The sheriff's office is considering the partial privatization of security at the Hernando County courthouse and government center. ...more

March 19, 2009

Circuit Judge Peter Estrada, with the 10th Judicial Circuit, accepted an invitation to serve on the Florida Supreme Court's Standing Committee On Fairness and Diversity. ...more

December 19, 2008

Phillup Partin, the drifter who killed 16-year-old Joshan Ashbrook in 2002, will die for his crime. ...more

December 3, 2008

It was like a scene straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Several deputies - wearing bulletproof vests and helmets and carrying automatic weapons - ducked behind vehicles parked near the Highlands County Sheriff's Office and the county courthouse late Thursday morning. ...more

October 11, 2008

SEBRING – A father who was mistakenly detained by sheriff's bailiffs who mistook him for his son is an angry man. He's angry that the mistake happened despite his insistence that they had the wrong man. He's even angrier that they didn't apologize after realizing their mistake. Wellington E. Clarke Jr., 47, of Sebring, said he was shocked to find himself handcuffed at the Highlands County Courthouse while he was there taking care of personal business June 12. "I went to court to collect back child support my ex owed," Clarke Jr. said. "The judge said, before you go, you've got unsettled business with the sheriff's office. Three, a lady and two men came up to me and said we've got a warrant." ...more

July 7, 2008

Timothy Craig Blackwelder went to his former girlfriend's home, pulled a gun on her husband and fired one shot, killing him as he made a 911 call asking for help, a jury determined. ...more

May 24, 2008

TAMPA - A 25-year-old man illegally went to his former girlfriend's home, pulled a gun on her husband and fired one shot, killing him as he made a 911 call asking for help, a jury determined today. ...more

May 22, 2008

TAMPA - The trial of man charged with murder will continue today despite an outburst Tuesday afternoon where a man in the courtroom gallery yelled that the defendant killed his brother and struggled with bailiffs as he was dragged from the courtroom. ...more

May 21, 2008

As a jury listened to a 911 tape play the last minutes of George Stewart's life, his family and friends cried in the front row of the courtroom. ...more

May 21, 2008

Timothy Craig Blackwelder is charged with murder, burglary of a dwelling with assault and violating a domestic violence injunction. If Blackwelder is found guilty of the murder charge, he will receive a mandatory life sentence. ...more

May 20, 2008