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A 72-year-old from Rhode Island has been accused of sexually abusing a child in a lazy river at an Orlando, Florida, resort, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

William Francis Chatel faces charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under 12 years of age.

The first incident happened on March 9 when the girl said a man, later identified by police as Chattel, came up to the child and assaulted her at least twice over the course of her family’s stay at the resort, reporters said in the article. The child later reported the incidents to a parent who allegedly filmed him attempting to swim up to two other unaccompanied children in the lazy river.

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A program meant to enforce school bus laws was met with outrage from thousands of drivers who were issued citations and prompted a response from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office.

As of Friday, March 7, the program was suspended for citations given to those who passed school buses on roads with a median, according to a statement from Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, who took office in January 2025.

“When I became Sheriff, I ordered a review of the program,” Cordero Stutz said in the post Tuesday, March 11 via X. “The review led to me announcing last Friday the suspension of median enforcement citations.”

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A small plane crash-landed in an emergency at a field near an elementary school in Miramar Wednesday, according to WSVN in Miami.

The incident happened just after 1 p.m. near Coconut Palm Elementary School. Two people were on board but were not injured. While the plane did sustain some damage, the school’s property did not.

The school did not go on lockdown when the aircraft – a Piper PA-28, a plane typically used for flight training, air taxi and personal use – landed.

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A substitute teacher is accused of asking multiple students in her elementary school’s classroom to hit another child, then allowing the beating to take place.

Geanene Che’rrie White, 57, was charged March 1 with one count of child abuse and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. White’s child abuse charge is a third-degree felony that, if convicted, could result in a five-year prison sentence and/or a $5,000 fine. Contributing to the delinquency of a minor is a first-degree misdemeanor that can carry a penalty of up to one year in jail, a year of probation and/or a $1,000 fine.

The incident happened while White was subbing for a class at YMCA Tiger Academy, an elementary school in Jacksonville, Florida, on Feb. 12. As she was asking the class to separate into small groups to complete their work, one student did not cooperate.

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A Detroit medical examiner concluded that two unhoused children found dead in their family’s van died from carbon monoxide and not the cold, as authorities initially believed.

The official cause of death for the children, 9-year-old Darnell Currie Jr. and 2-year-old A’millah Currie, was certified Wednesday. On Feb. 10, the children were found unresponsive in the family van by their mother after the vehicle stopped running. The children, their mother, their grandmother, two siblings and their mother’s sibling were allegedly living in the van at the time, according to reporting from The Detroit Free Press.

The five children in the van ranged in age from 2 to 13 years old.

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A Miami detective shot a man at an apartment complex in West Miami-Dade County Wednesday night while conducting a “proactive detail” with a multi-agency task force, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

The incident happened around 10 p.m. at 9599 Fontainebleau Blvd. Neither the man nor the detective, who investigates robberies, have been named as of Thursday.

The man is expected to be OK, a Miami Police Department spokesperson told the newspaper. The detective was not injured in the shooting.

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The three-week-long trial in the case of an American orphanage founder accused of sexually abusing multiple boys in Haiti ended Thursday with a guilty verdict.

Michael Geilenfeld, 73, of Colorado, was found guilty on six counts of engaging in illicit sexual contact with minors in a foreign place and one count of traveling from Miami to Haiti for that purpose Thursday in Miami federal court. He faces up to 30 years in prison on each of the charges, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

Geilenfeld was previously offered a plea deal to shorten his sentence but rejected it.

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A deadly listeria outbreak has been linked to frozen supplement shakes present at long-term care facilities.

The outbreak of Listeria, a bacterial infection that can cause nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, has been connected to frozen supplement shakes sold in 4-ounce cartons under the brands Lyons ReadyCare and Sysco Imperial. As of Monday morning, the shakes have been linked to the deaths of at least 11 people. These products were made by Prairie Farms Dairy at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, facility.

The best-by dates on the allegedly affected products range from 02/21/2025 to 02/21/2026. If a business owner or corporation believes they are in possession of the recalled shakes, they can return them to the seller for a refund or throw them out, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

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The father of a 15-year-old boy who is accused of killing three children and a woman in a high-speed crash now faces felony charges for allowing the unlicensed teen take his car, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

Richard Ferguson, 68, was charged Thursday with four counts of vehicular manslaughter in connection with the 2023 fatal crash. This is a second-degree felony that, if convicted, could carry up to 15 years in prison and/or up to $10,000 in fines.

The State Attorney’s Office also issued an arrest warrant for the teen, though it was not immediately clear whether or not he had been arrested as of Friday morning. He has yet to be named by authorities.

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A teacher with the Broward County School District is facing felony charges after allegedly soliciting an 11th grader, police say.

Lem McKinney, 40, of Broward County, was charged with a second-degree felony Tuesday after police said he solicited a student to engage in sexual conduct via social media. If convicted of the charge, penalties could include a fine of up to $10,000 and/or up to 15 years in prison.

McKinney was a social science teacher at J.P. Taravella High School, a public school located in Coral Springs.

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