Category: Florida

Citrus County, Florida, is a scenic place if you like trees draped with Spanish moss. Although it sits on the west coast of Florida, about 75 miles north of Tampa, Citrus County isn’t a place with hotels lining beaches, because there are no beaches to speak of. The coastline of Citrus County is defined by two bays — Crystal Bay in the north and Homosassa Bay in the south — into which empty two rivers. Despite its lack of beachfront, Citrus County has experienced tremendous growth in the past 50 years, exploding from less than 20,000 residents in 1970 to about 170,000 now. This background is by way of introduction to Travis Duane Lovett, who at age 22 made headlines — not in a good way.

Lovett is from Bushnell, in neighboring Sumter County. On the morning of April 28, 2019, an F-250 pickup truck was reported stolen in the Citrus County community of Floral City. Two hours later in Inverness, which is the Citrus County seat, a tip led sheriff’s deputies to the truck’s location:

A high-speed chase through Citrus and two other counties ended Sunday morning with authorities ramming a stolen truck driven by a Bushnell man, who earlier had fired on pursuing troopers.
Medics airlifted Travis Duane Lovett to Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point after the 22-year-old was ejected from a burgundy 2007 Ford F-250 pickup truck off of Sumter County Road 476 near Southwest 41st Terrace, outside of Bushnell, according to the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP).
As of Monday, he was still being treated at Tampa General Hospital for his injuries, FHP spokesman Sgt. Steve Gaskins said.

The reason I mentioned those “trees draped with Spanish moss” in Citrus County is because the pursuit of Travis Lovett was captured on a Florida state trooper’s dashcam, and it’s one of the most harrowing chases you’ll ever see, despite the verdant scenery:

If you don’t want to watch the whole frightening (but scenic) chase, you can click here to see the moment the trooper finally rams the truck off the road into a brutal rollover crash. Afterwards, you can hear the trooper and deputies talking about Lovett being “in bad shape,” as might be expected after being hurled from a truck at 90 mph. You can actually hear Lovett in what sounds like “agonal breathing,” which is almost always an omen of impending death. But more about the chase:

Working off of a tip, sheriff’s deputies at 9:15 a.m. went to a property on the 5300 block of East Muzzleloaders Court in Inverness and found Lovett in the truck.
Lovett drove the truck toward one of the deputies, who had to jump out of the way. Lovett continued to drive through a fence and accelerated towards another responding deputy’s cruiser, which swerved to avoid a collision, the sheriff’s release states.
A neighbor told a Chronicle reporter she saw several people sitting at the front porch warn the getaway driver about the approaching deputies, who had parked their patrol cars to block the driveway and much of the front yard when the truck backed up through chicken-wire fencing to escape. . . .
Lovett got onto South Great Oaks Drive and travelled south, leaving the roadway near the intersection with Bayberry Lane to travel on the Withlacoochee State Trail, according to CCSO spokeswoman Jodi Sanders and FHP.
Lovett continued driving on-and-off the trail for roughly 1.6 miles, almost colliding with several pedestrians, before going south on Istachatta Road.
Troopers kept pursuing Lovett into Hernando County and eastbound onto County Road 476.
Troopers said Lovett pointed an unknown object at them before he fired three gunshots from a handgun through the truck’s rear windshield, with one round striking the right side of an FHP cruiser’s front windshield, according to the agency.

If you watch the video, you realize that the Withlacoochee Trail is for walkers and bicyclists — no motorized vehicles permitted — and Lovett’s 60-mph race down that narrow one-lane trail is one of the scariest parts of the chase, no matter how much you enjoy seeing that lovely Spanish moss hanging from the trees. Considering how many lives he endangered, not to mention shooting at the state trooper who risked his life during that pursuit, I found myself actually hoping that Lovett was killed in that final crash. Alas, he survived, but fortunately you are unlikely ever to encounter Lovett, as he is currently in the Sumter Correctional Institution, from which he will not be released until 2065.

Because most of the criminals featured in my blog are either black or illegal immigrants, it’s important occasionally to emphasize that I have zero sympathy for white criminals like Travis Lovett. The headline features a line from the 1985 dark comedy Better Off Dead, which has become a sort of cult classic. The movie is about a high school kid played by John Cusack, who becomes suicidal after his girlfriend dumps him. In one scene, Cusack decides to end it all by jumping off a highway overpass, only to land in the back of a garbage truck. Two black men, in a bucket lift trimming trees beside the road, look down and see Cusack sitting in the garbage truck and one says to the other, “Man, now that’s a real shame when folks be throwing away a perfectly good white boy.”

This line crossed my mind after reading about the December 2020 hearing where a Florida judge sentenced Travis Lovett to prison:

Bushnell resident Travis Duane Lovett was handed a 50-year state prison sentence Thursday stemming from a multi-county vehicle chase with law enforcement last year, which one prosecutor in court described as “blood curdling.”
Circuit Judge Richard “Ric” Howard sentenced the 24-year old man after agreeing with state prosecutors that Lovett was a habitual offender, already having amassed five felonies and 10 traffic violations. Lovett had been released from prison in 2017 before the high-speed pursuit in 2019.
The April 2019 chase involved three counties, including Citrus and Sumter, and portions of the Withlacoochee Trail, during which he nearly struck two cyclists.
Before the chase, Lovett stole a truck, and when a Citrus County Sheriff’s deputy was identifying the license plate not knowing Lovett was inside, Lovett reversed the vehicle, nearly striking the deputy.
During the chase, Lovett also forced a second pursuing deputy off the road.
In March [2020), a jury found Lovett guilty of two counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, felony fleeing and grand theft of an automobile.
During the sentencing hearing, Lovett’s court-appointed lawyer, Edward Spaight, presented a court psychologist who oversaw counseling efforts for Lovett when Lovett was 14 years old and 16 years old.

(Permit me to interject that if “a court psychologist” was counseling Lovett when he was only 14, he was already a criminal by the time he was in middle school.)

Psychologist Patrick Ward told Howard that Lovett had been exposed to a drug environment during his early childhood and shown how to make and use drugs, which he often did with his mother and father, often using methamphetamine.
Ward said Lovett “bonded heavily with a model that was very negative” and was never shown how to control impulses and live normally in society. . . .
In a rambling effort to try and explain what he had done, Lovett told the judge that his intent in stealing the truck and running was to force law enforcement officers to kill him. He said his grandmother had committed suicide a few years before and his mother was threatening to do the same and the stress was too much.
During the time of his arrest, both his parents were in prison. Lovett said his life and recent events caused him to mentally come apart.
Spaight asked Howard to show Lovett mercy in sentencing, saying “if he had been raised by wolves it probably would have been better.”
But Howard declined, saying that the chase and near misses was one of the most frightening things he’d ever seen.
While Howard sympathized with Lovett’s troubles as a youth, he told him “but you made your choices.”

“Raised by wolves”! Both of his parents were in prison! He had just gotten out of prison himself two years before the stolen truck chase! He started doing meth as a child! His grandmother committed suicide!

No sympathy for white trash — 50 years in prison.

Civilization requires us to reject the appeal to sympathy that would have us treat dangerous criminals leniently on account of the difficult circumstances of their lives. The Vice President of the United States grew up in the kind of white trash millieu that produced Travis Lovett, but because of the intervention of his grandmother, J.D. Vance didn’t go down the road that leads to prison. As they say, it’s a shame to “throw away a perfectly good white boy,” but some of them are just trash.

Sometimes you encounter a story that makes you so angry that words cannot express the intensity of your rage, and such is the case with Florida’s new “super speeder” law. Here’s the short version:

Gov. Ron DeSantis just signed a new measure creating extra criminal penalties for extreme speeding, marking the state’s latest move to improve road safety and deter reckless driving.
The legislation (HB 351) targets so-called “super speeders,” establishing criminal consequences for motorists who exceed the posted speed limit by 50 miles per hour or more, or who drive at 100 mph or more in a manner that threatens others or interferes with vehicle operation.
First-time violators may face up to 30 days in jail, a $500 fine, or both. Repeat offenders could receive up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both. If a second violation occurs within five years, the offender’s driver’s license could be revoked for up to a year.
Any driver caught exceeding the speed limit by more than 50 mph must appear before a Judge under a mandatory court appearance provision.
The measure, carried by independent Hollywood Sen. Jason Pizzo and Republican Reps. Danny Alvarez of Hillsborough County and Susan Plasencia of Orlando, passed unanimously in the Senate. . . .
While Pizzo had initially proposed a stricter version of the bill (SB 1782) that would have imposed longer jail terms, he accepted the House’s comparatively lighter version. Passing the measure on the Senate floor April 24, he jokingly referred to HB 351 as the “less good House bill.”
The legislation, he said, was partly inspired by the 2022 death of 11-year-old Anthony Reznick in Sunny Isles Beach. Reznick was struck and killed in a crosswalk by Samentha Toussaint, a driver with more than two dozen prior traffic citations and a suspended license. She was traveling roughly 85 mph in a residential zone without headlights and had no insurance.
Despite the circumstances, Toussaint was not criminally charged. A Judge suspended her license for eight years and ordered community service and fines.

[ insert shouted obscenities here ]

Before getting into the legal discussion, permit me first to share some anecdotes. When I was 17, a police officer told me, “You could’ve got yourself killed” and, smart-ass that I was (and still am, honestly), my reply was, “Yeah, but I didn’t.” No need to go into the details of that vehicular offense, but there was a serious point behind my arrogant sarcasm: There is a difference between a hypothetical danger and an actual event, which ought to be considered in traffic enforcement.

When I reflect on my driving history, I have to admit that those guardian angels — sent to protect me, by the prayers of my late Grandma Kirby, and subsequently by my dear wife — deserve tremendous credit for my survival, especially during my years on the campaign trail.

Remember that? The day after Christmas 2011, I flew into Iowa for the 2012 Republican caucus campaign, with reservations for an economy rental car, but the lady at the counter explained that the Rick Perry campaign staff had arrived earlier and taken every car on their lot, except one — a black Mustang convertible which, under the terms of the agreement, they were obliged to give me at the same rate as the economy car I’d reserved. The best eight days of my life ensued, and not just because Rick Santorum won the caucuses. One morning, I found myself “aggregating headlines while naked” from the Radisson Quad City Plaza in Davenport, on the east side of the state. There was a 3:30 Rick Perry event scheduled in Pella that day, and I calculated a 1 p.m. departure for a drive of approximately 150 miles. Knowing that I couldn’t drive more than 10 mph over the speed limit on the interstate, the key to my calculations was to max it out on the final 25-mile stretch from Exit 173 — down Highway T22 South through Killduff, hang a right on Highway F62 toward Galesburg, then a left onto Highway T14. Let me tell you folks, I took some of those curves at tire-squealing speed, and don’t even ask how fast I drove the straightaways on those country roads.

You think I’m joking and, from a strictly legal standpoint, I’m prepared to plead that this is just satire, rather than a confession of crime, because they’ve got no other evidence and the statute of limitation has probably expired, but I’ll leave that to Bert the Samoan Lawyer.

My point is that nobody was killed or injured as a result of my record-setting pace on those Iowa backroads. The basis of traffic laws is the hypothetical risk of an accident, but between my skill as a driver, the excellent handling of that Mustang, and the overtime labor of those guardian angels, there was no actual risk and therefore, no accident. Sure, there are nerds who can point to statistics about the correlation between excessive speed and vehicular accidents, but (a) correlation is not causation and (b) who gets to define “excessive”? Yes, I saw the sign cautioning me that 25 mph was the, uh, recommended speed for that tight curve, but if in fact I made it through safely at 50 mph, who’s wrong — me or the sign? But I’ve digressed long enough . . .

The funniest guy I ever knew, Scott Swanson, was killed in a traffic accident while a student at West Georgia College (now West Georgia University). It was a profoundly stupid accident, caused by his friend’s drunk driving, and the friend was sentenced to what’s called “five do 10” (a 10-year sentence, with five years suspended, if the convict has no further offenses after being released from the penitentiary). Trust me, the judge didn’t want to sentence an otherwise harmless college kid to five years in prison, but he felt that anything less would be an injustice. I forget what the exact charge was — negligent manslaughter or whatever — but most states have some similar law, like vehicular homicide:

Vehicular homicide, also known as vehicular manslaughter . . . is a criminal offense that occurs when a person’s negligent or illegal operation of a vehicle results in the death of another person. It’s generally considered a form of involuntary manslaughter, where the intent to kill is not required.

Hence my question: What the heck is wrong with Florida?

Don’t they have a vehicular homicide statute in the Sunshine State, and if not, why not? Instead of increasing the penalties on mere speeding — which, as I have pointed out at some length, is just a hypothetical risk — why doesn’t Florida law punish actually causing death as a felony?

After researching the origin of Florida’s new “super speeder” law — I.e., Samentha Toussaint and the death of Anthony Reznik — I’ve got some questions. 1/5 ?https://t.co/L09bw84SUN@senpizzo @JesseScheckner

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) June 21, 2025

Despite the fact that an innocent child died as a result of Samentha Toussaint’s reckless driving, the court treated this as a mere traffic violation! She suffered only a suspension of her driver’s license. 3/5

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) June 21, 2025

The fact that Samentha Toussaint escaped without ANY prison sentence for the death of Anthony Reznik is shocking to me, and ought to spur the Florida legislature to act. 5/5

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) June 21, 2025

This situation is insane. Toussaint was 32 years old at the time she ran over Anthony Reznik in February 2021:

Records show Toussaint has past citations for speeding through a school zone in Pembroke Pines, and for “following too closely behind a vehicle.” There are several infractions in South Florida courts ranging from careless driving to not having proof of insurance.
In Miami-Dade County alone, Toussaint has a laundry list of moving violations through the years, including seven separate citations for driving on a suspended license — infractions that date back to at least 2007.
Records show Toussaint still owes big fines for some of those past driving citations.

She had been a known public menace for 15 years, basically, and by the time she finally killed someone — running a red light on a residential street at 85 mph — you might think the courts would consider this something more than a mere traffic violation. The appropriate legislative response to this egregious situation would be to fix whatever loophole exists in Florida law that fails to punish vehicular homicide as a felony, particularly in cases with aggravating circumstances such as a prior record of driving on a suspended license, etc. Ramping up penalties on “super speeders” isn’t the right answer because there are plenty of “no harm, no foul” speeding cases that don’t deserve harsh punishment. Not saying that I’ve ever topped 115 mph on any country backroads, because I haven’t waived my right to remain silent, but if nobody was actually harmed by me driving fast, why should it be treated as a crime?

Some people are just born to drive, and I’ve got that hillbilly moonshiner chromosome somewhere in my DNA. which explains why I’m still alive. (Also, thank you, guardian angels.) On the other hand, some people are born to ride the bus, and should never be allowed to drive at all.

You can make your own judgments about Ms. Toussaint.

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Flagler County, Florida, is a wonderful place with many wonderful people, including Sheriff Rick Staly, who is one of the most experienced law-enforcement officers in the entire United States. Sheriff Staly first became a cop in 1975 in Oviedo right out of high school, then spent a year with the Altamonte Springs Police Department before becoming a deputy in Orange County, where he rose through the ranks for more than 20 years before retiring as the No. 2 man in the department in 2001.

Staly formed a private security company, then sold it, and decided to return to law enforcement in Flagler County, where he has been elected sheriff three times since 2016. During his 50-year career, Sheriff Staly has probably seen a lot of crazy things, but perhaps none as crazy as the standoff last June in the town of Palm Coast. It began just after dawn on the morning of June 5, with “a disturbance call on Forsythe Lane in reference to an individual who had blocked the road with ‘junk’ and was playing loud music.” Forsythe Lane is a middle-class development just a mile or so inland from the beach. It’s a pleasant-looking neighborhood, and most people would consider themselves extremely fortunate to live there, with the palm trees and sunshine. But most people are not insane, which was the problem with 55-year-old Robert Shawn Detherow.

Video of the resulting incident has been uploaded to YouTube, and you can see a female deputy arrive to encounter this scene:

Detherow had apparently emptied out his house, strewing his possessions in the front yard and blocking the street. And as for the neighbor’s complaint of “playing loud music,” shortly after the deputy steps out of her vehicle, Robert Detherow’s stereo begins blasting the Hoyt Axton version of a very old song:

Oh, I’m a good old Rebel,
Now that’s just what I am.
For this Yankee nation
I do not give a damn.
I’m glad I fought against her,
I only wish we’d won.
I ain’t asked any pardon
For anything I’ve done.

That song was first published as a poem in 1867, written by Confederate Maj. James Innes Randolph. Far be it from me to disdain any expression of Southern pride, but if you’re a sheriff’s deputy responding to a disturbance call and hear that song? Not a good omen.

Robert Detherow was bonkers, berserk, demented, deranged, daffy, wacky, off his rocker, non compos mentis, nuttier than a Snickers bar, a few fries short of a Happy Meal and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

The deputy wisely called for backup. There is some explanation of Detherow’s mental condition. He has claimed to be a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although this information was not verified. He had once been employed by Flagler County, but quit in 2021. And in March 2024, just three months before this incident, Detherow’s 22-year-old son had been arrested for stabbing a man in an argument about religion at a Circle K convenience store.

In a press release, the sheriff’s department said that, due to the prior investigation of the son’s crime, deputies knew that Detherow “had an arsenal of firearms in his home.” Furthermore, investigators “located disturbing videos Detherow made and posted to his Facebook profile and YouTube channel in the previous few days alluding to ‘suicide by cop’ and becoming a martyr.” The title of that video is “Come to my house and arrest me Rick Staley” [sic] and shows Detherow standing in his living room, wearing a Confederate cap and waving a Bible around while claiming that his Fourth Amendment rights have been violated.

What ensued was a five-hour standoff that, thank God, ended without anyone getting hurt. Afterwards, Sheriff Staly spoke to the media:

“I would describe [Detherow] as a religious fanatic, to some degree one of these ‘sovereign citizens.’ . . . He’s clearly a fanatic of some type and I’m sure that the neighborhood is glad that he’s been apprehended.”

At a court hearing about a week later, Detherow seemed sufficiently self-aware to admit he was crazy as a loon:

After his arrest, Detherow unleashed a string of verbal attacks on the arresting deputy.
“I don’t know what I said. I was having a psychotic break. Obviously I needed help,” Detherow said, after Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis asked him if he’d threatened the life of Sheriff’s deputy Necole Marsan, if he’d threatened to dismember her, rape her and torture her for billions of years. . . .
“The allegations with regard to this incident describe behavior that’s not only dangerous, but completely irrational,” [Circuit Judge Terence Perkins] said. Detherow “chose to escalate the response by law enforcement for no apparent reason in ways that not only put the community in danger and the law enforcement officers specifically, but put him in danger, for reasons that relate to his post traumatic stress is what I’ve heard.” . . .
Perkins said he had no evidence regarding Detherow’s PTSD, his mental health history or any psychiatric issues. His attorney presented none. . . .
“My obligation is to keep the community, law enforcement and the defendant safe,” Perkins said. “I’m not going to risk this type of incident happening again . . .”

At that point, the judge denied bail for Detherow. Jail records indicate that Detherow was released in September on $34,000 bond, and so far there’s been no further news on the case. However, in the case of Detherow’s son — accused of stabbing a man at the Circle K — the charges were thrown out in a “startling” ruling under Florida’s “stand your ground” law. It turns out that there was no surveillance video of the incident, and after hearing testimony from everyone involved, the judge decided that the younger Detherow’s testimony was most credible, raising a self-defense claim that could not be disproven. That’s . . . crazy.

On the other hand, maybe “this Yankee nation” is not all bad. Maybe the “religious fanatic” and his son (who was reading his Bible on the picnic table next to Circle K before the stabbing happened) got some divine intervention. Maybe there is still hope for justice in America.

We could speculate on the cosmic implications of all this, but in the end we are certain of only one thing: Crazy People Are Dangerous.

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Well, they thought he might have a gun and, considering that he’d gone on a hit-and-run rampage that killed one man and injured three others, Tampa citizens seem to understand the situation:

The Tampa Police Department released video of the pursuit that ended with shots fired on I-275 late Sunday night.
Jeremiah Bailey, 48, was shot and killed after the pursuit. He is the suspect in a series of hit-and-runs that turned deadly.
Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said it started around 8:30 p.m. Sunday with a dispute at Dollar General off Dale Mabry Hwy. and Interbay Blvd. in South Tampa.
Bercaw said Bailey used his car to block 47-year-old Eric Archield’s car, then moved his car and followed the victim to a friend’s home near W Meadow St. and S. MacDill Ave., where Bailey hit the victim with his car before taking off.
Archield suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene, police said.
According to TPD, Bailey then intentionally hit Jesse Rickett, 43, on MacDill Ave. near Interbay Blvd. Rickett suffered head injuries and is listed in critical but stable condition at the hospital.
Minutes later, they say he purposely hit a man who was walking on the 5800 block of Interbay Blvd., police said. He later died.
Then around 10:15 p.m., a fourth hit-and-run was reported in the area of Westshore Blvd. and Lemon St. The man who was hit there was conscious and alert at the scene, TPD said.
None of the victims knew Bailey.
According to Bercaw, officers pursued Bailey onto I-275 northbound, where police executed a PIT maneuver near the Howard Ave./Armenia Ave. exit.
Police said Bailey refused to come out of the car and appeared to reach for something, leading to officers firing shots. Bailey died at the scene. . . .
Bailey’s criminal history includes battery on a law enforcement officer, battery on an EMT, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.

More background: “Bailey had served prison time for attacking an Outback Steakhouse manager” and “according to court records had a history of mental health issues.” Gee, ya think so?

Bailey was still on probation at the time of his deadly rampage. So far, we haven’t gotten the “family demands answers” headlines on this case, and Ben Crump’s not showing up in Tampa to demand “justice.” Most importantly, no statues have been toppled and nobody’s looted Best Buy in “mostly peaceful” protest of this shooting, because when a career criminal gets killed by cops, nobody cares, as long as he’s white.

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