STATE ATTORNEY'S OFFICE

Two restaurant owners in Florida have pleaded guilty to harboring undocumented workers, the State Attorney's Office revealed on Wednesday. Originally from China, Tang and Huang are naturalized U.S. citizens who owned and operated Tank’s Sushi Bistro Seafood & Steaks in St. Augustine and Tank’s Sushi Bistro in Ponte Vedra. According to the SAO, the owners housed undocumented workers in their homes near the restaurants and provided daily transportation for them.

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell announced Thursday her office was exploring “initiatives across the country” to help combat local and national attacks against law enforcement and gun violence.

A Florida prosecutor's office has concluded the fatal shooting of an 88-year-old man by a deputy was justified. The State Attorney's Office in Tampa, Florida, said Monday that the fatal shooting of Ronald Ehrich last December by a Hillsborough County deputy was justified because the deputy was in fear for her life or great bodily harm when she fired her weapon. Video released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office last December showed the deputy repeatedly trying to de-escalate the situation.

The new unit Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell ushered in last year to address mental health in the criminal justice system is still going strong.

Four weeks after her arrest on two felony charges, Gov. Ron DeSantis took action Thursday to suspend Destin Councilwoman Prebble Ramswell from office.

An argument led to a shooting in 2019, killing a 25-year-old outside Club Fenix in Orange County -- and now, the accused shooter is being offered a plea deal, according to the victim’s family.

A 14-year-old boy is being charged as an adult in the fatal stabbing of a 13-year-old cheerleader whose body was found in the northeast Florida woods earlier this month. The State Attorney's Office in St. Johns County filed a notice Thursday to transfer Aiden Fucci's case from juvenile to adult court after a grand jury indicted him on a first-degree murder charge, according to court records. Investigators said that Fucci had also told several friends that he planned to kill someone, though it wasn't clear whether Bailey was his intended target from the beginning, Larizza said.

DELTONA, Fla. — The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has filed a charging affidavit accusing a Deltona woman of making false claims of misconduct against a deputy. The woman, identified by Sheriff Mike Chitwood as Tammy Stuck, made the claims during the public forum portion of Monday’s Deltona City Commission meeting. READ: Volusia County weighs benefits of short-term rentals in residential zonesDuring her comments, Stuck accuses the deputy of touching her inappropriately as she went through the metal detector at a previous commission meeting. My statement on filing an affidavit with the State Attorney's Office charging a woman in her blatantly false complaint against a deputy. See surveillance video of the encounter, the Stucks’ statements to the City Commission, and the ensuing discussion below:

Officials say a Florida elementary school principal will not be prosecuted for spanking a 6-year-old girl in front of her mother last month.

PENSACOLA, Fla. — (AP) — A Florida teen accused of rigging a homecoming queen election with her mother is being charged as an adult, prosecutors said. She turned 18 in April, and the State Attorney's Office in Escambia County confirmed Tuesday that Grover will be tried as an adult. Grover and her mother, Laura Rose Carroll, 50, face multiple felony charges stemming from the October homecoming vote at Tate High School in Pensacola. Investigators found that in October, hundreds of votes for the school's homecoming court were flagged as fraudulent, the news release said. Multiple Tate students told investigators that Grover described using her mother's system access, or of watching her mother access records, for years, the report said.

A Florida teen accused of rigging a homecoming queen election with her mother is being charged as an adult, prosecutors said. Emily Rose Grover was still 17 when she was arrested in March. While employed as an assistant principal at Bellview Elementary School in the same county, Carroll accessed the school district’s internal system to cast fraudulent votes for her daughter so that she would win, officials said.

Also in Fort Lauderdale, the state attorney's office fired a prosecutor Monday for calling demonstrators animals" at the zoo in a quickly deleted Facebook post. Maglione said Pohorence's actions will be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement before an internal investigation is conducted. But he said Pohorence's actions could have added to what was going on," and he commended Officer Krystle Smith who pushed Pohorence away from the woman. Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he felt the Pohorences actions were offensive, and hes happy the department has suspended him. ___Associated Press reporters Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; Freida Frisaro Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Tamara Lush in Tampa, Florida; and Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this report.

MERRITT ISLAND, Fla. - A fatal shooting at a Merritt Island Walmart that involved two men who were dating the same woman has been ruled self-defense, according to the State Attorney's Office. When Gibson saw Robbins at the store, he shot him once, according to a news release. It's unclear if Robbins was armed but officials noted that Gibson believed Robbins was known to carry a gun. Gibson stayed at the scene of the shooting and cooperated with the investigation. "After a careful and thorough review of all the evidence gathered in the Brevard Sheriff's and the State Attorneys Office investigations, an experienced team of prosecutors reached the decision that Gibson's use of force was justified, as he believed his life was in imminent danger and acted in self-defense," the State Attorney's Office said in a news release.

The Star-Banner has previously reported on these arrestsThis is a list of resolutions of cases the Star-Banner has written about in the past. Richard C. Cole: On Oct. 7, Cole pleaded no contest to driving under the influence. He was sentenced to a 180-day jail term, with credit for 79 days already served. Prosecutors said they could not locate and maintain contact with the reported victim. Terrance R. Woods: On Sept. 16, Woods pleaded no contest to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Michael Jones, 38, was arrested in south Georgia last month with Caseis decomposing body in the van. Friends and family contacted Marion County law enforcement when they had not heard from the family in a month. Nikki Jones said she had no idea that her baby girl and her grandchildren would end up being murder victims. I always said that was my Christmas present.Fortunately, someone in Marion County has agreed to cremate the bodies, she said. Unfortunately, true evil poked its head up here in Marion County, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a press conference in September.

Michael Jones, 38, was arrested in south Georgia last month with Caseis decomposing body in the van. Friends and family contacted Marion County law enforcement when they had not heard from the family in a month. Nikki Jones said she had no idea that her baby girl and her grandchildren would end up being murder victims. I always said that was my Christmas present.Fortunately, someone in Marion County has agreed to cremate the bodies, she said. Unfortunately, true evil poked its head up here in Marion County, Sheriff Billy Woods said in a press conference in September.

OCALA, Fla. - An Ocala rapper accused of making threats in a rap song and sharing it on Facebook was released from jail after accepting a plea deal. "It was just music, it was never a real threat or a problem with anybody, it was just music," McCallum said. The rapper spent roughly five months in jail and was released Friday. McCallum's mother Charlotte McCallum said the past few months while her son was locked up has been difficult. Since being released, he said he is recording music again but will be careful.

These are resolutions of some cases the Star-Banner has reported on in the past. Christopher M. Chung: On July 2, Chung pleaded guilty a number of drug possession charges. Charles J. Nichols: On July 2, the State Attorney's Office announced it was dropping the charges in this child abuse case. Cindy M. Wood: On May 21, a jury found Wood guilty of child abuse without great bodily harm. On June 27, she was sentenced to serve three years of probation and complete 50 hours of community service.

These are resolutions of some criminal cases the Star-Banner has reported on in the past. Danny H. Taylor: On June 7, Taylor pleaded no contest to possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving while license suspended or revoked. The plea bargain covered two other cases, where Taylor was accused of possessing methamphetamine as well as theft and uttering a forged instrument. Sylvia J. Williams: On June 6, Williams pleaded no contest to driving while license suspended or revoked, three or more times. Williams was arrested in January for what law officers called her seventh case of driving without a license.

The State Attorney's Office has not yet decided if charges will be dropped against a woman who turned her abusive husband's guns into police.

ORLANDO, Fla. – As attorneys select jurors to hear the case against Noor Salman, the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the Pulse nightclub attack carried out by her husband Omar Mateen remains open, an FBI spokeswoman confirmed. The agency’s probe into the 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino California, which occurred six months before the Pulse nightclub attack, also remains open. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also conducted an investigation into Pulse attack. However, the State Attorney's Office will not begin to review the officers' actions until it receives the FBI's final investigative report, according to a spokeswoman. The City of Orlando, Orange County government and the Orange County Sheriff's Office have no open investigations or internal reviews associated with the Pulse attack, according to representatives with those agencies.