FBI Requests Assistance in Identifying Bank Robber

The FBI is requesting the public’s assistance in identifying and apprehending a man thought to be responsible for at least three armed bank robberies in Duval, St. Johns, and Volusia Counties during the past two weeks, according to Michael B. Steinbach, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Jacksonville Division.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s or 30s, 5’8” to 5’10” tall, with a thin build. He has short blond hair and at the time of the robberies had a brown goatee. He also wore sunglasses and a baseball cap during some of the robberies and either a polo-type shirt or T-shirt.

The individual is believed to be responsible for the following three robberies and possibly others:

May 1, 2012: Bank of America located at 10445 San Jose Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida

May 1, 2012: Wells Fargo located at 2841 County Road 210 West in St. Augustine, Florida

May 3, 2012: Wells Fargo located at 1813 Ridgewood Avenue in Edgewater, Florida

In the robberies, the subject approached the victim teller and produced a note in which he demanded money and stated that he had a firearm. After obtaining the money, he left the banks on foot.

Anyone having information is asked to call the FBI or local police as follows:

FBI-Jacksonville: 904-248-7000

Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office: 904-630-0500

St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office: 904-824-8304

Edgewater Police Department: 386-424-2400

Mayo Clinic Radiology Tech Pleads Guilty to Spreading Hepatitis C

JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces today that Steven Beumel (48, Jacksonville) pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with a consumer product resulting in death, four counts of tampering with a consumer product resulting in serious bodily injury, and five counts of stealing Fentanyl by deception. Beumel faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. He was arrested by FBI agents on May 24, 2011 and has remained in custody since his arrest. A sentencing date has not been yet scheduled.

According to court documents, Beumel was a radiology technician at Memorial Hospital from May 1992 through October 2004. He worked as a radiology technician at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville from October 2004 through August 2010. Beumel admitted, in court, that he stole syringes of Fentanyl during patients’ procedures and replaced them with syringes of saline contaminated with hepatitis C. Beumel’s tampering occurred from 2006 through 2008 at the Mayo Clinic’s intervetonal radiology unit.

Epidemiologists from the Mayo Clinic, Florida Department of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) worked for more than three years to solve the hepatitis C outbreak at the Mayo Clinic. It was eventually linked to Beumel. The Mayo Clinic immediately fired Buemel and reported his actions to law enforcement. The clinic tested thousands of patients who were potentially put at risk by Beumel’s actions. Two patients from that testing effort were linked to Beumel.

The first patient discovered to have hepatitis C linked to Beumel was a liver transplant patient who received a new liver in September 2006. During a radiology procedure in November 2006, Beumel took this patient’s Fentanyl and infected him with hepatitis C. The patient battled hepatitis C for almost four years. He died from complications related to hepatitis C, never knowing how he got it.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration, the Florida Department of Financial Services, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office’s Homicide Unit. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Frank Talbot.

New York City Sex Trafficker Sentenced to More Than 26 Years

JACKSONVILLE, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard today sentenced Tyrone Townsend (45, New York, New York) to 320 months in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for sex trafficking by force, threats of force and fraud; transporting women across state lines for prostitution; enticing, inducing and coercing a woman to travel across state lines for prostitution; and conspiracy to transport a woman across state lines for prostitution. Townsend was found guilty on February 16, 2011, following a federal jury trial.

According to court documents and testimony at trial, Townsend met the first victim, an eighteen year old runaway, in April 2009 after she traveled by Greyhound bus to New York City, New York. He met the second victim, a Canadian citizen, after she responded to an internet advertisement and met up with Townsend and the first victim in Norfolk, Virginia. Both victims testified that Townsend beat and sexually assaulted them as a means of causing them to engage in commercial sex acts. Both victims testified that Townsend required them to call him “Daddy,” and he was also referred to as“King Tycoon.”

The victim from Canada testified that Townsend forcibly removed her personal property (including her passport, cell phone, and laptop computer) from her belongings at the residence of Townsend’s brother in Thomasville, North Carolina as a means of preventing her from leaving. Evidence also included a Myspace message to one of the victims in which Townsend acknowledged that the victim would get beaten for not making “her number,” a reference to a nightly quota of $1,000. Townsend transported the women from Norfolk, Virginia, to Thomasville, North Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Kingsland, Georgia; and Jacksonville, Florida. Townsend and the women were in Jacksonville from September 9, 2009, until September 16, 2009.

Townsend caused the women to engage in commercial sex acts at an abandoned apartment on Edenfield Road (Jacksonville) and also at the locations of customers, including local homes and hotels. On September 16, 2009, the Canadian woman was apprehended by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office as part of an undercover prostitution sting. At that time, the woman became hysterical and advised officers about what had happened to her. The investigation into Townsend’s sex trafficking activities then commenced. Investigators amassed a large amount of evidence including hotel records, phone records, bank records, and 28 internet ads in which Townsend advertised the victim’s availability for commercial sex acts. Investigators also seized a Garmin GPS from Townsend’s vehicle and were able to establish locations of various customers in Jacksonville from the data contained in the Garmin.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mac D. Heavener, III.

Three Florida Cop Novels

Police-Writers.com, a website dedicated to listing state and local police officers who have authored books added three Florida police officers who have written fictional novels.

Lieutenant Steven H. Richardson, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (ret.) (Florida) is the author of Crossing the Chalk Line. Although a work of fiction, it has been described as “closer to reality than fiction in describing what happens when police do the wrong thing for the right reasons.” According to the book description, “When Deputy Mark Jacobs finds his training officer lying dead in the panhandle mud, he must patiently wait for the criminal justice system to prosecute the murderer. Unable to place the murderer at the crime scene, the prosecutor is forced to release the murderer back into the Olustee communities.”

Derwin J. Bradley is a police officer for the Orlando Police Department Florida), a former military bodyguard and counter-terrorist specialist with extensive experience and travel in Africa and Europe. Derwin Bradley has trained hundreds of police officers in defensive tactics and has provided advanced tactical police training to U.S. Army Special Forces, British Army Special Forces, Police SWAT Teams, and military bodyguards during his 23 years in law enforcement. He has lectured at national conferences on juvenile crime and unconventional gang enforcement tactics, and has written several police training and program manuals.

Derwin Bradley is the author of two books, Black and Blue: Understanding Modern Law Enforcement in your American and The Operator Fear No Evil. Bradley’s book The Operator Fear No Evil is a novel of political intrigue. That includes, according to the book description, “hardball politics, advanced technology, unconventional tactics, and a secret state-of-the-art operations center.”

G.J. Herrey is a retired police officer from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (Florida). His novel is Sins, Stones and Glass Houses. According to the book description, “This novel begins in a city in Florida, where Zachary Naccarato, a decorated veteran, has just been awarded honors for catching a serial murderer. Shortly thereafter Sergeant Naccarato finds himself involved in a high stakes game of corruption, conspiracy, and murder. He is lured into the game of a madman, baited by his only true seduction: his quest for the truth. After a series of ritualistic murders are blamed on Naccarato, he is forced to resign from his career with the possibility of his arrest looming ever near. His life in disarray, Zach sets out to clear his name. Slowly, from the peripheral corners of each turned page, the killer emerges for an ultimate showdown. Conspiracy, betrayal, corruption, and the ultimate sin: homicide, are interwoven within the plot.”

Police-Writers.com now hosts 393 police officers (representing 166 police departments) and their 848 books in six categories, there are also listings of United States federal law enforcement employees turned authors, international police officers who have written books and civilian police personnel who have written books.