Woman arrested for passing fraudulent prescriptions

MANATEE - A woman remained in jail on a $40,000 bond after she passed four fake prescriptions at Bradenton Home Town Pharmacy, 1407 57th Ave. W., over the past year for Xanax and Roxicodoone, according to a Manatee County Sheriff's Office arrest warrant affidavit.

Pharmacists contacted detectives after they researched several prescriptions and made contact with the listed doctor who said 23-year-old Nicole Doborwicz was not a patient.

Doborwicz presented her driver's license each time she passed a prescription to the pharmacists.

Deborwicz's arrest is part of an effort by law enforcement to crack down on prescription drug crime and abuse. She is one of a several hundred people who have been arrested on prescription drug-related charges this year.

Every other day, at least one person dies in the three-county area of a prescription pill drug overdose, said Medical Examiner Dr. Russell Vega for the 12th district, which includes Manatee, Sarasota and Desoto counties.

Nicole Doborwicz

Floridians trying to protect wildlife lead to serious wrecks

People trying to look out for the welfare of wildlife did not fare well on Florida highways this week.

In Collier County, Steven Lee Purdy of Cape Coral died Monday night when his car was struck by another car trying to avoid an alligator crossing the road.

And in  Broward County, 44-year-old Laura Latuszynski of Weston was seriously injured Sunday evening when she stopped to help a duck. Another car then struck her parked vehicle, then hit Latuszynski.

Report: Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port is 107th most dangerous metro area in U.S.

The Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port region was the 107th most dangerous metropolitan area in the country last year, according to a national study released Sunday. That's up from #109 a year earlier.

The rankings are a result of a formula used by the study's authors to analyze 2009 statistics the FBI compiles for eight categories of crime -- murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port ranked 107th out of 347 metro areas ranked, landing between Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., at No. 105 and Jacksonville, N.C., at 107.

A year earlier, Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port ranked #109, between Bryan-College Station, Texas, at No. 108 and Cape Coral-Fort Myers at No. 110.

Other findings of the study, conducted by CQ Press:

-- Bradenton-Sarasota-North Port ranked as the 12th most dangerous metro area in Florida in 2009. That's behind Miami-Dade County (16); Jacksonville (43); Gainesville (44); Greater Miami (48); Tallahassee (56); Orlando (59);  West Palm Beach (60); Panama City-Lynn Haven (76); Pensacola (85); Tampa-St. Petersburg (96); and Fort Lauderdale (104).

-- The safest metro area in Florida last year was Port St. Lucie, which ranked No. 186.

-- The most dangerous metro area in the country last year was Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich., and the safest was Glens Falls, N.Y.

-- The most dangerous city with a population of more than 75,000 was St. Louis, and the safest was Colonie, N.Y. (Neither Bradenton nor Sarasota were included in the city rankings.)

-- The most dangerous city in Florida was St. Petersburg, which came in at No. 31 nationally; and the safest was Coral Springs, in Broward County, which came in at No. 358 out of 400 cities ranked. (Only cities with populations of more than 75,000 were ranked.)

Some criminologists question the findings, saying the methodology is unfair. Greg Scarbro, unit chief of the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, said the FBI also discourages using the data for these types of rankings, according to an Associated Press story.

Read all the rankings here.