VOLUME 4 ISSUE 30
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Peter Pan at OCT
JULY 28 - AUGUST 3, 2023
Ocala loses domestic violence and sexual assault resources
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Area nonprofits welcome generous donations Several local charities are the beneficiaries of more than $5 million from the Cathy D. Perry Trust. checks in various amounts, sometimes presented in an oversized format, in memory of his mom. Among the stops were Kimberly’s Center for Child Protection, Hospice of Marion County and the Humane Society of Marion County, along with a visit to the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County, where they made a presentation to the Royal Dames for Cancer Research, Inc., of which she was a member for 17 years. Other local beneficiaries included the Voices for Change Animal League (VOCAL), Marion Therapeutic Riding Association, Final Furlong, Horse Farms Forever, Interfaith Emergency Services, Sheltering Hands and the Junior League of Ocala. Donations also are going to the Duke University Brain Tumor Cancer Center, Florida Thoroughbred Charities, Thoroughbred Charities of America and the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance Foundation, among others.
By Kristine Crane kristine@ocalagazette.com
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fter nearly five decades of providing services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, Creative Services, Inc., an Ocalabased not-for-profit, is closing its operations, a move the agency’s founder said is being driven by “personal vendettas.’’ The closure, effective Aug. 1, comes after a year of investigations by the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office, United Way of Marion County, and the Florida Department of Children and Families. Ultimately, suspended funding from both United Way and a string of private donors forced the closure, said Dr. Judy Wilson, who founded both services in 1975. “As of August, the outreach staff will be laid off,” Wilson said, adding, “’We will pay the staff until all the women have been relocated.” Wilson said 10 women have already been successfully relocated, and that she is working with DCF to relocate the 29 who remain, either locally or to their families in other parts of the country. “I’m not going to abandon the women at the shelter,” she said. Wilson, 79, had been executive director of the Mental Health Association in Marion County in the 1970s and she created CSI because the association needed a new project to provide services that had been lacking in the community. While she said CSI has had its ups and downs over the decades, the past couple of years have been particularly challenging. In late October 2022, Robert Haight, the CEO of United Way of Marion County, performed a site visit at the CSI shelters. This led United Way to suspend funding, based on safety and accounting concerns. “I personally did not believe that the facilities as I saw them that day were appropriate,” Haight said. According to a Marion County Sheriff ’s Office Incident Report from Nov. 1, 2022, Haight said he had stopped receiving CSI reports in June 2022, and that CSI said this was because of “staff turnover and COVID-19.” In mid-February, a special investigations team from DCF performed its own site visit, and a month later threatened a “hostile takeover.” In March, an independent reviewer hired by the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence to perform an annual review of CSI’s sexual assault services recommended decertification of that program based on findings that the board was not following its own bylaws and annual operational reviews, specifically of a financial nature, were not taking place. CSI had appealed FCASV’s See Domestic, page A3
Diannah Perry is greeted by shelter dog, Squirrel, as she and her husband, Brandon Perry donate a check for $740,120.50 for the new Animal Center in honor of Cathy Perry at the Humane Society of Marion County in Ocala on Tuesday, July 25, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.
By Susan Smiley-Height susan@magnoliamediaco.com
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athy D. Perry always had an affinity for dogs, especially West Highland Terriers and Scottish Terriers, or, more familiarly, Westies and Scotties. She loved all kinds of animals, as well as traveling
and gardening. She and her husband, Roger, owned pet food supply stores, with their only child, son Brandon, growing up in the industry. Cathy also loved moving to Ocala and beginning a new chapter in life. Now, three years after her passing on Feb. 1, 2020, many nonprofit organizations in
the community she adored are receiving donations through the Cathy D. Perry Trust. According to Brandon Perry, 29 charities locally and nationally are receiving grants totaling in excess $5 million. Brandon and his wife, Diannah, were visiting many of the area nonprofits last week and this week to deliver
Family history
According to Brandon, his father worked for a feed business in Ohio called the Weisheimer Company, which had been around since 1910. “It was mainly wholesale, with a tiny retail spot. He worked there through college in the late ‘60s all the way through the ‘70s. The owner was elderly, and an opportunity came up to buy him out. My mother and father, with the help of a couple of See Generous, page A2
Married Ocala couple plead guilty to Jan. 6 crimes By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
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married couple from Ocala, the last two Marion County residents to be charged with crimes relating to the 2021 Capitol riot, pleaded guilty to their crimes on Monday, according to the Department of Justice. Jamie and Jennifer Buteau, 50 and 46, are two of six people from Marion County who were arrested for their involvement in the riot, when a mob of protestors forcefully entered the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Jamie Buteau pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, which is a felony. His wife, Jennifer Buteau, pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, which is a misdemeanor, according to the DOJ. On the day of Jan. 6, the Buteaus were captured on video surveillance entering the Capitol building at about 2:25 p.m. through a broken door in the Senate Wing, according to United States District Court documents for the District of Columbia.
About five minutes later, Jamie Buteau threw a chair at Capitol police officers who were retreating from the rioters. He was captured on CCTV carrying the chair, then pulling his arm back to throw the chair, then the chair is seen on video bouncing off a wall and striking an officer, according to court documents. The pair were partly identified to the FBI by a tipster who recognized the pair from an HBO documentary titled “QAnon: Into the Storm,” where both Jamie and Jennifer Buteau appeared on camera and identified themselves. An anonymous tipster who said they were a family member of Jennifer Buteau testified that she was involved with QAnon, saying that Buteau had been interviewed on the news as a QAnon member before, according to court documents. The four other Marion County File photo
residents involved in the riot have either already been sentenced or have entered pleas and are awaiting sentencing. Kelly Meggs, a 54-year-old from Dunnellon, was the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia group. Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for seditious conspiracy, according to the DOJ. His wife, Connie Meggs, 60, was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, plus two other felonies. She is awaiting sentencing.
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