"Parents allegedly gave kids drugs as bribe" Associated Press May 08, 2015
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A couple gave their teenage daughters cocaine and marijuana if they went to school and did household chores, authorities said.
Chad and Joey Mudd of Largo, a suburb in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, gave their daughters, ages 13 and 14, drugs as a ‘‘bargaining tool’’ for school attendance and doing chores, Pinellas County Sheriff’s detectives said. They were arrested Monday.
According to an affidavit, the mother said she smoked pot with her daughters five times and the father snorted cocaine with the teens and one of his daughters’ boyfriends in his truck.
Chad Mudd, 36, who works at an area beach bar, was charged with six counts of child abuse and one count of possession of cocaine. Joey Mudd, 34, was charged with two counts of child abuse. Arrest records say she works at a pediatrician’s office.
Joey Mudd was released Wednesday on bail and Chad Mudd was released Thursday on bail. Calls to telephone numbers belonging to the Mudds weren’t answered. It’s unclear if the couple have retained an attorney.
It’s also not clear who has taken custody of the children. The sheriff’s office was not available for comment.
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Now if they had only been lobbyist plying government regulators.
Time to move on from Florida:
"Fla. driver to sue over ‘sexual predator’ tag" Associated Press May 08, 2015
ORLANDO — A Florida woman who was issued a driver’s license that mistakenly labeled her a sexual predator said Thursday she plans to file a defamation lawsuit against a county tax collector’s office.
Tammy Lemasters, 42, said she was denied service at a hotel and has endured funny looks from cashiers when cashing checks because of the blue letters in the bottom-right corner of her license that say ‘‘Sexual Predator.’’
‘‘I was afraid to drive in my car. I was afraid of getting pulled over,’’ said Lemasters, who works as a restaurant trainer and is the mother of three teenagers. ‘‘I was afraid of the kids being in the car.’’
She has filed a notice of intent to sue the Lake County Tax Collector’s office, which serves as an agent for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The manager of the office where Lemasters got her license attributed the mistake to human error. ‘‘We fully understand the embarrassment she faced, but these are humans doing a human job,’’ said Mark O’Keefe. When drivers get licenses, they are told to double-check that everything on the ID is accurate, O’Keefe said.
Haven't you learned it's always your fault, citizen, even when government f***s up?
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