July 17 – Florida Woman Engages in Underage Election Fraud

Pensacola students may have been surprised to note who won a particular prom queen spot with a great majority of the vote. Their parents were likely more surprised to find out that the young lady was assisted in voting this fraud by her mother. School officials may have been shocked to find out that mom is also an assistant principal at an elementary school!

Mom Laura Rose Carroll and her daughter are both charged with multiple offenses, including: unlawful use of a two-way communication device, offense against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices, criminal use of personally identified information, conspiracy.

While the daughter is not named due to her status as a minor, she is still facing the same array of fraud charges. The fact that Laura Rose Carroll had ready access to FOCUS accounts for students throughout the area is quite concerning. Her decision to attempt fraudulent voting action is worrying when you consider that the FOCUS student portal contains private communication, such as student progress and grades, as well as any communication between teachers, parents and students.

The trail for this fraudulent activity was not hard to follow. Of the fraudulent votes the young lady received, 117 of them were from her mother’s phone address. Despite being an elementary school administrator, Carroll had access to more than 372 FOCUS accounts for high schoolers. Nearly all of these student accounts were students at her daughter’s school.

The safety and well-being of children and teens online is an on-going concern in the developed world. The fact that a school administrator has been caught meddling in the voting process for prom queen is quite concerning. It seems that predators are not a parent’s only worry in the world of online communication.

See Also:

• Florida Man Chronicle – July 16
• Florida Man Report – July 15
• Florida Man Headlines – July 14

July 17 – Florida Man Finds Litter of a Different Sort

If you’re considering a stroll along Palm Beach, keep an eye out for packages. In addition to risky trash and the occasional note in a bottle, you may find cocaine. In some cases, a lot of cocaine!

In April 2021, a beach visitor found $1.5 million dollars worth of packaged cocaine washed up on the shore. Once Border Patrol was called, this 65 pound bundle was valued, tagged and carried away. Divers and snorkelers in the Florida Keys have also found large bundles, worth more than a million, floating in the keys.

If you are in the waters off of Florida and note a bundle or package of any item floating, stay away from it. While it may not appear hazardous, you don’t want to be found pulling it ashore for any purpose; the risk of accidentally participating in something illegal is simply not worth the effort.

Indications are that these large packages of cocaine include a collection of smaller bundles. Hazards of opening or handling these bundles are myriad; those who attempt to get cocaine into the States are more than willing to break the law and may have added hazards to the cocaine bundles to reduce the risk of tampering.

Sadly, there are many endangered species that live along the coastal waterways of Florida. If there are so many bundles that wash ashore, then certainly some must break and spill or sink. If plastics in the ocean are a risk to marine animals and birds, then surely waterborne cocaine must be a hazard.

Threatened and endangered species such as the green sea turtle are hatched on shore and must make the hazardous journey back out to sea. Indications are that now these tiny animals must contend with wild predators and man-made toxins that may put them at risk.

For predators who thrive on products that float on top of the water along the coast, bundles of cocaine and other illegal drugs must appear as food. Increased penalties for trafficking cocaine and other drugs in the waters off the coast of Florida may reduce risks.