How the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has Failed the Residents of its Sector 1
I addressed the larger crime problem in Orange County in an earlier story. That analysis covered the county as a whole, but I’d like to focus on the specific issues of certain areas of the county that are particularly neglected by Sheriff Mina and his staff. This article will be looking at Zones 13C and 14A, two contiguous areas of Sector 1 in Orange County. The residents of this area have become frustrated with the Sheriff’s lack of responsiveness and unwillingness and inability to address rising crime in their neighborhoods, sentiments that I catalog in depth in another article. Here, we will look at specific problems in the area and point out deficiencies in policing by OCSO.
For the purposes of full disclosure, I am a lifelong resident of Sector 1 so this is a personal issue for me. I have witnessed firsthand the decline of this area over the years, but it has become much worse since John Mina became Sheriff in 2018. Some residents on the Ring Neighbors app have taken to labeling this area “Crime Hills North” and “Tymber Skan North” — references to a notoriously high crime area and an Orlando condominium complex infamous for crime and violence. The region in question borders troubled Pine Hills, Eatonville, Rosemont, and Fairvilla, but it also shares borders with the comparatively quiet bedroom communities of Maitland and Altamonte Springs. The negative characterization of the area is particularly poignant for long-time residents of Orlando who will recognize some of the well-known and once peaceful neighborhoods in these zones, such as Kingswood Manor and Lockhart.
The OCSO maintains lists of property crimes and robberies on its website that shows a rolling 90 day table of calls broken down by zone. The zones in the area discussed in this story are usually very active on these lists (especially when taking into account that don’t list all crimes, notable violent ones):
While researching this story I took a closer look at the data from the last 90 days (March-May 2020), which happened to coincide with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the county. Even during a global pandemic with most residents on lockdown or in quarantine and with a county-wide curfew in place there were still numerous crimes, including:
- 49 automobile burglaries and 17 stolen vehicles
- 31 structure burglaries (13 commercial, 18 residential)
- 6 robberies (3 commercial, 2 strong arm to person, 1 carjacking)
As you can imagine, if criminals are this active during a lock down and curfew, they are even more active under normal circumstances.
I shared the frustrations of residents of Sector 1 in an earlier story which demonstrated a public perception of a lack of deputy presence and patrols in Zones 13C and 14A and a troubling lack of response to calls for assistance. Criminals know that the police aren’t present or proactive in this area, so they are drawn to it both as residents and when looking for places to commit crimes outside of where they live. According to FDLE COAST, there are multiple career offenders in 13C and 14A. There are also many registered sex offenders:
Statistics from Areavibes and Spurling’s Best Places show how bad the crime is at the heart of the area, Lockhart:
It’s easy to dismiss residents’ claims of the constant sounds of gunfire and accuse them of hyperbole when they talk about how afraid they are in their own homes, but media reports for this area support their concerns:
Children kidnapped and raped, innocents shot, stores robbed, and elderly victims assaulted — this activity should be an immediate concern for the leadership of the Sheriff’s Office…but it apparently isn’t because nothing is being done to address it.
This article has been painting the picture of this troubled area with broad strokes, so let’s look at specific areas of concern.
The first hot spot in the area is a condominium complex in the heart of the area on Forest City Road along the border of 13A and 14C. All of the 12 news headlines I posted above document crimes that occurred within approximately a mile or less from this complex. Local residents know it to be a den of crime and violence, but despite calls to OCSO and other local leaders, the problems there go unaddressed. In addition to being the epicenter of crime in the neighborhood, this complex is run down and in a perpetual state of disrepair. Most units are rented to anyone who will is willing to owners who live far away and are desperate because they can’t sell. In the past year there have been many troubling code enforcement violations including pest and rodent infestations, leaks, mold, and backed up plumbing and sewage. When I checked back in February, there were 19 active code violations in the complex. Many in the neighborhood have plead with county leaders to have the complex condemned, but with no response. Reviews of the complex are particularly revealing, and confirm concerns that the complex is run-down and a source of crime:
A social media search of posts that were geotagged at Magnolia Court confirms the assertion that violence is common there, as in this video on Instagram depicting a large brawl between residents:
While researching local crime information, a Sector 1 resident told me the story of a young man who used to live in the area I’m discussing in this article. He confirmed what many nearby already knew — that there is a large amount of gang activity around the complex and this activity is ignored by the OCSO despite the danger it brings to the area. His attempts to contact someone from OCSO to voice his concerns were ignored for a while, but deputies eventually agreed to meet with him. After waiting for several hours, no one from the Sheriff’s Office ever showed up; dismayed, he gave up and left the area. Imagine his frustration — and the frustration of his fellow Sector 1 residents — when no one from the Sheriff’s Office is willing to listen or do anything to reduce crime in the area.
The frequent gunfire emanating from Magnolia Court is more than just a noise concern for residents of Sector 1; in recent years there have been several murders in the complex:
- In December 2017, 19 year old Matthew Jafari was murdered.
- In October of 2017, Kimonie Norman (20) and Brandon Williams were murdered when someone opened fire with an automatic weapon near a crowded playground in the early afternoon. Apparently the suspect is still unidentified and remains at large.
- In April of 2017, new father Brian Mortensen (32) was killed when a Magnolia Court resident opened fire on a neighbor and Mortensen was hit in the crossfire. He was a contractor doing work on a fence at the complex.
Constant code violations, dilapidated buildings, and frequent crime are a constant reality in this complex and the County and OCSO fail to act. Why?
Another area that is frequently busy with police activity in Zone 13C is the North Orange Blossom Trail (441) corridor in the southwest region of the zone. Police calls are frequent there, and between 2015 and 2019, there were several homicides in the area:
There are homeless camps in the area which seem to have evaded the notice of the nearly non-existent police patrols. Residents have reported at least two — one on Forest City Road and another to the northwest off of the 414. Locals have observed drug use, larceny, and weapons in these camps, but the Sheriff has done nothing.
Auto burglaries are a nightly occurrence in 13C. Sometimes a dozen or more cars on a single block are hit in one night. The OCSO has refused to act on this crime wave, and there are so many that the Sheriff’s Office will often refuse to send a deputy to collect evidence when a resident reports a burglary, telling them to file a report online instead. Since so many residents have security cameras, the culprits are frequently caught on camera. Despite not wearing masks or gloves and having their likenesses recorded on camera, the perpetrators remain at large because the Sheriff’s Office refuses to investigate. Proactive patrols by deputies would likely abate these burglaries since they happen within the same block of time each night, but no obvious action from law enforcement is apparent.
Notably, the only true response to the wave of automobile burglaries took place in October of 2019, when the unmarked car of an Orange County deputy was burglarized.
Residential burglaries are also common in the area, despite the fact that many homes have security bars, cameras, and alarm systems. The criminals are so brazen here that they are known to kick open front doors in broad daylight to rob homes, as seen in this video sent to me by a resident of 13C:
After an extensive review of posts on Nextdoor and Ring Neighbors, I observed that multiple residents have reported squatters trespassing in abandoned homes in 13C and 14A and numerous drug dens, but the Sheriff has ignored those concerns. Among these reports are a cluster of drug dens east of 434 in one subdivision and an abandoned house in 14A that was being used as a drug den. Two residents to the west of 434 also reported two homes being used be squatters for drugs and other criminal activities, but the deputies failed to act there as well.
While we’re on n the subject of squatters in abandoned homes and crimes, residents have advised me of a home west of 434 in 13C that is inhabited by squatters. At least one resident of this home has been reported on Nextdoor and recorded on Ring Neighbors attempting to break into homes in the area; despite multiple please with the Sheriff’s Office to address the issue, residents continue to be ignored.
While attempting to maintain the anonymity of the residents of this troubled area, I have been somewhat vague about reports of crime and claims of negligence by the Sheriff and other local leaders. In an effort to better illustrate specific instances of neglect, I will provide a list of particular examples where the Sheriff and other local leaders have not listened or refused to act on the concerns of the residents of Zones 13C and 14A.
- One resident has made numerous attempts to talk with the OCSO Sector 1 Captain, but he has never responded. She has also spoken to a high ranking deputy in Sector 1, but no progress has resulted from those discussions.
- A resident told me that he reached out to the congressional representative for this area, Val Demings, in October of 2019 via her website. Despite checking the box on her website indicating that he required a reply to his message, he has not heard back from her after 8 months.
- Residents have contacted the County District Commissioner for this area. She has been responsive and helpful, but despite her requests to the Sector leadership at OCSO for this area, residents have not seen increased patrols, no rise in traffic details, and no obvious decrease in crime.
- Sheriff Mina has ignored attempts to reach out to him via social media. His subordinates model this inaccessible behavior — in over a year of being on Nextdoor and Ring Neighbors, my messages to deputies on Nextdoor were ignored and I have only seen one post from a deputy on Ring Neighbors.
- When a resident e-mailed the crime prevention deputy for this Sector, he received an out of office auto reply from her that she would be away on military deployment for several months. The resident contacted the Sgt. she named in her out of office reply and the Sgt. forwarded the resident’s message to another deputy, saying that she would be in touch. The resident never heard back from anyone. It speaks to the lack of crime prevention programs at the OCSO that a high crime area like Sector 1 didn’t have a temporary replacement lined up when their deputy would be away for an extended period, and that they were pawning off her responsibilities on a non-responsive deputy in another high crime sector.
- A resident contacted the Orange County Mayor’s Office in 2019 to complain about the crime in the area and to specifically address the issues at the Magnolia Court Condos. The County Mayor’s Office promised to deploy deputies and code enforcement officers to the complex and follow up afterward. While it appears that deputies and code enforcement were sent to the complex, no one from the Mayor’s Office followed up with the resident.
- When a resident noticed frequent suspicious activity late at night along a canal in the area, he reported his concerns to Orange County. He received a phone response from a county worker telling him that they couldn’t help him and that if he was concerned with trespassers, prowlers, and other suspicious activity along the canal, he should install motion lights and cameras on his property and monitor activity on the adjacent county land himself.
- A contractor parked his work trailer in the front yard of a resident in this area. After noticing that the trailer had been stolen overnight, the contractor called the OCSO. After the deputy arrived to take a report, she noticed that there was a disturbance down the road at Magnolia Court. Her call for assistance to dispatch unanswered, she had to leave the scene of the trailer theft for over 30 minutes to address the disturbance at the apartments. This area lacks sufficient deputies to handle the number of calls they receive, resulting in scenarios like this where a single deputy has to work multiple incidents with little hope for backup.
- Last year after a group of suspects from Magnolia Court opened fire on a pedestrian on a busy street, deputies only started to canvas the neighborhood and search for the suspects a few hours after the incident. The suspects were long gone by then.
- Multiple residents have complained about frequent speeders and reckless driving on several neighborhood roads in the area, but the OCSO has ignored their pleas for traffic enforcement and speed traps in the area. As you can see from this crash data map from FDOT, crashes in the area are not rare:
Despite the many failures to address the problems that the residents of this area face, there have been some beacons of hope. I’d like to address those here. Please note that I am not officially affiliated with the following politicians, candidates, and activists.
- This area falls within Orange County’s District 2. District Commissioner Christine Moore and her staff have been tremendously empathetic and responsive to the concerns of residents in this area. She is passionate about the history and character of the neighborhood and has done the best she can to assist its residents. She has a keen understanding of crime prevention by environmental design and the broken windows strategy, and her efforts have resulted in additional lighting, graffiti cleanup, and other steps to improve the area. Commissioner Moore is a frequent attendee of community meetings in this part of the county, and has met one on one with residents who wanted to share their concerns.
- Candidate for Orange County Sheriff Joe Lopez is very concerned with the crime epidemic in this area, and has listened to concerns from locals far more than the current Sheriff. His grassroots campaign efforts have led him to walk troubled neighborhoods like this one and he has plans for dealing with the high crime of areas like this one.
- Local criminal justice advocate Rafael Zaldivar has been supportive and empathetic about our area’s problems.
Even if you’re not a resident of the area we’ve covered in this article, you might be able to help us. Here are some people you can contact; feel free to share the articles on my Medium site with them and let them know that the residents of this area need them to act now.
- Orange County Sheriff John Mina: John.Mina@ocfl.net
- Orange County Sheriff Sector 1 Captain Joe Carter: Joe.Carter@ocfl.net
- Orange County Sheriff Sector 1 Crime Prevention Deputy DFC Victoria Santos: Victoria.santos@ocfl.net
- Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings: mayor@ocfl.net
- Congressional Representative Val Demings: https://demingsforms.house.gov/contact/
- Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: governorron.desantis@eog.myflorida.com
If you are an Orange County resident and a registered voter, please consider voting for these candidates or donating to their campaigns:
- Joe Lopez for Sheriff: https://www.joelopezsheriff.com/
- Ryan Williams for State Attorney: https://www.ryanforjustice.com/
