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Couple On House Arrest In Tribune Manager Case

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

TAMPA - A former Tampa Tribune credit manager and his wife, who are accused of stealing more than $1 million from the newspaper and its parent company, have been placed on house arrest, according to court documents.

A federal judge ordered Charles and Lynda Wilson placed on electronic home monitoring because they lost their jobs after their arrests, documents state.

After being fired from the Tribune in May, Charles Wilson, 58, was working as a consultant for Gannett, another media company. Lynda Wilson, 47, worked in the law office of Morgan & Morgan, authorities have said.

The couple were arrested this month on a federal mail fraud charge, accused of using their home-based credit collection company to funnel money from the Tribune over 10 years.

According to complaints filed in U.S. District Court, the Wilsons created CCL Services in 1995. From August 1998 to May 2008, they received about 129 checks totaling almost $500,000 in payments from the Tribune and its parent company, Media General, for services they never provided.

The Wilsons also are accused of diverting more than 200 checks, totaling more than $571,000, that were destined for Tribune advertisers that were owed money.
Charles Wilson had worked for the Tribune since 1992.

The Wilsons have been released on $75,000 bail each.

Dad Of Girl Whose Mom Died Arrested

The father of a 5-year-old girl whose mother was killed in a drunken-driving crash on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway has been charged with driving under the influence, police said.

Joshua Moll, 26, twice drove a 2004 Dodge Ram through the parking lot of a restaurant at West Platt Street and South Packwood Avenue on Tuesday after security asked him to leave, Tampa police said.

Officers said they stopped Moll, of Tampa, nearby and saw that he was impaired.

He failed field sobriety tests and was arrested, police said. Booking information was not available.

Moll is the father of Summer Moll, whose mother, Jennifer O'Boyle, died in a head-on crash on the expressway in September.

Cheryl Maria Riemann, 25, of Ruskin, is charged with DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in that wreck. Riemann is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail and awaiting trial.

Summer left Tampa General Hospital last month to live with her maternal grandparents. Grandmother Tammy Rosian said Tuesday that the child was back in the intensive care unit for a procedure.

Rosian had no comment on Moll's arrest.

Deputies: Pregnant Woman Was Attacked

A 36-year-old Tampa man choked a woman with a television cord, refused to let her leave, held her at knifepoint and threatened to kill her and their unborn child Monday, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies say.

Deputies arrested Kirby Cook at his home about 7 p.m. Monday. He was charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and domestic battery by strangulation.

Cook fled from his home about 2 p.m. Monday but later returned, an arrest report states. He and the woman have lived at the home together for about six months, authorities said, and she is about 23 weeks pregnant with Cook's child.

Cook remained in Orient Road Jail on Tuesday. His bail has not been set.

PINELLAS

Man Charged With Sexual Battery

A St. Petersburg man was arrested Tuesday morning after he burst into the apartment of a 24-year-old woman as she was unlocking her front door and tried to rape her, police said.

The woman, however, pulled out a pocket knife and fought him off, and the suspect fled, St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa said.

Ozell Junior Johnson, 32, was found by police after the 2:35 a.m. assault and charged with sexual battery and burglary of an occupied dwelling. He was being held at Pinellas County Jail. Bail was set at $70,000.

As the woman, who did not know Johnson, was unlocking the front door, she was pushed into the apartment from behind, pinned on the couch, and then the man tried to remove her pants, Kajtsa said.

In the struggle she pulled the pocket knife and fought him off, the spokesman said.

Officers found Johnson at 11th Avenue and 16th Street, Kajtsa said. The woman was then brought to the location and identified him.

A staff report

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