3 January 11-17, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | Contents | Letters | news | night+Day | CuLture | Cafe | MusiC | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | CONTENTS | LETTERS | RIPTIDE | METRO | NIGHT+DAY | STAGE | ART | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | ▼ BROWARD FAMILY AFFAIR FORMER BROWARD MAYOR’S DAUGHTER CHARGED WITH CAMPAIGN-FUNDING FRAUD. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN A daughter of former Broward County mayor and congres- sional candidate Dale Holness was charged this week in Flor- ida federal court for allegedly running a scheme to pocket campaign funds while working as a treasurer for her father’s 2020 county commission run. Prosecutors claim Richelle Holness di- verted funds from her father’s campaign ac- count for personal expenditures, including alcohol, airline tickets, fast food, and clothing from August 2019 through October 2020. She is facing two felony counts — one related to the campaign funding allegations and another stemming from alleged pandemic relief fraud. Holness is the second daughter of the for- mer mayor to be charged with fraud in the Southern District of Florida. In a separate case, Damara Holness pleaded guilty in 2021 to government loan fraud. According to the charging document ob- tained by New Times, Richelle Holness issued checks from the campaign account and filed reports falsely stating that the money was used for consulting, printing, and other ser- vices related to the campaign. Holness allegedly directed three co-con- spirators who received the checks to return all or almost all of the funds to her by either Cash App, another check, or cashier’s check. In at least one instance, prosecutors say, she directed a co-conspirator to use the diverted campaign money to pay the rent for her fa- ther’s real estate business. In August 2019, prosecutors claim, Hol- ness issued a $5,000 check from the cam- paign account and instructed a co-conspirator to cash it and return the money. A day later, she allegedly provided an- other $1,000 to the co-conspirator and again had the money siphoned back to her. The combined $6,000 sum was listed as a “con- sulting” expense on Holness’s campaign trea- surer report. In November 2019, Holness issued a $4,000 check from the account and di- rected the recipient to endorse it before Hol- ness cashed it and kept the proceeds, prosecutors allege. Her campaign report falsely listed the expenditure as “data pro- cessing services,” according to the charging document. Prosecutors claim multiple campaign trea- surer reports filed by Holness with the Bro- ward County Supervisor of Elections from September 2019 through November 2020 falsely indicated that the checks were used for election-related purposes. Additionally, the charging document al- leges Holness filled out a fraudulent applica- tion for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provided benefits to people who lost work as a result of the CO- VID-19 pandemic. According to prosecutors, she received a voucher or payment unlaw- fully through the Department of Labor. Holness’s father, Dale, was a Broward County commissioner for over a decade, be- ginning in 2010. In the election run men- tioned in the court documents, he won his commission seat uncontested. He served as county mayor from 2019 to 2020 and later launched a failed bid for the District 20 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Damara Holness, another daughter of the former mayor, pleaded guilty in November 2021 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was later sentenced to a 20-month prison term for fraudulently obtaining $300,000 in coronavirus relief funds under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Damara, the one- time president of the Broward County Demo- cratic Black Caucus, lied on her PPP application, falsely stating that her consulting company had a large staff and spent $120,000 monthly on payroll. According to a 2020 Caribbean National Weekly profile, Dale Holness opened his real estate business, All Broward Realty, in the late 1980s and made a living as a real estate agent apart from his political career. Richelle man- aged the business, the outlet reported. | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Prosecutors filed fraud charges against Richelle Holness, daughter of former congressional candidate Dale Holness, on December 27. Photo by Rapid Eye/Getty Images ▼ FLORIDA NEVERMIND? FOLLOWING A HISTORIC DIE-OFF, A DROP IN MANATEE DEATHS SPARKS “GUARDED” OPTIMISM. BY ALEX DELUCA F ollowing a historically fatal few years for Florida manatees, the deadly trend may finally be subsiding. Preliminary data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) shows that roughly 520 manatees perished in 2023 — a significant decrease from previous years. Approximately 800 manatees died in 2022, and more than 1,000 perished in 2021, marking the deadliest year on record for the marine mammals. The drop in fatalities is mostly due to a de- crease in starvation among manatees in Brevard County, the epicenter of the die-off, says Pat Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. Rose says the latest statistics are “encourag- ing” when taken together with improved body condition reports and documented natural re- covery of some seagrass in the region, a prime food source for manatees. “The immediate situation is guardedly optimistic,” Rose tells New Times, “as we have a majority of the winter to go.” Among the more than 500 man- atee deaths this past year were 86 caused by watercraft, 13 from cold stress, 13 by other human-related causes, and 190 that have not been necropsied. The majority of the manatee deaths were recorded in Lee County, which suffered the sec- ond-worst number of manatee deaths in 2022. State officials recently scaled back on necropsies due to a lack of funds to examine the animals’ car- casses amid the uptick in deaths. Despite the slowing of deaths since 2021, Rose emphasizes that the mammals aren’t out of the woods just yet. “Cold stress, watercraft, and red tide risk fac- tors remain high,” Rose says. “As does the return of harmful algal blooms that could lead to more seagrass losses.” The 2021 spike in deaths among the iconic, thousand-pound mammals was deemed an “unusual mortality event” — a rare designation that demands immediate attention under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The die- off has been attributed to starvation from a drastic loss of seagrass in Florida. Parts of the Indian River Lagoon, where herds of manatees gather during winter, have become increasingly clogged with pollution and algae, preventing the growth of the underwater plants. Last year, in hopes of slowing down mana- tee fatalities, state and federal wildlife officials took the uncommon step of buying 55 tons of lettuce and hand- feeding it to the mam- mals along Florida’s eastern shores. In October, FWS an- nounced that it would be taking an “in-depth” look into whether it should place Florida manatees back on the endangered list after the die-off. The review comes in response to a formal petition made by several environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diver- sity, Miami Waterkeeper, and Save the Manatee Club, which together issued a press release ap- plauding the decision. [email protected] HOLNESS IS THE SECOND DAUGHTER OF THE FORMER MAYOR TO BE CHARGED WITH FRAUD. Save the Manatee Club photo A recent study estimated that there were slightly fewer than 10,000 Florida manatees in 2021.
