Crime

Cities on opposite coasts of Florida — including one Southwest Florida community — are at the top and bottom of the most sinful places in the United States.A report from personal-finance website WalletHub listed 2023’s Most Sinful Cities in America. The report compares more than 180 U.S. cities based on seven sinful behaviors: anger and hatred, jealousy, excesses and vices, greed, lust, vanity, and laziness.

Former Cape Coral resident Devin Ryan Maresca will serve a three-year federal prison sentence for mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.Maresca, 33, was sentenced Tuesday by Senior U.S. District Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington. As part of his sentence, the court also entered an order of forfeiture in the amount of $74,700, which were the proceeds of Maresca’s mail fraud scheme.

An arrest warrant issued Monday for Cape Coral councilmember Patty L. Cummings charged her with three third degree felonies: Fraudulent Application for Driver License and two counts of False Swearing in Connection with or Arising Out of Voting or Elections.She surrendered at the Lee County Sheriff's Office Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities are investigating shootings in Texas, Indiana, Florida, Illinois, Georgia and other states. Many of the shootings took place at the sites of large gatherings early Sunday.

A man shot and killed at least 16 people at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, and then fled into the night, sparking a massive search by hundreds of officers while frightened residents in multiple communities stayed locked in their homes Thursday under a shelter-in-place advisory.

It’s official, the Southwest Florida INTERCEPT Task Force is at work fighting human trafficking and the sexploitation of children.The task force held a news conference Thursday afternoon in Naples to announce the formation. The task force was created earlier this year.

Former President Donald Trump says he will surrender to authorities in Georgia on Thursday to face charges in the case accusing him of illegally scheming to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, with prosecutors using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power.

An investigation began in February 2023, when the Liberty County Tax Collector's Office contacted the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles after learning that a large number of disabled parking placards were applied for and issued to one individual within their county on behalf of multiple persons residing in South Florida.

Englewood man sentenced for assaulting law enforcement officers during Jan. 6 Capitol breach; Defendant assaulted police and led breach of line that collapsed police perimeter