Dugger: The war is still raging ...........................2 The House that Love Rebuilt ...........................9 FUGITIVES Protect and Serve ............................................3 We Need Your Help; Unsolved Murders .............. 10 CAPTURED SAVE THE Date Domestic Violence 2623 Corey: Intern Program at the SAO ...................5 Missing Persons ..................................................... 11 Shame, Shame, Shame ...................................6 Champions Hats Off!: Tammy McGuire ............................... 12 MISSING Mayor Brown: Let’s stop domestic violence JSO Most Wanted .........................................13 Awareness PERSONS in October–and every month .......................7 for Justice Busted ..........................................................14 FOUND 179 Champions for Justice Award Winners ............8 November 6 Special Thanks ..............................................16 Month AVAILABLE ONLINE 24/7 OCTOBER 2014 WWW.JUSTICECOALITION.ORG Volume 20 • Number 7 • FREE Refusal to Her near-death testify experience By Jay Howell brought life Can the victim of a crime By Lisa Root simply refuse to testify in a criminal court proceed- She’s a store owner and a business woman. She’s a ing because reliving the lady and what some would admiringly call a diva. She’s a horrible experiences of the mother and a friend. She is a contributor to the community criminal act in court would and a survivor of domestic violence. be too painful? Fifteen years ago, Sylvia Treasures could not have In 1985 the defendant was tried in a imagined being where she is today. She had moved to Miami courtroom and convicted of first Jacksonville, Florida, from California to seek a new begin- degree murder, armed sexual battery ning in life after a rocky start to adulthood. She gave birth Sylvia Treasures and armed kidnapping. The sixteen- to a son her senior year of high school, still graduating with a GPA of 4.0, and within a couple of years had fallen friends to live 3,000 miles away knowing only her, must year-old victim, her friend, also sixteen, truly love her and want their marriage to be successful, and a twenty-year-old acquaintance in love with and married a man she believed was a loving and suitable fit for her life. too. drove together to the beach near Key Bis- This success was not to be. cayne. After parking the car and sharing After a few months, Sylvia discovered her courtship with him had been tainted by his secret relationship with Sylvia and her husband both worked and became in- a bottle of wine, the young people were volved in the community through a growing Westside approached by the defendant. Imper- another woman. So she made the decision to pack her be- longings and move with her young son across the coun- church. “Right living” did not change the person her hus- sonating a police officer, the defendant band was, though. Despite all he had left behind in Cali- pulled out a baseball bat and forced the try to live with the grandparents who had raised her as a little girl in her parents’ absence. fornia, his desire for other women came with him, and for twenty-year-old male to walk back to his Sylvia that meant more heartbreak and lots of questions. vehicle. The defendant struck the young However, the idea of Sylvia’s move did not sit well with her husband. Unwilling to be left behind, he con- He answered her questions with lies, mental and emo- man across the back of his head with the tional abuse, physical abuse, and a near-fatal episode. baseball bat and continued to beat him. vinced Sylvia he was sorry for cheating and wanted to make their life together work; he was coming to Florida “If a man hits you once, he isn’t going to stop,” she He died from his injuries. said. “The first time a man ever puts his hands on you The defendant then kidnapped one with her. As much as she wanted to remove herself from the issues, Sylvia desired a successful married life and should be the very last time...if he sees you stay and for- of the sixteen-year-old young women, give him, it’s easy for him to do it again and again.” threatened her at gun- and knife-point, family, so she said yes. In her mind, anyone who would and raped her twice. He told her if she uproot his life and leave behind so many family and Treasures... Continued on page 4 called the police he would kill her and her family. When he left, she called the police. The defendant was tried and con- Human trafficking crime organization victed, sentenced to death for the mur- der, and given life in prison for the armed sexual crimes and kidnapping. dismantled Although the defendant’s convictions and sentences were initially affirmed by ORLANDO, Fla.—The Orlando their release. The defendants adver- Florida courts, after twenty years, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation ATTORNEY GENERAL tised the females on prostitution web- defendant was granted a new sentencing (MBI), The Florida Department of Law sites and transported them to locations hearing before a new judge when it was AM ONDI Enforcement (FDLE), and Florida Attor- PFLORIDA OFFICE OFB THE ATTORNEY GENERAL in Central Florida to commit acts of discovered that the original trial court ney General Pam Bondi’s Office of State- prostitution. Female victims were re- judge requested the State, without the wide Prosecution recently announced peatedly provided narcotics, includ- presence of the defense attorney, to pre- that charges have been filed and arrest felony and 10 misdemeanor arrests, for ing cocaine and heroin, and were not pare the sentencing order. warrants have been issued against three crimes such as robbery, sexual battery, allowed to leave the residence unless The sixteen-year-old sexual assault Central Florida defendants for human battery, child abuse, cocaine posses- they were escorted by one of the de- victim was eighteen when she initially trafficking for commercial sexual ac- sion, and other charges. His associates, fendants. Several of the victims were testified at the defendant’s trial. She is tivity, human trafficking for labor and James Bernard King (DOB 05/03/64), threatened and beaten by Rawles and now approximately forty-five years old services, and deriving support from the and Wilbert Shaver (DOB 01/06/53), King. and refused to testify again at the new proceeds of prostitution. were also charged with human traf- MBI requests that anyone with addi- sentencing proceeding. Based on her “Human trafficking is an abhorrent ficking and other charges related to this tional information related to this human refusal to testify, the State filed a mo- crime, and thanks to this collabora- investigation. sex trafficking investigation please con- tion to have her declared unavailable as tive effort, the Orlando area men have These charges are a result of an tact MBI at 407-836-9701 or Crimeline at a witness and to allow her former trial been arrested for their role in an alleged MBI investigation. The investigation 407-423-TIPS. testimony to be read to the jury in lieu of human trafficking organization,” Bondi revealed that Rawles was actively re- The Metropolitan Bureau of Investi- her live testimony at the new sentencing said. cruiting female prisoners from Lowell gation is a multi-agency Narcotics, Vice proceeding. Richard Rawles (DOB 06/08/39), Correctional Institution State Prison for and Organized Crime Law Enforce- Testify... Continued on page 4 was at the center of the investigation. Women in Ocala, Fla., and was trans- ment Task Force assigned to Orange He is a violent career criminal, with 47 porting those women to Orlando after and Osceola Counties. The views, opinions, and positions expressed in articles submitted by monthly and/or pe- The Justice Coalition is a grass roots, non-profit (501(c)3), non-partisan organization that operates on contri- riodic contributors to the Victims’ Advocate butions, proceeds from fundraising events and newspaper advertisements, etc. Please help us continue our newspaper do not necessarily reflect the advocacy for innocent victims of violent crime in NE Florida. Visit our website at www.justicecoalition.org, or views of the Justice Coalition. OCTOBER 2014 call (904)783-6312ThE Jus to seeT howiCE you C canO beali a partT ofiO thisn’s vital service.ViCTims’ adVOCaTE • 1 The war is still raging enough to try them. Anyone could pur- From the Director chase them; even children. That is, until Florida’s Attorney General, Pam Bondi, by Ann Dugger began cracking down on the sellers. Ms. Bondi teamed up with law en- forcement all over the State to make a Several months ago, the Victims’ Ad- clean sweep, raiding stores that sell this vocate featured a story on the strides and other synthetic drugs and making made in the State of Florida with re- gards to the war on synthetic drugs. The importance of this fight is indescribable TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE because the target for sales of these drugs is our children and these drugs “Synthetic drugS FACTS” are deadly. — SEE PaGE 7 OF THIS EDITION When my children were little, tricky sellers of drugs were putting LSD on backs of stamps and selling them near it a crime to sell them to minors or any- that campaign today? The streets are schools to children who would lick the one else. The Fox News conglomerate full of drugs and students are finding stamps and have strong reactions to the did a full story on their efforts, show- more and more creative ways to carry drug—some ending up addicted, in ing where the drugs were displayed as and even sell drugs in the corridors hospitals and even in morgues. Laws well as stored, and how easy it was to and on playgrounds of schools.