PALM COAST OBSERVER
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PalmCoastObserver.com
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
BRIEFS Sexual predator sentenced to 23 years A Mobile, Alabama, man is in the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility awaiting a transfer to state prison, where he’s been sentenced to spend 23 years for sex crimes he committed against a teenage girl. A judge sentenced 44-year-old Aaron Duane Carpenter on Jan. 27 for the three felony sex offenses, which dated back to 2018. One of the incidents took place at a Flagler County hotel on Sept. 11, 2020. Four days after the attack, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office was contacted and the Major Case Unit opened an investigation. Detectives learned that Carpenter had sexually battered the victim and had also sexually abused the victim several times in 2018. Carpenter later admitted to detectives that he had sexually abused the victim. Upon completion of his 23-year sentence, Carpenter will be placed on lifetime sex offender probation and designated as a sexual predator. In addition to his sentence for crimes in Florida, Carpenter also has similar charges pending in Alabama.
organ species and is often fatal. The disease causes abnormal behavior, and locals who report it to Animal Control often mistake it for rabies. “If anybody calls and says there’s a sick one or an injured [raccoon], we will respond, and the calls are definitely up,” Flagler Humane Society executive director Amy WadeCarotenuto said. “[The animals] end up coming to us. When they’re sick like that, we really don’t have any choice but to euthanize them.” Over the last two months, the Flagler Humane Society has euthanized 18 sick raccoons — 15 in January, and three in December, Wade-Carotenuto said. There had been no raccoons euthanized in January 2021 or December 2020. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office on Jan. 25 posted on its Facebook page that the FCSO’s Agriculture Unit has seen more sick raccoons around the county, and that locals who encounter one should keep their distance and contact Animal Control or the FCSO’s non-emergency line. The Sheriff’s Office, using a grant through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, tested several sick raccoons during a previous outbreak; all came back with canine distemper, not rabies, according to an FCSO spokeswoman. People should keep their distance
Increase in raccoons with suspected canine distemper
The Flagler Humane Society is seeing rising numbers of raccoons with suspected canine distemper, a viral disease that affects multiple
Courtesy photo
A (hopefully healthy) raccoon.
COPS CORNER
from wild animals and should not feed wildlife, Wade-Carotenuto said. Keep your pet’s food inside: Food for dogs or cats can also attract infected raccoons that could contaminate the food or bowl, passing the virus to other wild animals or to pets. Simply seeing a raccoon during daytime isn’t in itself cause for concern, and the Flagler Humane Society doesn’t respond to regular nuisance wildlife calls, Wade-Carotenuto added. Canine distemper is transmitted through contact with an infected animal or its waste or bodily secretions, including saliva, and tends to appear in five-to-seven-year cycles. Canine distemper is not known to pose a direct threat to humans. Symptoms include watery discharge or a crusty buildup around the eyes and nose, hardened footpads, coughing and sneezing, diarrhea, confusion, stumbling, aggression, aimless wandering, fits of chewing, convulsions and paralysis. The disease can cause permanent neurological damage in animals that survive it. Bites or scratches from a sick raccoon or other wild animal should still be treated as if the animal may potentially have rabies, and should be reported to a doctor immediately for evaluation and potential postexposure rabies vaccination. Palm Coast residents can report a sick raccoon to Animal Control at 386-986-2520. Other Flagler County residents can call the Flagler Humane Society at 386-246-8612. To report a sick raccoon during non-business hours, call the Sheriff’s Office’s non-emergency line at 386-313-4911.
JAN. 8
POOR PLANNING 6:51 p.m. State Road 11 at County Road 304 Possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting an officer. A deputy was stationary at an intersection and noticed a pickup truck hauling a large trailer with no license plate, tail lights, brake lights or signal lights. The trailer’s load was not secured, and items were tumbling into the road. The deputy conducted a traffic stop. When the deputy approached the truck, the pickup’s driver tried to conceal a burnt piece of folded aluminum by shoving it inside a day planner. The deputy demanded the planner, but the man initially refused, then opened the planner, crumpled up the tin foil and tossed it out the window onto the road. Deputies detained the man and found the piece of foil, which tested positive for narcotics residue. The man was arrested.
JAN. 13
LEGAL ADVICE FROM YOUTUBE 1:16 p.m. State Road 100 at West County Road 302 No Florida driver’s license, resisting an officer. A deputy conducting traffic enforcement saw a pickup truck heading east
on State Road 100 with no license plate. The deputy conducted a traffic stop and demanded the driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance. But the driver, a 32-year-old man, only lowered his window two inches and said that he was “traveling” and “not engaged in commerce” and therefore didn’t need a driver’s license or license plate. The deputy told the driver that he was giving him a lawful order, but the man continued to argue until the deputy used a spring punch to break the driver’s side window, haul the man out of the truck and arrest him. When the deputy asked the man where he’d gotten the idea that he didn’t need a license plate or driver’s license, the man said he’d heard on YouTube that it was legal to drive without them. He was taken to the county jail.
JAN. 27
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN ... 10:45 p.m. First block of Kingswood Drive Trespass after warning. People at a fast food restaurant called the Sheriff’s Office after seeing two men pulling on car door handles in the restaurant’s parking lot. A deputy found the men and confronted them. The deputy let them go only to see one of the men walk onto the property of a convenience store from which he’d previously been trespassed. The deputy arrested him.
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FLAGLERSHERIFF.COM
Terry Nightingale
Gold Choice Senior Communities
Director of Community Relations palmcoastdcr@mygoldchoice.com
3830 Old Kings Road
386.387.9565
mygoldchoice.com
Palm Coast, FL 32164 License # AL 13591 facebook.com/goldchoicepalmcoast
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