On January 29, 2021, the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County (JWB) hosted our 7th Annual Children’s Summit. This year’s event was held virtually with a record number of 500 in attendance, and the theme was “A Year of Resiliency”,
JWB Board Chair Susan Rolston welcomed participants before turning it over to Beth Houghton, JWB Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Houghton addressed the challenges of last year’s global pandemic, and shared highlights from JWB’s new five-year Strategic Plan. She then introduced keynote speaker Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD, an expert in the field of early brain and child development, and early literacy. Dr. Navsaria is a pediatrician working in the public interest. He blends the roles of physician, educator, public health professional, child health advocate, and occasional children’s librarian. An associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Navsaria presents nationally on early brain and child development, early literacy, and advocacy, and is the founding medical director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin. His keynote presentation, Early Experiences Elevate Everything, aligns with JWB’s new strategic focus on early childhood development and validates how critical the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are in shaping the brains and ultimately the futures of children.
Ms. Houghton then introduced JWB’s annual report video featuring the work and impact of JWB and our partners last fiscal year, with emphasis on COVID relief efforts. The Summit closed with JWB Board Vice Chair Michael Mikurak’s call-to-action, inviting participants to continue to engage with JWB’s collective efforts and campaigns.
Click on the links below to view the recordings of the Children’s Summit and Dr. Navsaria’s keynote presentation, along with the FY20 Annual Report Video.
As the battle to end COVID-19 continues, local agencies partnered to protect young children from the virus in the Tampa Bay area.
On Saturday, the Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas County, Juvenile Welfare Board, and Florida Association of Infant Mental Health gave almost 10,000 clear and cloth face mask and 500 gallons of hand sanitizer to 447 child care providers in Pinellas County.
Their goal is for young children and early child care educators to have the best equipment for a safe and appropriate learning experience.
“Clear face masks allow parents to rest assure their child and the VPK and School Readiness child care educators are safe and have the tools necessary to learn and teach effectively,” said Lindsay Carson, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas.
Masks will be distributed on Wednesday, January 27, 2021 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Thursday, January 28 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Early Learning Coalition Centers in Clearwater and St. Petersburg.
We are pleased to announce that The Honorable Bruce Bartlett has joined the Juvenile Welfare Board in an ex-officio capacity as State Attorney for the Sixth Judicial Circuit.
For 28 years, Mr. Bartlett served as Chief Assistant State Attorney until his appointment as State Attorney of the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on January 21, 2021.
Mr. Bartlett began his career with the Sixth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office in 1979, where he rose to Division Director and then to Chief Assistant State Attorney in 1992. In his role as Chief Assistant State Attorney, he directly supervised 170 Assistant State Attorneys in Pinellas and Pasco counties and tried over 200 jury trials involving serious felonies.
During his career spanning four decades, Mr. Bartlett has held numerous professional memberships and received multiple awards. He has been a lecturer at Stetson University, instructor at St. Petersburg College and Pasco-Hernando Community College, and is currently on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission. He formerly served as Chair of Law Week for the Pinellas County Bar Association, Chair of the Florida Bar Grievance Committee (6-D), Chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission Sixth Judicial Circuit, and member of the Pinellas County Police Athletic League (PAL). He received the Outstanding Professionalism in the Practice of Law Award from the St. Petersburg Bar Association (2007), Richard T. Earle Jr. Barney Masterson Inn of Court Award Demonstrating Highest Degree of Professionalism in the Practice of Law (2004), and Elk Lodge 1224 Prosecutor of the Year (1994). Born in St. Petersburg, Bruce Bartlett received his Bachelor of Science from the University of South Florida and his Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law. He is married with two adult children, and is a life-long resident of Pinellas County.
The Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County (JWB) is pleased to announce the hiring of Dr. Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez in the position of Chief Evaluation and Innovation Officer. In her new position, Dr. Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez oversees JWB’s evaluation team and is responsible for developing, streamlining, and implementing program metrics across JWB’s portfolio. She also oversees JWB’s newest result area for Early Childhood Development, and plays a critical role in the Zero to Three Campaign.
Prior to joining JWB’s executive leadership team, Dr. Morrison-Rodriguez served as President and CEO of BMR Consulting, LLC, since its founding in 2001. Her consulting was primarily focused with non-profit organizations and foundations in the Southeastern United States, as well as with federal agencies such as the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) and its grantee programs. In that role, she provided evaluation and accountability consultation and training for grantees of several foundations primarily in Florida, and has trained over 800 non-profit organizations in evaluation. Her areas of expertise include program evaluation, strategic planning, strategic grant making, program development, and Board development.
In her 45 year career, she has been on the faculty of multiple colleges and universities, including Hunter College (CUNY), the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine (NYC), State University of New York (Albany), the University of South Carolina (Columbia) where she held an endowed chair in Social Welfare, and the University of South Florida (Tampa) where she was Associate Dean of the Florida Mental Health Institute. In her career as a civil servant, Dr. Morrison-Rodriguez served as Director of Long Term Care for the New York State Office for Aging and Associate Commissioner for Long Term Care and Geriatrics at the New York State Office of Mental Health. She co-authored a text book on research methods and has published several articles in the areas of research, aging, child welfare, and services to racial and ethnic minority populations. She earned her MA and PhD degrees in Social Welfare Research from the Columbia University School of Social Work in New York City and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Douglass College, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Florida House Speaker Rep. Chris Sprowls wants the county commission to rename the Pinellas County Justice Center after late Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe.
McCabe, who died Jan. 1 at age 73, “left an unrivaled legacy in the pantheon of Florida justice seekers,” wrote Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican and former prosecutor who used to work for the State Attorney’s Office.
The letter sent Wednesday to the Pinellas County Commission was co-signed by Acting State Attorney Bruce Bartlett, who was McCabe’s chief assistant, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Pinellas Clerk of the Circuit Court Ken Burke and Pinellas-Pasco Chief Judge Anthony Rondolino.
“Mr. McCabe was fond of asking his young prosecutors when they asked him what they should do on a case, ‘What is the right thing to do?’ He had a way of making complex decisions easy with keen moral clarity,” the letter says.
“Naming the building that he walked into every day to serve as a minister of justice, well … it’s the right thing to do. We hope you will.”
The State Attorney’s and Public Defender’s offices are located inside the sprawling Justice Center at 14250 49th Street N, along with courtrooms, judge’s chambers and the office of the clerk and comptroller.
Defense attorney Haydee Oropesa on Friday emailed the commissioners and those who signed the letter and told them she plans to publicly oppose renaming the courthouse after the region’s longtime prosecutor, who represents just one side of the criminal justice system.
“The Courthouse is supposed to represent Truth and Justice (and neither side of a case is the absolute holder of those ideals),” she said, “and it is supposed to be blind not visually focused on any one side.”
McCabe began working at the State Attorney’s Office in 1972 and, other than two years in which he moved back to his hometown of Mount Dora after his father died, spent his four-decade legal career working there. He was elected to the top job in 1992 and has been reelected ever since.
Among Florida’s legal and political community, McCabe was known as a mentor to young lawyers, a whip-smart litigator, and an advocate for crime victims, police officers and children. He served for 20 years on the Pinellas County Juvenile Welfare Board and was one of the first state attorneys in Florida to start drug and veterans’ treatment courts.
“He could be fierce when he needed to be, but his heart was one in constant search of truth and righteousness,” the letter says.
McCabe had been in bad health for some time, friends and colleagues said. In February, he suffered what he called an “adverse health event” before the pandemic and started working from home. He provided no details about his health then. He was days away from starting his eighth term when he died. The chief judge appointed Bartlett, McCabe’s longtime chief assistant, to run the agency until the governor appoints an interim state attorney.
According to the county’s honorary naming rights policy, any group of citizens can submit a proposal to name a county-owned or controlled building after someone.
The county administrator will then create a committee to consider the proposal, and that committee will make a recommendation to county commissioners, who have the final say.
We are pleased to announce that The Honorable Sara Mollo has joined the Juvenile Welfare Board in an ex-officio capacity as Public Defender for the Sixth Judicial Circuit.
In 2020, Sara Mollo was elected as Public Defender for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, serving Pinellas and Pasco counties. Ms. Mollo has practiced criminal law for over 20 years, serving as both a prosecutor and now as the Public Defender. This unique background has led her to a deeper understanding of the importance of justice for all. She is well known as a fierce advocate for her clients and for seeking solutions for the misunderstood complexities of mental illness and poverty.
Ms. Mollo grew up in a military family; her father is a retired Lt. Colonel in the United States Army. She received her Doctorate degree from Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. In 1997, she was admitted to the Florida and Missouri Bars and was appointed as Prosecutor. Two years later, she joined the Public Defender’s Office in Monroe County and, in 2002, she moved to Clearwater, joining the Sixth Judicial Circuit Public Defender’s Office.
Ms. Mollo is also Past President of the Pinellas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Legislative Co-Chair of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Humanitarian Award Recipient bestowed by the National Association of Mental Illness (NAMI), and Graduate of Leadership Pinellas Class of 2020.
Ms. Mollo believes that being a member of a vulnerable population doesn’t define you, but how we as a society treat the most vulnerable amongst us does.
Soon after she was appointed as a prosecutor in Missouri, she started working on a death penalty case. She remembers watching the mother of a teenage defendant, learning that the state would seek death against her son, pass out in shock. The experience took a lot out of the young lawyer.
So she left, moving to the Florida Keys to think about her next steps — and learn to scuba dive. On her drive from Marathon to John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, she’d pass a Monroe County Public Defender’s satellite office. As she struggled with her experience on the other side of the legal system, the frequent drive-bys gave her an idea.
“I thought being a public defender would be a really good opportunity just to make sure that the process worked fair, and that everybody did get justice,” Mollo said in a recent interview.
Beginning today, Mollo, 51, will lead the Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender’s Office for a four-year term, following last week’s retirement of Bob Dillinger, who was first elected in 1996 and served five terms. After Mollo worked a few years at the Monroe County office, then in private practice, Dillinger hired her in 2003, where she rose to be his chief assistant. With her boss’ support, she ran for his seat unopposed.
Mollo will be one of two new leaders in the Pinellas-Pasco legal system. Following the unexpected death last week of State Attorney Bernie McCabe, his chief assistant, Bruce Bartlett, is taking over the job. McCabe served one term longer than Dillinger, making this a rare moment for two offices previously led for decades by incumbents.
For Mollo, much of her first year in office will be focused on keeping it running amid the coronavirus pandemic, she said. The virus has forced many court proceedings online, so Mollo said she wants to make sure the office stays up to date with technology.
She also anticipates that, as the pandemic pushes up unemployment and poverty rates, fewer people will be able to afford a private lawyer, so her office will likely take on more clients. That’s on top of the case backlog that has built up as the pandemic continues to stall some criminal trials. Mollo is also bracing for budget constraints for her own office.
“There’s going to be some additional challenges right up front,” she said.
Beyond that, she wants to continue her boss’s legacy, which is a big task on its own, she said. Dillinger expanded his office’s role to include social programs and outreach that go beyond the traditional public defender role of providing legal representation to those who can’t afford private lawyers.
Mollo shares Dillinger’s passion for mental health, which bloomed while she was working on Baker Act cases. The Baker Act is a Florida law that allows for the involuntary examination of those experiencing a mental health crisis. And working in the office she saw how much issues such as mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness played into her clients’ cases.
“What I noticed, and what Mr. Dillinger allowed me to see was a tenacious and relentless caring for people, just unwilling to give up on them,” she said.
Of her new role, she said, “I’m not interested in the politics of it. I’m interested in the people of it, and that’s what I’m going to stay focused on.”
Mollo lives in Belleair Bluffs with her husband and daughter. Spot her at the courthouse by looking for red heels — her signature accessory.
The Honorable Bernie McCabe served nearly three decades as top prosecutor for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, and two decades as a member of the Juvenile Welfare Board. His legacy for doing what is right, and for being an advocate for children and youth will live on.
When Bernie McCabe first thought about becoming a lawyer, the name that came to mind was TV’s most famous defense attorney.
“I was always fascinated by Perry Mason,” he told the Tampa Bay Times in 2018.
Instead, McCabe’s historic career went in the opposite direction: He spent a half-century as a prosecutor and in 1992 was elected to the top job.
As Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney, he spent nearly three decades overseeing the prosecution of murderers, cop-killers and con men in both counties. He also led the office in its unsuccessful prosecution of the Church of Scientology.
“It’s no secret he’s been in poor health,” said Pinellas Pasco Clerk of the Circuit Court Ken Burke, a longtime friend of the state attorney.
McCabe leaves behind a wife, Denise, who he married in 1969, and two children.
In a 2018 interview with the Times, McCabe said his job meant everything to him.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction there. I think I would feel a big void (if I wasn’t working),” he said. “I don’t play golf. In fact, I hate gardening. I can cook reasonably well, but I can’t do that all the time …
“I don’t know if there’s anything else that I could find that would give me the sense of fulfillment that I get out of this office.”
When the news of McCabe’s death broke Saturday, the region’s top officials offered praise.
“He was a man with great intelligence. He had a superior insight into our judicial system. He was a keen politician, and he was always mindful of the other justice partners,” said Pinellas-Pasco Chief Judge Anthony Rondolino, who had known McCabe since both were young attorneys. “He was a great leader for the state attorney’s office and has a legacy that will be very, very difficult to surpass.”
The chief judge on Saturday appointed Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett, McCabe’s longtime second-in-command and close friend, as acting state attorney.
“Trying to step in for Bernie — they’re hard shoes to fill,” Bartlett said. “I just hope that the public will be satisfied with what I do.”
Chief Assistant State Attorney Bruce Bartlett, left, and Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, right, confer during the Sept. 23, 2013 re-sentencing hearing of Nicholas Lindsey Jr. He was 16 when he killed St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford in 2011. Lindsey was again sentenced to life in prison. [ KEELER, SCOTT | Tampa Tribune ]
McCabe’s only contested election was his first one in 1992, and he has run unopposed since. In April he was automatically elected to another four-year term that was to start Tuesday. The governor will have to appoint an interim state attorney, and then voters will elect a new state attorney in 2022.
McCabe’s death and Dillinger’s departure means new faces will fill the Pinellas-Pasco circuit’s top criminal justice positions for the first time in decades.
• • •
McCabe was raised in Mount Dora, where his father once served as Lake County school superintendent. What first drew him to the law, he said, was the school board’s colorful attorney, a cigar-chomping lawyer who drove a white Cadillac convertible with red leather seats.
But when McCabe went to Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, his career path fell into place after his first prosecution clinic in 1971. He said he enjoyed the “satisfaction” of helping people and doing the right thing. He graduated in 1972 and joined the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office.
“It was kind of right place, right time,” he said, “and I came to really love what I was doing.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ander Crenshaw, left, talks with Pinellas-Pasco Attorney Bernie McCabe at a Clearwater restaurant in 1993. [ Associated Press ]
He spent eight years there, supervising the St. Petersburg and then Pasco County offices. Then in 1980, after his father died, he returned home and went to work as a prosecutor in Lake County. Two years later, then-Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Jimmy Russell asked him to come back. McCabe became Russell’s top deputy, then his heir apparent in the 1992 election.
Under his tenure, the State Attorney’s Office won convictions in some of the worst crimes in Tampa Bay history. That includes the case of Oba Chandler, who was executed in 2011 for the murders of Joan Rogers and daughters Michelle and Christe. The Ohio family was visiting Florida in 1989 when Chandler offered to take them out onto Tampa Bay in his boat. They were found floating in the bay, bound, tied to concrete blocks and stripped below the waist.
McCabe prided himself on personally prosecuting cop-killers. He was on the prosecution teams that convicted the killers of Belleair police Officer Jeffery Tackett, who died in 1993; Pasco sheriff’s Lt. Charles “Bo” Harrison, who was killed in 2003; and St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford, who died in 2011.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, right, calls a witness into the grand jury room at the West Pasco Judicial Center in 2003. The grand jury indicted Alfredie Steele Jr. in the murder of Pasco County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Charles “Bo” Harrison in Lacoochee, and a jury later convicted Steele. [ ANDY JONES | Tampa Bay Times ]
“Any good trial lawyer first and foremost is preparation, and Bernie did his homework,” said Pinellas-Pasco Judge Jack Helinger, who started his legal career as a prosecutor in 1976. And to jurors, Helinger said, McCabe “was a good ‘ol Mount Dora boy. He didn’t talk down to them. He talked with them.”
He supervised an office of about 165 attorneys that handles roughly 80,000 felony, misdemeanor, traffic and juvenile cases a year. In recent years he complained about the toll austere budgets took on his agency.
In a 2011 interview, McCabe noted one of the most disappointing cases of his career: The failed prosecution of the Church of Scientology for the 1995 death of member Lisa McPherson who spent her last days in the church’s care. In 1998 he charged the church with two felonies, practicing medicine without a license and abuse of a disabled adult. But in 2000 he dropped the charges after the medical examiner changed McPherson’s manner of death from “undetermined” to “accident.”
The most famous white collar crime that McCabe’s office prosecuted was against the Rev. Henry Lyons, the St. Petersburg preacher who was then one of the nation’s most powerful Black church leaders. In 1999 he was convicted of using his position as president of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc. to swindle corporations out of more than $4 million.
McCabe’s decisions also made headlines. In 1996, Officer James Knight, a white man, fatally shot Tyron Lewis, a Black motorist who edged his car forward, knocking the officer onto the hood. That incident sparked two nights of rioting in St. Petersburg. McCabe took the case to a grand jury, and its decision not to charge the officer led to more violence. However, when the Times raised questions about the evidence presented to the grand jury, McCabe insisted the grand jury’s report was accurate.
More recently, McCabe prosecuted a man the Pinellas sheriff declined to arrest: Michael Drejka, a white man who killed a Black man, Markeis McGlockton, in a 2018 dispute over a Clearwater parking spot. The sheriff cited Florida’s stand your ground law, but McCabe charged Drejka and he was convicted of manslaughter in 2019.
• • •
McCabe had a big heart for children, said Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. He supported juvenile diversion programs, which channel children arrested for certain crimes into social services and community services and away from the criminal justice system. He also supported Gualtieri’s move to start a similar program for adults accused of minor crimes.
“What made him stick out was his firm belief in doing the right things and treating people fairly and treating them humanely,” Gualtieri said.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, right, shown here at a Juvenile Welfare Board meeting in 2019.
But McCabe was also tough when he needed to be, the sheriff said, calling him “an icon in the legal community and law enforcement.”
Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls, a Palm Harbor Republican who worked as a prosecutor in McCabe’s office until about four years ago, on Saturday posted a statement on Twitter.
“Bernie was my mentor and my friend,” he said. “I will miss him more than I can put into words, but I also know that I will carry the lessons I learned from him with me through all the days of my life.”
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe holds out his hand to simulate firing a gun during closing arguments in the 2012 murder trial of Nicholas Lindsey Jr., who was convicted of killing St. Petersburg police Officer David Crawford in 2011. [ KEELER, SCOTT | Times ]
Despite his declining health, Gualtieri said McCabe’s mind was as sharp as ever. And his passion for his work never diminished either.
“I thoroughly enjoy this job and I don’t know what it is, but when I start contemplating not coming to work, I just sense a sort of emptiness,” he told the Times in 2018. “I enjoy coming to work, I enjoy interacting with people, I thoroughly enjoy trying to make the community a safer place, or at least keep it from becoming a more dangerous place.”
Friends and colleagues believe that’s why McCabe continued to run for office, despite his declining health. He once said he’d retire after 2016 — but ended up running two more times.
“It doesn’t get more dedicated than he was,” Gualtieri said, “right to the end.”
