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At least 11 people were injured when a boat exploded on Memorial Day with 15 people on board, according to reporting from local media.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told reporters Tuesday that the vessel was a 39-foot Sea Ray. The incident happened in the Intracoastal Waterway around 5:45p.m. near the New River Triangle sandbar. Among the injured were two children, including a 5-year-old.

Many of the injured had burns and were taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s burn unit in Miami.

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A home health nurse in Florida was accused of taping the mouth of her “nonverbal” patient and repeatedly ripping it off, according to recent reporting from local media.

Nia Ayers, 24, was charged with aggravated abuse of the elderly or disabled after turning herself in on May 7, The Miami Herald reported this week.

The incident, involving an 18-year-old patient who investigators say “is completely unable tot defend herself or cry out for help,” was reported to the St. Cloud Police Department by the patient’s mother. The mother checked home camera footage after noticing cuts and scrapes around the patient’s mouth and on her eyelids.

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A seemingly mundane trip to the grocery store or a tiring commute home after a long day’s work can quickly turn into a driver’s worst nightmare.

About 400,000 car accident victims discover this annually in Florida with many suffering severe and permanent injuries. As a personal injury law firm with nearly five decades of experience litigating cases just like these, Leesfield & Partners knows that the “road to recovering damages” can be a daunting one.

Here’s a basic guide to what plaintiff’s should know when seeking damages for injuries caused by an accident on Florida roads. For a more in-depth breakdown or for a free consultation, call Leesfield & Partners at 800-836-6400.

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A family has lost their 13-year-old son after he hit a metal cable in a “freak accident” while riding his e-bike through the neighborhood, according to local media.

Emiliano Munoz, of Everett, Washington, was playing with friends at a neighborhood field on May 2. As he left on his e-bike, he took a shortcut through a yard where he did not see a braided cable strung up between two bollards in the grass.

The boy ran into the cable and cut his vocal cords, a spokesperson for the family told local media.

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Police in Sanford, Florida, are asking anyone with information on a local pastor who they believe has sexually abused multiple children in his congregation.

Yersson David Solarte Basto, 33, was charged with sexual assault on a victim under 18 years old and lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under 16, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Solarte was a pastor at IPUL Pentecostal Church in Sanford, or Iglesia Pentecostal Unida Latinoamericana Orlando Norte, during the alleged abuse. The crimes were reported to police “after the most recent incident,” according to local media. The victim said she was abused by Solarte on multiple occasions before he “expressed his love for her” and she “refused his advances.” After that, the girl told police he “tried making her jealous” by abusing her sister.

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Leesfield & Partners recently thwarted a company’s attempt to claim that an employee driver involved in a fatal crash was an independent contractor in a recent settlement.

This case was handled by Bernardo Pimentel II, a Trial Lawyer at the firm and resulted in a $1 million settlement for the grieving family.

As a result of this driver’s utter carelessness, a family has been forever fractured from the loss of their 8-year-old daughter.

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A woman canoeing with her husband this week has died after their vessel flipped on top of an 11-foot alligator and the animal attacked in Kissimmee, Florida, officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

Cynthia Diekema, of Davenport, has been identified as the woman who was killed in this incident, according to local media. She was 61.

The incident happened around 4 p.m. Tuesday near the mouth of Tiger Creek in Lake Kissimmee, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. The couple was in a 14-foot canoe in a little more than two feet of water when their canoe went over the animal who then thrashed and flipped them. Both husband and wife ended up in the water and the wife landed on the alligator.

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A former substitute teacher accused of using social media to meet girls as young as 12 years old for sex agreed to a plea deal Monday, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Enreeka Nalasco, 35, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and 20 years’ probation Monday on two counts of human trafficking and three counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with girls under 16. Nalasco is also said to have given the pre-teens vapes and marijuana “in exchange for sex,” according to the article.

The two children involved in the case were students at Miami Beach’s Nautilus Middle School in 2022, when the investigation began. Nalasco had previously worked as a substitute teacher at Miami Beach Senior High School, The Herald reported.

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More than 30 people were rescued Saturday from the waters off Miami Beach after a multi-million-dollar yacht began taking on water, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Emergency responders were called around 5 p.m. near Monument Island, and 32 people were rescued, according to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard. No injuries were reported.

Photos of the incident showed the assemblage of people, some with life jackets and others without, gathered on the vessel’s bow. Other photos showed the vessel partly submerged with mainly the bow peeking above the water.

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Police in Sarasota chased down a speeding and out of control boat this week, but there was no operator on board to be chastised.

That is because the vessel’s operator, who was not wearing the skill switch, had been tossed off when a wake hit. As a result, the man was thrown into the water without a life jacket as his vessel sped off without him at 40 mph. When the vessel’s operator was thrown off, he broke two fingers but was otherwise uninjured, according to reporting from Fox News.

Luckily, officers with the Sarasota Police Department’s Marine Patrol were able to catch up with the vessel, hop on and shut it off before anyone else was injured.

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