voted to phase in the “I’m sorry that the may be too early to declare Niklas Prokopishen guilty Friday. That’s because Budget negotiators did reductions, putting it at House Appropriations the butterflies extinct or Friday afternoon, but he state law requires the on Saturday sign off on a odds with a Senate version Committee saw it differ- at least missing from their wasn’t in court to hear his budget to be on the desk proposal to put $88 mil- that calls for a rollback all ently, but that’s the way only known habitat in verdict. The judge issued a of lawmakers 72 hours lion more into the state’s at once. the process works,” he Florida. Biologist, Mark warrant for Prokopishen’s before a final vote is taken. Medicaid program to help The version approved by told reporters. Salvato, said some butter- arrest. The final budget will cover the state’s nonprofit hospi- the House Appropriations The House panel’s fly species have vanished Authorities say spending from July 2013 to tals as they adjust to a new Committee also preserves approach to the bill (SB in the past but then made Prokopishen fatally shot 24- June 2014.