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Brent Batten: Fort Myers councilman resolves to get answers
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I’m not the only one who thinks Gov. Charlie Crist has a role to play in the aftermath of the murder of Fort Myers Police Officer Andrew Widman.
Thomas Leonardo, a Fort Myers City Council member, says he will ask the rest of the council to adopt a resolution calling on the governor to look into the circumstances that allowed a wanted felon to avoid arrest and remain free to fatally shoot the policeman.
“Now it is time for elected officials to step up and get involved. I am duty bound, as an elected member (of) Fort Myers City Council, to call for an investigation of this travesty. I promise to quickly bring forth before my fellow city fathers, in public meeting, a resolution asking Gov. Crist, himself our former state attorney general, to have this extremely serious matter investigated to its fullest, so that never again will such a vicious criminal be allowed to walk the streets of Fort Myers, or any other street in our state,” Leonardo wrote in an e-mail earlier this week.
Leonardo says he plans to seek the resolution at the council’s meeting Monday.
What confounds Leonardo, and many others in Southwest Florida, is that the killer, Abel Arango, was wanted on a no-bond warrant for violating probation on July 18 when the shooting occurred.
The warrant was issued May 30 and Arango appeared in court in Lee County on June 16 to be arraigned on charges including cocaine trafficking.
But neither the judge, the prosecutor, nor bailiffs were aware of the warrant, which was signed by a judge in Naples, part of the same judicial circuit as Lee County. Arango pleaded not guilty and left the courthouse without being served the warrant.
Representatives of the courts, law enforcement and the state probation department maintain they followed proper procedures.
That leads Leonardo to wonder if perhaps those procedures need tightening.
“Suffice it to say that had our justice system done a better job of tracking Arango, this tragedy would have been averted,” Leonard said.
“If this fellow Arango had an arrest warrant out of Collier County, why wasn’t that picked up?” Leonardo wonders.
“It seems unconscionable to me. We’re in an electronic age. We don’t use teletypes anymore.”
Leonardo says he decided to seek the governor’s intervention the same day he learned Widman had been shot by a wanted man.
He waited to go public with the request until after Widman’s funeral.
In the intervening time, he says he hasn’t seen the various agencies taking steps on their own to try to correct the breakdown in communication.
“I haven’t seen anything. That’s not to say they haven’t considered anything. They deal with hundreds and hundreds of cases a week. I want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But I don’t want this to fall through the cracks. People have a short memory,” Leonardo said, explaining his rationale for seeking input from the governor.
For the record, I’ve received no response to my letter mailed Friday to Gov. Crist, also asking him to take the lead in examining a system that obviously and tragically failed.
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E-mail Brent Batten at bebatten@naplesnews.com
Comments
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Is Charlie Christ gay really?
Wouldn't surprise me but always wondered. Don't ask don't ,tell I guess.
#1 Posted by Jadip811 on July 31, 2008 at 5:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What twisted selfishness.
Turning the death of a police officer into an excuse to push your POLITICAL agenda.
Get a life.
Shame on you.
#2 Posted by bluestreak on July 31, 2008 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Charlie actually just got engaged -- to a woman. Can't remember her name or when they're getting married, but if you really care you can google it.
As to the point of the story, I think it's a good thing to follow up on this screw-up that let Arango out of jail. Surely it should be possible to have a data-base on outstanding warrants that could be accessed electronically and checked before releasing anybody on bond.
#3 Posted by sally1860 on July 31, 2008 at 3:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
#4 Posted by sally1860
Gay men date, marry and have children sometimes with women to try to conform to societies standards.
Just because someone is engaged does not make them strictly hetero.
Visit the local hair salon and see for yourself. LOL
P.S. I'm not gay, have never been gay, and the ONLY reason I know this is because my Mom worked in hair salons for 31 plus years until she passed on.
#4 Posted by Jadip811 on August 1, 2008 at 3:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I have sent encouraging emails to Batten and Lytle thanking them for keeping this story alive. We all have so many negative comments about the failures of the NDN to follow up on the important issues, I think we should let them know that we appreciate it when they try to do their jobs.
#5 Posted by naplesconservative on August 3, 2008 at 5:41 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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