Miami-Dade police officer convicted in lewdness case

A Miami-Dade police officer, who routinely stopped women drivers without cause and engaged in lewd conversations, was convicted in federal court Friday.

Prabhainjana Dwivedi, a seven-year veteran, was found guilty on six of seven counts of depriving people of their civil rights. He was found not guilty on the seventh count involving an undercover police officer.

Following the ruling, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez immediately remanded Dwivedi back into custody pending sentencing scheduled for sometime in April, according to prosecutor Karen Gilbert. The trial began Monday.

Dwivedi faces up to a year in prison for each count.

A grand jury indicted Dwivedi after he was arrested by FBI agents Sept. 5 at Miami-Dade police headquarters.

Dwivedi, 33, was charged after an investigation into complaints filed for stops made in May and June of 2011 in which he detained “numerous women” for “unreasonable” length of time “without probable cause, reasonable suspicion or other lawful authority to conduct a stop,” a criminal complaint said.

None of the questionable stops were ever listed on his daily reports or called into dispatch.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi who worked overnight patrolling an area from Key Biscayne to Jackson Memorial Hospital, stopped a 24-year-old bartender who was driving from South Beach to Broward County on her way home from work at about 5:30 a.m. on June 25, 2011, in the area of the Golden Glades interchange.

The bartender, identified as M.F., was accused by Dwivedi of driving under the influence. Pleading her innocence, she requested to have a sobriety test performed. Her request was refused.

Noticing a child’s safety seat in the back seat, Dwivedi threatened M.F. that she would lose custody of her son if she were to be arrested on DUI charges, the criminal complaint said. Then the conversation turned sexual.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi, began to inquire about her surgically enhanced breasts and asked “if she had any scars or incisions from the surgery.”

Dwivedi then asked to see the scars. M.F. obeyed, lifting her shirt and exposing her breasts.

According to the complaint written by FBI special agent Susan Funk, “M.F. stated that Dwivedi did not touch her breast.”

, Dwivedi then allowed her to drive home, but said he would follow her to make sure she got safely home. Once at M.F.’s residence, Dwivedi said he was thirsty and asked for a glass of water. Once inside her home, he lingered for an hour speaking of his personal life.

In the end, Dwivedi left without ever reporting anything to dispatch or making any notes of the stop in his daily reports, the criminal complaint said.

A month earlier, Dwivedi made another questionable stop.

According to the complaint, Dwivedi stopped a19-year-old woman at 2:20 a.m. on May 27, 2011, on her way home from a nightclub with two friends. The woman, identified, as A.R., was informed the traffic stop was a result of a failure to turn on her headlights.

Dwivedi also claimed she was driving under the influence, but A.R. disputed the accusation.

A.R. was instructed to sit in the back seat of his marked cruiser and then Dwivedi “instructed A.R. to lower the zipper on the front of her dress down past her breasts to her mid-stomach” according to the complaint.

An hour and 20 minutes later, A.R. was on her way home without any citation and Dwivedi again made no mention or note of the stop, the complaint said.

Miami Herald staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

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Spring Breakers Posters

Sexy Selena

By JACKIE WILLIS

February 09, 2013

Bring on the neon! Bikini-clad gals Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson,
Selena Gomez and Rachel Korine are girls gone wild in Spring Breakers. Posing alongside Kevin Federline-lookalike James Franco (and for Gomez, posing solo) in the
latest movie posters, these ladies look like they're ready for trouble.
Hitting theaters sometime this year, Spring Breakers is about
four college friends who find themselves in jail after robbing a
restaurant in order to fund their spring break vacation in Florida. In
order to get out from behind bars, the girls are bailed out by a drug
and arms dealer who wants them to do some dirty work.

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City recovering from storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow on LI

REUTERS

A man operates a snow plow in New York today.

A massive winter storm dumped as much as 2½ feet of snow on Long Island overnight and left thousands there without power while New York City residents, despite a foot of snow, counted themselves lucky Saturday.

Police in Suffolk County, on the eastern end of the island, used snowmobiles to reach some motorists stranded on the Long Island Expressway. Ambulances, fire trucks, police vehicles and some snowplow trucks as well as passenger vehicles got stuck overnight throughout the area, said Vanessa Baird-Streeter, spokeswoman for Suffolk County.

PHOTOS: SNOWSTORM HITS NY

HUNDREDS OF CARS STUCK ON LIE

POUGHKEEPSIE MAN STRUCK, KILLED AFTER DRIVER LOSES CONTROL ON SNOWY ROAD

FOLLOW @NYPMETRO ON TWITTER FOR THE LATEST ON THE STORM

About 10,000 utility customers, most in eastern Suffolk, did not have electricity Saturday morning, said Wendy Ladd of the National Grid.

Ladd said those without power could be restored within a day if crews can get to them, but "access is an issue."

"We have plenty of crews available to do the restoration work, and if we can get to them, we're saying we can get them back in 24 hours," Ladd said. "But the issue is whether our big trucks can get to them if streets aren't plowed."

Suffolk County was hit harder than neighboring Nassau County, a relief for communities that were flooded during last October's Superstorm Sandy. The Weather Service said coastal flooding did not create major problems during the new storm.

REUTERS

A car buried in snow along the Long Island Expressway

Meteorologist David Stark said the community of Upton, where the weather service has a headquarters, had 30.3 inches of snow. Several other towns topped 2 feet: Setauket, Smithtown, Port Jefferson, Mount Sinai, Islip, Huntington and Commack.

In Nassau, by contrast, Wantagh reported 11 inches.

In New York City, the reading in Central Park was 11.4 inches and 12.1 at LaGuardia Airport. Stark said the city had a longer period of sleet rather than snow, which held town the totals.

But the city was spared the worst of the storm, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

He said more than 2,200 vehicles plowed streets overnight, clearing every major thoroughfare at least once and even most secondary streets. Traffic was flowing easily through most of the city's busiest streets.

"We're in great shape. We're lucky. ... We've dodged a bullet," Bloomberg told plow workers at a sanitation garage in Queens.

Bloomberg said all city streets will be cleared of snow by the end of Saturday and that all primary, most secondary and "60 percent" of tertiary streets have already been plowed.

Noting that areas to the north and east of the city got hit far worse, the mayor said he would make the city's equipment and manpower available if needed in Long Island, Connecticut and elsewhere.

"We want to make sure we provide whatever they need. When we were in trouble, the country came to our aid and we want to make sure we do the same," he said.

Later Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said several hundred snow plows from around the state are heading to Suffolk County on Long Island.

He said snowplows had a hard time because about 150 cars were stranded on the Long Island Expressway.

Hundreds of motorists had abandoned their vehicles on New York's Long Island, and even snowplows were getting stuck. Emergency workers used snowmobiles to try to reach stranded motorists, some of whom spent the night stuck in their cars.

Richard Ebbrecht, a chiropractor, left his office in Brooklyn at 3 p.m. on Friday and head for his home in Middle Island, N.Y., in Suffolk County, but got stuck six or seven times on the Long Island Expressway and other roads.

"There was a bunch of us Long Islanders. We were all helping each other, shoveling, pushing," he said. He finally gave up and spent the night in his car just two miles from his destination. At 8 a.m., when it was light out, he walked home.

"I could run my car and keep the heat on and listen to the radio a little bit," he said. "It was very icy under my car. That's why my car is still there."

Plows and personnel from across the state and New York City were heading to Connecticut and Massachusetts as well as Suffolk County to clear roads, Cuomo said.

City residents didn't have too much trouble getting around.

AP

A shirtless jogger runs through Central Park today.

"It's not that bad," said carpenter Kevin Byrne, as he dug his car out of its Manhattan parking spot. "It's not as bad as everybody said it was going to be."

But he said he left his shovel at home.

"I'm using a scraper to shovel out, which is not good," he said. "But was anybody prepared? The last two winters have been so mild."

Efrain Burgos, a native New Yorker, took no chances on driving.

"I took the subway for the first time in 10 years," said Burgos, who took the No. 2 train from his home in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx.

He said that while roads were well-plowed near the Upper West Side neighborhood where he works as a doorman, in the Bronx, "the roads are packed with ice."

On Father Capodanno Boulevard in Staten Island's Midland Beach, frigid gusts blew in from the water, but those residents who have moved back in to their houses said the wind wasn't as bad as feared even at the height of the storm. "Not like during Sandy, when the roof was flying away," said Dmitriy Pilguy.

He chuckled a bit at the pre-storm hype. "It's only snow," Pilguy said as he cleared his driveway. "I'm from Russia. I don't care."

REUTERS

A child sits buried in the snow waiting for his father to take his photo in Central Park.

Bloomberg said police have been checking on families from Superstorm Sandy who still have no heat but had encountered no problems so far.

Con Edison's Mike Clendenin said there were just 317 customers without power in the city on Saturday morning, mostly in Brooklyn. He said the number could increase as people wake up and discover they have no electricity.

But he said the low total "is certainly encouraging." There were no failures reported in Westchester County he said, although some villages there, including Scarsdale and Bronxville, reported more than 20 inches of snow.

Clendenin said there were about 3,000 power failures reported during the storm, "but we've been able to keep up and get them back."

Stark said winds had not been as strong as expected in the northern suburbs, with gusts remaining below 35 mph. In Suffolk, he said, they reached 50 mph.

The New York region's three major airports have also reopened after the snowstorm but flights are limited.

Port Authority spokesman Anthony Hayes says commercial flights started taking off from Kennedy and LaGuardia airports at around 9 a.m. Saturday. He said commercial flights should take off from Newark Liberty Airport at around 11 a.m.

Hayes says many flights have been canceled and passengers should check with their airline before heading to the airport.

The Port Authority says the first inbound passenger flight at JFK International Airport landed at 9:30 a.m.

Boston's Logan Airport remains closed but said it expects to reopen Saturday afternoon. Across the region, flights are expected to be back on close to normal schedules on Sunday.

Flight-tracking website FlightAware says airlines have canceled 5,368 flights due to the storm.

New York City subways are running with scattered delays. City buses are running.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says hourly service on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem and Hudson lines will resume after 11 a.m. The MTA says service on the New Haven line will remain suspended because of heavy snow accumulations.

Service is limited on the Long Island Rail Road.

New Jersey Transit resumed bus service north of Interstate 195 as of 7 a.m. Saturday, including service into New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal.

NJ Transit suspended all northern bus service Friday evening due to treacherous driving conditions.

The agency says rail service on the Morris & Essex, Montclair-Boonton and Midtown Direct lines will resume at noon. It was suspended at 8 p.m. Friday.

Meanwhile, Amtrak said the New York-Boston train route would remain closed Saturday as crews cleared tracks of snow and fallen trees. Trains were running south from New York, and between New York and Albany.

REUTERS

A woman takes a photo of a snow man that was erected at the fountain at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week on Friday.

Meanwhile, snow totals in New Jersey ranged from 5-15 inches, with the highest snowfalls spread across the northern part of the state while other areas were spared.

The National Weather Service reports River Vale in northern Bergen County got 15 inches. West Milford, Hillsdale and Scotch Plains all got more than a foot of snow. Cedar Grove residents woke up to about 10 inches of snow Saturday morning.

Newark had been projected to get up to a foot of snow or possibly more but received about 5 or 6 inches. About 5 inches fell on Jersey City and about 6 inches fell at Newark Airport.

More than 28 inches of snow had fallen on central Connecticut by early Saturday, and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched 2 feet or more of snow — with more falling.

At least five deaths were being blamed on the storm, three in Canada and two in upstate New York. In southern Ontario, an 80-year-old woman collapsed while shoveling her driveway and two men were killed in car crashes. In New York, a 74-year-old man died after being struck by a car in Poughkeepsie; the driver said she lost control in the snowy conditions, police said.

A 23-year-old man in Germantown, NY has died after he went off the edge of a roadway while plowing his driveway with a farm tractor in Columbia County, state police said.

Troopers say the accident happened shortly after 9 p.m. Friday, about 35 miles south of Albany. The National Weather Service says about 7.5 inches of snow has accumulated in that area overnight. The tractor rolled down a 15-foot embankment.

The man was pronounced dead at Columbia Memorial Hospital. His name hasn't been released.

More than 650,000 people across the Northeast were without power this morning, with most of the outages occurring in New England.

New York City suffered surprisingly few power outages during the snowstorm.

Con Edison spokesman Mike Clendenin says the city has just 317 customers out, 206 in Brooklyn. No outages were reported in Westchester County.

In New Jersey, the state's two largest utilities were reporting minimal outages as of Saturday morning.

By late Saturday morning, about 5,000 customers in the state were without power. About 4,900 of those are customers of Atlantic City Electric in Atlantic County, with a handful of customers in Gloucester County also awaiting restoration.

The state's two largest utilities reported minor power failures. PSE&G had just 16 customers without service, while JCP&L reported fewer than 25. Orange & Rockland Electric reported no outages in New Jersey.

It's a far cry from the 2.7 million customers left in the dark after Superstorm Sandy last October, or a similar number affected by a snowstorm in October 2011.

Forecasters said wind gusts exceeding 75 mph could cause more widespread power outages and whip the snow into fearsome drifts.

On Saturday, Connecticut Gov. Malloy ordered all roads closed until further notice, saying that stalled or abandoned vehicles will only slow the recovery process. The storm dumped more than 2 feet of snow over much of the state.

State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance says drivers and even some troopers have been getting stuck on the snow-covered highways. He said a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed Friday night in Prospect.

Vance said troopers are still out responding to calls but it's imperative that people stay off the roads.

In New York City, there will be delayed openings at public libraries in all five boroughs. Most will be open from noon until 5 p.m.

With Post Staff

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IRS dealt a setback on tax preparer regulations

To help combat fraud by tax preparers, the Internal Revenue Service created the “Registered Tax Return Preparer” program. Then just before the tax season got under way, the agency was told by a federal judge that it doesn’t have the authority to regulate the hundreds of thousands of tax preparers covered under the program.

Although some tax-return preparers are licensed by their states or enrolled to practice before the IRS, many don’t have to pass a government or professionally mandated competency test to prepare a federal return. When the IRS issued its last “dirty dozen” tax scams, return preparer fraud was third on the list.

“Tax return preparers sometimes alter return information without their clients’ knowledge or consent in an attempt to obtain improperly inflated refunds or to divert refunds for their personal benefit,” wrote Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, in her most recent report to Congress. “Often, the refunds are directed to an account in the preparer’s control.”

In other instances, preparers lure clients by promising large refunds even before reviewing their tax information.

The IRS program would have required any individual who is compensated for preparing or assisting in the preparation of a return to obtain a preparer tax identification number, pass a qualifying exam and complete annual continuing-education requirements.

Three independent tax preparers joined the Institute for Justice in challenging the IRS’ authority to create the program. Recently, Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled against the agency.

Said Dan Alban, the lead attorney on the case: “The licensing requirements harmed the ability of mom and pop operations to compete with big tax preparation firms. Two of the three plaintiffs would have been put out of business because of the cost of complying with the regulations.”

The ruling now means tax return preparers who would have been covered by the program are not required to complete competency testing or secure continuing education, the IRS said. However, all paid preparers are still required to have a preparer tax identification number.

There are tax professionals — attorneys, certified public accountants and enrolled agents — who were exempt from the program but are licensed by state or federal authorities and are subject to censure, suspension or disbarment from practice before the IRS in the event of wrongdoing. The ruling does not affect the regulatory requirements for these professionals.

Still hoping to continue with the regulatory program, the IRS asked the court to delay the ruling pending its appeal. The motion was denied.

“The IRS continues to have confidence in the scope of its authority to administer this program and is working with the Department of Justice to address all options, including a planned appeal,” the agency said in a statement.

In response to the lawsuit, the IRS said it has established 250 testing centers, that the program has cost more than $50 million to roll out, and nearly 100,000 preparers have registered to take the competency test.

When the IRS first announced the program, I was in favor of licensing preparers. Though many tax professionals do their jobs well, there are enough unscrupulous preparers to warrant some changes. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, has recommended that Congress enact a federal registration, examination, certification and enforcement program for unenrolled tax-return preparers. “Creating a class of certified return preparers is a very positive step toward combating fraud,” she said in her report.

But perhaps Judge Boasberg has it right. He said his ruling doesn’t require the IRS to dismantle the registration scheme.

The IRS “may choose to retain the testing centers and some staff, as it is possible that some preparers may wish to take the exam or continuing education even if not required to,” Boasberg said in his decision. “Such voluntarily obtained credentials might distinguish them from other preparers.”

And some preparers might still take the exam in case his ruling is reversed on appeal, “just as the IRS may similarly decide it is financially more prudent not to shutter the centers in hopes of an appellate victory or congressional action,” Boasberg wrote.

“We have no opposition to preparers going through the program voluntarily,” Alban said. “If you are in the market looking for a new tax preparer, there could be value in selecting one with the registered tax return preparer certification. Keeping it voluntary allows consumers to decide what’s important rather than the IRS.”

I see great service to consumers in the IRS preparer program. So until things are settled, Boasberg offers a good compromise.

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Squatter Lokiboy evicted from Boca Raton mansion

BOCA RATON --
Infamous squatter Andre Barbosa has been evicted from a Boca Raton mansion, police said.

Bank of America retook possession of a $2.5 million home where the 23-year-old Brazilian national had been staying since December.

Bank representatives, with the assistance of police, cleared out the foreclosed home at 580 Gold Harbor Dr. at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.

There was no one inside and the home’s locks were changed, said Officer Sandra Boonenberg, spokeswoman for Boca police.

Barbosa, also known as Lokiboy954, had been occupying the home since filing an “adverse possession” claim in December.

Adverse possession was created hundreds of years ago when hand-scrawled property records could more easily be lost, damaged or muddled. Allowing for adverse possession kept land in productive use when ownership was unclear, or, for example, the owner died with no heirs.

If the person claiming adverse possession stays in the home for seven years, paying taxes and caring for the property, they can take permanent ownership.

Barbosa is not facing any charges at this point and police are not actively searching for him, Boonenberg said.

Bank of America issued a statement regarding Thursday’s action.

“We appreciate the assistance of local authorities and the patience of neighbors as we worked to have the trespassers removed.

“We take trespassing seriously and, in the interest of the community, we will take appropriate legal action to protect this and all properties we service.”

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Bobby Brown on How His Family is Coping a Year after Whitney Houston's Death

As the music industry celebrates its finest artists this Sunday with the Grammy Awards, it also mourns the loss of the one of its greats, Whitney Houston, who passed away last year. At will.i.am's annual benefit concert, Houston's ex-husband Bobby Brown and other friends of the late singer shared their remembrances.

Brown, who was performing at the star-studded benefit concert that is held annually to help raise awareness and funds for charitable causes, first spoke about coming out and supporting will.i.am and his i.am.angel Foundation.

PICS: Remembering Whitney: A Life in Pics

"Will is such a great guy and everything he's doing for i.am.angel is just spectacular," he said. "It's just something I want to be part of. I'm here to be a performer and...lend my talents to what he's doing."

When asked about how he and his family were doing a year after his ex-wife's passing, Brown replied, "Wonderful, thank you. Thank you for asking."

Amongst the group of performers and attendees were some of Houston's friends and those who had rubbed elbows with her in the music business. Rapper MC Hammer recalled where he was when he heard the unsettling news.

VIDEO: ET's Last Interview with Whitney Houston

"I was actually at home," Hammer said. "She was a personal friend, so it was devastating to say the least. Rest in peace. They'll never be another Whitney Houston. God bless her soul."

Will.i.am, who was excited to raise more funds for his passionate push for improved STEM (science, technology, education, and mathematics) education, took a somber moment to remember Houston.

"I was preparing for this," he recounted of February 11 of last year, the day she passed. "We were rehearsing. She was a dear friend. We recorded together. She met my mom; I met her family. We grew to be friends, so I will miss her."

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LiLo NOT staying at LI home - partying it up in Manhattan penthouse instead, dad says

A cash-poor Lindsay Lohan isn’t crashing at her mom’s Long Island home – she’s living it up in a Manhattan penthouse.

The starlet’s father told The Post he doubts Lindz is actually living with her mom, Dina, in Merrick.

"I don’t think she's living there. But she's there once in a while,” he said today. “How many times have you seen her in Merrick? She stays at her friend’s house in the city in a penthouse.”

"Just because her clothes are there doesn't mean she lives there."

Dina Lohan could not be reached for comment.

The news comes after a process server yesterday delivered papers to the Merrick home.

The Lohans have had financial troubles in recent years. Radar reported the actress was “flat-out broke” nine days ago, and Dina tallied a staggering $1 million in debt over the past 10 years.

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New restaurants aim to help turn Miami Health District into a destination

Gorgonzola pizza with white truffle oil, Chilean sea bass, imported Italian prosciutto and craft beers are run-of-the-mill fare in Miami’s trendier neighborhoods from Miami Beach to the Miami Design District. But such a trendy menu isn’t what you would expect on the edge of Overtown in the area broadly known as Miami’s Health District.

The opening last fall of two high-profile restaurants, Balans and Thea Pizzeria and Cafe, at the University of Miami’s Life Science & Technology Park is fueling optimism that the neighborhood sandwiched between the Jackson Memorial Hospital campus and Overtown is on an upswing. Long dominated by rundown industrial and commercial buildings, the area is now slated for additional retail and residential development.

The two restaurants, at 1951 NW Seventh Ave., are owned by local industry veterans with a history as pioneers in Miami’s urban neighborhoods. They say the same early indicators that brought them to Wynwood and Miami’s Upper East Side are drawing them to the Health District.

“When you go into an underserved area, there’s more pressure to make a more interesting place where people want to come,” said Thea Goldman, the owner of Thea Pizzeria. She learned the art of redevelopment for her late father-in-law Tony Goldman and opened Joey’s in Wynwood with her then-husband. “It’s fun to surprise people. They come in a little trepidatiously. There is a curious crowd that will come. They just have to be enticed. Wynwood proved that. Restaurants can ignite a neighborhood like nothing else.”

GROWTH PLAN

What attracted Goldman and Balans’ owner Prady Balan to the Health District was the growth plan for UM’s research park. Both restaurants are on the ground floor of the park’s first 252,000-square-foot building, which opened in June 2011. Four additional buildings are planned for the eight-acre biotech research park. The building is currently about 75 percent leased with a mix of offices and laboratories; plans for a second building call for a mix hotel rooms and offices, which could begin construction later this year, pending a deal with UM.

The goal is to create a thriving commercial center feeding off the $200 million in research conducted annually by the nearby University of Miami Miller School of Medicine on the Jackson hospital campus.

Both restaurateurs say developer Wexford Science & Technology, which leases the land from UM and developed the first building, made deals that were attractive enough to support a long-term approach to the area.

“I knew that it was going to be highly challenging, but I was bored in life, so I thought I would do something daring,” jokes Balan, who has successful restaurants in South Beach and London and pioneered eateries on Biscayne Boulevard and Brickell Avenue. “It probably will take three years. Slowly but surely people do come over. They are liking it and becoming regulars.”

Balan figures all he needs is to attract 10 percent of the 55,000 people a day who work or visit the Jackson Memorial Hospital. Miami’s Health District is the second largest in the country, behind only Houston. To attract those customers to the restaurants at the park, Wexford offers a daily free lunch shuttle to the Jackson campus. The park also offers free valet parking or free gated parking for restaurant visitors.

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Jury awards girl sexually assaulted on school district bus $1.7 million

WEST PALM BEACH --
Minutes after a jury late Wednesday awarded a mentally challenged Pahokee girl $1.7 million for the trauma she suffered when she was raped on a Palm Beach County school bus when she was 3, the girl’s mother rushed toward those who had given her daughter a second chance.

“Wait,” she called out just before they filed out the door. “I want to thank all of you.”

In turn, she hugged each of the four women and two men who rejected the school board’s claims that her daughter wasn’t hurt by the 2007 attack. School board attorneys argued the girl was too young and too mentally disabled to understand what a 15-year-old emotionally disturbed youth did to her on the bus filled with special needs kids.

With tears streaming down her face, the mother looked at the girl’s father. Both heaved sighs of relief.

“It means a lot to me,” she said of the verdict. “My daughter finally got justice.”

The School Board never denied the girl was molested. Both the bus driver and the aide who was on the bus to protect the students were fired. The aide, Grenisha Williams, was convicted of child neglect in connection with the incident and put on probation. Sexual battery charges were filed against J.C. Carter, the youth school police said assaulted the child. The School Board even changed policies, decreeing that young children should no longer be allowed to ride buses with older kids.

But, the district never agreed to compensate the now 9-year-old girl for the trauma that her attorneys argued exacerbated her considerable learning problems.

“I think the jury got it,” attorney Stephan Le Clainche said.

Despite School Board attorneys’ claims to the contrary, he said: “The jury realized that any child of a tender age who is the victim of physical or sexual violence is going to carry the stain of it their entire life.”

But, he acknowledged, the battle is far from over. Under Florida law, government agencies in 2007 could only be forced to pay $100,000 for injuries caused by their wrongdoing. (The cap on so-called sovereign immunity, that comes from the English concept that the King can do no wrong, has since been raised to $200,000.) But to get more than $100,000, the girl’s attorneys must now persuade a typically stubborn Florida Legislature to life the cap so the girl can get the $1.7 million the jury said she deserves.

“We have a long road to go,” Le Clainche said. The $100,000 will barely cover the court costs that included paying $25,000 to a psychiatrist who persuaded the jury that the girl carries deep psychological scars that will take years of counseling and private schooling to salve.

The mother said she was well aware of the looming battle. “I’ve been waiting all this time. I guess I can wait some more,” said the mother, who lost her job as a cook when the always shaky economy in the Glades got even worse in the recent recession.

Jurors declined comment on the verdict, as did attorneys representing the school board. Attorney Scott Krevens said they don’t comment on pending litigation.

But the two sides argued their cases vigorously Wednesday in their last appearances before the jury after a five-day trial.

Attorney Tom McCausland, one of the school board’s two attorneys, suggested that the jury give the girl $250,000 for the pain she endured on the day of the attack and $31,000 for family counseling.

“A quarter-million dollars is a way of saying we’re sorry it happened,” he said.

Le Clainche bristled at McCausland’s suggestion that the money was an apology and not a recognition that the girl needs years of therapy.

McCausland insisted the girl has no memory of the attack. “Her brain has not been able to form to grasp the event,” McCausland told jurors. “This very, very heinous act, fortunately, is not something the girl remembers.”

Le Clainche translated McCausland’s argument this way: “Your harm is worth nothing because you’re already damaged.” Then, he added, “That is an incredible, outrageous defense.”

The psychiatrist hired by the girl’s team testified that the attack stymied the girl’s emotional and intellectual growth. A psychologist hired by the school board told jurors trauma doesn’t affect cognitive development.

In the end, it was clear the jury accepted the long-standing child-rearing concept that early childhood development impacts a youngster’s entire life.

About two hours into their deliberations, the jurors sent out a question: “Can the possibility of future sexual problems be considered as future pain and suffering?”

Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley said they could.

Less than 15 minutes later, they announced their verdict.

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Sam Claflin Talks Finnick Catching Fire

This August, Sam Claflin officially beat out every other young actor in Hollywood to score the role of Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Now, with filming nearing completion, the 26-year-old has opened up for the first time about the cool character, his physical preparation and hopes for the cinematic sequel!

In an interview with Teen Vogue, Claflin says that it took him a hot minute after landing the role to feel like Finnick. "They decided to go with me as opposed to any of the other young, hot, good-looking actors out there," he laughs. "I have a tan and a six-pack now after four months of hard work. I feel slowly but surely like I am Finnick Odair."

RELATED - Who's Who in Catching Fire?

Finnick's physicality is hugely important as he is not only one of the most lusted after Victors in Hunger Games history, but, as Claflin says, "I spend a lot of the film carrying an old lady on my back, as Finnick carries Mags for the majority of the arena scenes. From the moment I set foot in Atlanta, they had me at the gym, working out twice a day. And then stunt training, it's nonstop." And that includes once action is called.

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"I feel like every day of filming is a workout, running around Hawaii with little old Lynn Cohen on my back. As for my diet, I think I've eaten more chickens than there are in the world. [laughs] I would eat chicken and asparagus for lunch and dinner, and for breakfast I'd have an omelet and oatmeal. And I had that every day for four months. I've talked to my friends and said, 'Oh my God, I'm so depressed, I just want a burger.' And they're like, 'You don't know how lucky you are to be doing what you are doing.'"

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Of course Claflin is keenly aware of how lucky he is to be playing this role. "There are so many complexities to this character," he says. "Finnick has a tempestuous relationship with Katniss -- she trusts him one minute, and the next she doesn't. I love their relationship. Together they eventually realize they need each other to survive, and that is beautiful."

An apt description for his relationship with co-stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutchinson as well. "Jen is the most talented actress I have had the pleasure of working with," Claflin says, adding that he and Josh hit if off from moment one. "It's a definite bromance."

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As for Catching Fire, Claflin is excited for the fans to see his incarnation of Finnick and hope he lives up to their lofty expectations. "All I can say is I try very hard and hopefully I won't disappoint people. He's a very charming physical being, and hopefully he will be exactly what people read in the book and I won't be doing an injustice. I hope people enjoy my interpretation. Hopefully we'll make a bigger and better one this time around."

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opens November 22.

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