Three youth football coaches and a 14-year-old player have been criminally charged with assaulting a referee in last weekend's videotaped brawl at a game in southwest Florida.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said Friday that all four will face a felony charge of battery on a sports official. If convicted they could face up to four years in prison.

The incident was captured on video Saturday in a game between 13- and 14-year-old players. It got national attention this week when the video was turned over to the sheriff's office and released to the media.

The video shows the referee, 41-year-old Jayme Ream, scuffling with the coaches over a call and then being tackled by the 14-year-old Sarasota Gators player.

The team has been kicked out of the league.

Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight says a two-week effort to crack down on metal thefts and burglaries resulted in the arrest of 62 people, the recovery of 2 vehicles, 2 trailers and 21 hundred pounds of metals.

Such crimes are a huge problem in Sarasota County.

"Operation Meltdown" focused on two patterns: the theft of metals from air conditioners, light poles, and home siding that are taken to recyclers in exchange for cash; and daytime burglaries where suspects break into homes to steal jewelry and items to be sold to either pawn shops or gold buyers.

Knight blamed criminal's drug addictions rather than the economy. He intends to ask Sarasota County to pass an updated Second Hand Dealer ordinance to deter the situation. 

Overall crime was down nearly 7-percent in the City of Fort Myers last year…violent crime was down nearly 15-percent…which might seem counterintuitive during a serious recession. But Fort Myers Police Chief Doug Baker told WGCU’s Mike Kiniry that’s not necessarily the case.

One year has passed since a Haitian national named Mesac Damas allegedly killed his wife and five children in Naples. Police say the couple had a history of domestic violence. The incident shook the Southwest Florida Haitian community - as Damas was one of their own. For the Healthy State Collaborative, WGCU’s Farah Dosani reports on how it made them reflect on views within their culture that have allowed domestic violence to silently occur and escalate within the community.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month, so the Healthy State Collaborative is focused on domestic abuse issues. Among those is the question of escape from an abuser.

Dalia Colón has been looking into how technology can make that escape more difficult. Joshua Stewart interviewed her about a Pasco County woman who got out of an abusive relationship -- but whose ex-boyfriend continues to harass her over the internet.

There's more about this woman’s story and advice for thwarting a potential cyberstalker at HealthyState.org.

The Coalition for a Drug Free Southwest Florida put on its annual Drug House Odyssey this week in Cape Coral.  The mission is to show the dangers of underage drinking and drug use. A couple hundred parents and their kids visited the Cape Christian Fellowship church in Cape Coral for a heart wrenching and terrifying experience.  WGCU’s Luis Hernandez was there too and has this report.

An Immokalee man is in federal custody on charges related to the enslavement of a teenage Guatemalan girl smuggled into the U.S. in 2007. Francisco Domingo faces ten years in prison without parole and a 250 thousand dollar fine with more charges pending. The Guatemalan teen alleges Domingo forced her into field labor and sexual servitude.  Domingo’s federal detention hearing took place Monday. WGCU’s John Davis spoke with News-Press reporter Amy Bennett Williams who’s been investigating the story since Domingo’s arrest last week.

Americans
are giving millions of dollars to help the victims of the Haiti
earthquake.  But there are scammers out there who want to take
advantage of people’s generosity.  WGCU’s Luis Hernandez.

A
Fort Myers man is facing fraud charges for using Craigslist to take
more than 16-thousand dollars from at least ten victims.  WGCU’s Luis
Hernandez reports.

Members
of Florida’s statewide taskforce on human trafficking will meet for the
first time this week in Miami to evaluate the scope of the problem, and
implement a plan to better identify victims and prosecute offenders. 
WGCU’s John Davis reports.