6 May 1-7, 2025 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | FREE BIRD Great White Heron soars again after recovering from rock attack. BY ALEX DELUCA N early three months after being injured by a man who hurled a rock at it in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, a Great White Heron has been released back into the wild. In late January, the staff at Pelican Harbor Seabird Station were alerted to a disturbing incident: a woman had witnessed a fisher- man throw a large rock at a Great White Heron that had attempted to steal his fish. The large white bird was later found hiding in the grass near the water, its right wing drooping and bleeding heavily. X-rays revealed a fractured humerus with two breaks, prompting swift emergency sur- gery. The bone fragments were expected to take several weeks to heal. Now, after several months of recovery, the bird has been set free. The Great White Heron lives primarily in mangroves, tidal shallows, and coastal ponds in peninsular Florida. The majestic bird is known for having the “largest, heaviest bills,” typically a distinct yellow-orange color, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Under Florida law, any person who inten- tionally commits an act against an animal that “results in the cruel death, or excessive or re- peated infliction of unnecessary pain or suf- fering” commits aggravated animal cruelty — a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine. On February 7, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) arrested 34-year-old Edgar Estuardo Valenzuela for injuring the bird. He was charged with offenses involving harm to federally protected wildlife after admitting to hurling rocks at the heron, according to FWC officials. Valenzuela, who was an undocumented immigrant, was reportedly deported back to Guatemala by immigration officials, accord- ing to Local 10. [email protected] Nearly three months after being injured by a man who hurled a rock at it in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, a Great White Heron has been released back into the wild. Photo by Pelican Harbor Seabird Station | METRO | About a year later, the FBI came calling. “I was four months pregnant doing the door since I was showing, and the FBI called me from my brother’s phone,” she recounts. They’d already visited Leslie III. The FBI advised Brittney to hire a lawyer. Confused and in tears, she called her father. “I was like, ‘What did you do? I have the FBI coming to me, Dad, and I don’t know what’s going on,’” she says now. “And he goes, ‘I don’t know what’s going on either. Nobody contacted me.’ But that was a lie.” “I don’t know what you did,” she recalls telling her dad. “But I’m four months preg- nant with my daughter right now.” It would be the last time the two would speak for more than a decade. She says her father had offered to pay for a lawyer but never followed through. She later discovered that Roberts, facing 25 years in prison, accepted a plea deal in ex- change for information that led to the pros- ecutions of her and Leslie III. Court documents confirm that he assisted the gov- ernment. “You never think your parents would do that to you. I never thought in a million years my dad would get me involved in something criminal. They’re supposed to protect,” she says now. Leslie pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison. Brittney and her brother pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in 2015. They were sen- tenced to three years probation and six months of home confinement with GPS monitoring. Additionally, the siblings and their father were jointly ordered to pay res- titution of more than $800,000 — a sum Brittney and her brother are still paying off. (She believes her father’s bankruptcy pro- ceeding has gotten him off the hook for now.) “He’s scot-free, but my brother and I are in debt because of it,” Brittney says. New Times asked Brittney to contact her brother on the publication’s behalf, and she relayed that he did not want to comment for this story. With only rare exceptions, Brittney says, she has barely spoken with her father over the last decade. She notes that she only be- gan speaking to him again last September when she learned he was sick in bed with pneumonia. “I was worried that I would never get to talk to him again if he died,” she adds. She says she learned about Miami Fine Art Gallery through her uncle and her fa- ther’s TikTok, where he shares “tone-deaf” singing videos with his 566,000 followers, many of which appear to be bots. As she tries to make sense of her father’s most recent legal entanglements, Brittney learned that her father recently married for a third time — to a much younger Brazilian woman named Kathryn Domingues. According to Miami-Dade County court documents, they were married on April 5, four days before the FBI raid. “He’s manipulative, an untreated narcis- sist, bipolar, ADHD, and a womanizer,” Brittney says. “That sums up my dad.” [email protected] Touchdown! Dolphins score big with first-round draft pick Kenneth Grant. BY RYAN YOUSEFI T he Miami Dolphins selected University of Michigan defensive lineman Kenneth Grant with the 13th overall pick in the first round of the NFL Draft. And whether they snagged themselves a new franchise corner- stone or another name in a long chapter of draft-day doom and déjà vu gloom depends on whom you ask. Heading into Thursday night’s selection, the Dolphins had dial-911 needs on both the offen- sive and defensive side of the ball. Throw a dart at the Dolphins roster and you’d land on a place they’re in desperate need of a difference maker. In Grant, the Dolphins plugged what might be their most enormous roster hole: a big, strong, defensive fat guy. The good kind of fat, of course. The type running backs don’t want to come across. Simply put, Grant is the sort of 6-foot-4, 340-pound human wrecking ball who made ev- ery average teenager realize their NFL dreams were just that: dreams. Because signing up for the occupation of running from this sort of hu- man is an actual nightmare. What makes Grant even more terrifying for men of lesser size is the fact that just because you run past him doesn’t mean you may not come across him later down the field. Like the monster in a horror movie, he will find you. Run- ning from Grant only makes the hunt more en- tertaining for him. Offensive playmakers are merely his chew toy. Even future NFL Hall of Fame coach and cur- rent Barstool Sports yakker Jon Gruden couldn’t look away from Kenneth Grant’s most jaw-drop- ping highlight. Breaking down film the only way he knows how, Gruden set the stage by saying that the more tape you watch, the more a guy like Kenneth Grant jumps off the screen. Then he showed a clip of Grant chasing down a Penn State running back like a heat- seeking missile. Visibly fired up, possibly even a bit aroused, Gruden stared straight into the camera and delivered his verdict to his mock draft room: “Give me two Kenneth Grants!” Following the Dolphins’ selection of Grant, Gruden was once again bullish on his play, even as analysts such as Mel Kiper, who had Grant 30th on his draft board, deemed the pick a reach. Of the addition of Grant, Gruden pro- claimed on Barstool Sports that Grant might have been his favorite player in the draft, add- ing, “This guy plays his ass off. I love Kenneth Grant.” Put a pin in this if Mike McDaniel is out as head coach next offseason and Gruden has his eyes on an- other stint in the NFL. We’re just saying. Stephen Ross has a knack for future Hall of Fame coaches, and for once, he wouldn’t have to get caught tampering to snare this one. The Dolphins were only able to secure a sin- gle Kenneth Grant, but they did add him to one Zach Seiler, which is even better. It can be ar- gued that the Dolphins have finally found a long-term replacement for another former 13th- overall selection, Christian Wilkins, who left in free agency last offseason. If Grant is half the player Wilkins was in Miami, he won’t be consid- ered a bust, but the expectation here is that his- tory repeats itself. [email protected] | 2025 NFL DRAFT | IN GRANT, THE DOLPHINS PLUGGED WHAT MIGHT BE THEIR MOST ENORMOUS ROSTER HOLE: A BIG, STRONG, DEFENSIVE FAT GUY. What Is Wrong With This Picture? from p4
