Judicial Candidate’s Hit & Run or Honest Mistake?
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Judicial candidate John Howes swears he knows nothing about a hit & run accident on October 4 in Fort Lauderdale
But Howes’ name is listed on an accident report as fleeing from the scene.
Ebony Shavon Green of Lauderhill told Fort Lauderdale Police that she was rear ended on Northwest 7th Street in Fort Lauderdale by a Chevrolet Corvette.
The driver of the first car fled the scene and Green was unable to get the license plate number.
But Green told police she recognized the driver as “an attorney at the Broward County Courthouse John Howes who is currently running for judge,” according to the report.
Green described as an “older model red corvette.” She described the driver as a bearded “older white male” who is partially bald.
Howes does drive a 1977 red Corvette. He is an older white partially bald guy with a beard.
When contacted by Browardbeat.com, he denied knowing anything about the accident. He said he had never been contacted by police.
Howes called back 10 minutes later and asked for the report’s complaint number.
“I have no clue. I have no clue what this is about,” Howes said. “I have an old fire engine red Corvette. It is a 1977. It has a distinctive antique license tag.
“I have a safe drivers license. I haven’t had an accident forever. I haven’t been in any accident.
“I do have a very long front end and sometimes people think I am on their bumper when I’m not,” he said. “Do you believe that at this point in the campaign, I would hit & run for a minor fender bender?”
Minor, indeed. The police said it caused $50 damage, which consisted of some paint transferred from the red car to the bumper of Green’s 2008 Infiniti.
Green could not be reached for comment.
Howes is running against John Fry for Broward County Court Group 1.
Here is a portion of the police report:
October 12th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
John Fry is showing his worst side here with his smear. Shame on him.
October 12th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
The Phantom Posted this to JAAB a few weeks ago after the accident in Tamarac where a car crashed through the inside of Noshers Deli.
Who knew he was psychic and could see the actual future.
October 12th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
How did someone get hold of this report? I ask because I thought you couldn’t obtain accident reports for 60 days, unless you were involved in the accident.
October 13th, 2010 at 7:56 am
The crash report is missing a page.
The rest of the report actually goes further and says that John Fry came along, drove her to the hospital and comforted her and her family in their time of grief.
October 13th, 2010 at 8:42 am
I saw the same thing 7:56 a.m. And I saw Lori Parrish and her boy Ron Cacciatore riding in the back, telling him which way to turn the same way they are runnig his campaign.
FROM BUDDY:
Obviously this is a joke. Lori and Ron were not in the car!
October 13th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Ebony is known to be an honest person. I seriously doubt she would risk arrest for filing a false police report to help another candidate. If he didnt do anything, than John will cooperate with police, let his car be examined and show any recent repair records. Even though he didnt say he would do those things so far, that is what he needs to do.
October 13th, 2010 at 9:32 am
simple. inspect the ‘vette.
October 13th, 2010 at 10:54 am
I saw the whole thing. Howes was plowing at her at 300 mph! He would have done serious damage.
Then out of nowhere a man came flying out of the sky. He was wearing a newly painted red cape and a big “F” on his chest with a picture of some fried eggs.
And he yelled out “Have no fear! Fry Man is here!”
With herculean strength, he pushed back Howes’ car. The cars didn’t even touch. But some paint from his red cape got on Ebony Shavon Green’s car.
See, you have an iWitness!
October 13th, 2010 at 10:55 am
PS I was voting for Fry.
Now I’m voting for Howes!
October 13th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
The real story here is how low some people with go to get elected. Maybe this was just a person grudge that Ebony Shavon Green had against Howes. But Fry hasn’t denounced this.
October 13th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
Why doesnt someone call up this Ebony chick and get her side of the story?
FROM BUDDY: She didn’t return calls to her home.
October 13th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I am told that this is not the first time that Ebony has been rear ended. Last time it was my good friend Ivory Johnson who was the guilty party.
October 13th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
List of candidates who rear ended Ebony Shavon Green:
Ronald Reagan in ’84
Mike Dukakis in ’88 (See supported
H.W. that year)
Al Gore ’92 (She was disappointed that Tipper was overlooked for vice)
H. Ross Perot in 96 (when she got really sick of him)
Charlie Crist
The ice cream man who sold her a melted toffuti bar!
John Kerry in ’04 (She supported Wes Clark)
Madonna (Lousy concert she paid for)
Loraine Bobbins (Self explanatory)
The artist formerly known as Prince.
And John Howes.
October 13th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
I am a former adjuster. According to the scanned image of the traffic crash report, “Vehicle 1 [John Howes’ vehicle] front collided with Vehicle 2’s [Ebony Green’s vehicle’s] rear transferring paint onto Vehicle 2’s bumper.” So that means the officer found the paint transfer – damning evidence.
There’s an investigative agency case # 10-107428 right on the scan. The County Code is 10 and the City Code is 38. The FDHSMV # is 91395970. The accident occurred Oct 4, 2010 at 5:32pm and she contacted 911 on Oct 4, 2010 at 5:32pm. The police unit arrived at 6:00pm. So she reported it as soon as it happened right to the same minute.
If she was going to lie about it and set Howes up, wouldn’t she already know the license plate number? All she’d have to do is check prior to staging a crash and copy the tag down. Then she’d have perfect recall of it, when the police came. That she honestly admitted she didn’t see the tag sounds genuine, she didn’t need to embellish.
Usually with hit and run accidents, the police take a report at the scene and then do follow up work to locate the alleged defendant. I doubt they had Howes on speed dial at the station.
How did Howes claim to not know what happened in the accident, get a report number, call back in ten minutes and say he wouldn’t flee from a minor fender bender? He couldn’t obtain that information in 10 minutes, he’d never even seen a report? (Assuming Nevins didn’t tell him that in the phone call.)
Nevins could be arrested for trying to pass around a counterfeit police document if it was true that this report isn’t genuine. The information is easily verifiable with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. I doubt anyone is going to ruin his or her career and go to jail for a bogus election smear.
The reason why Howes says he hasn’t spoke to the police? Probably because he hasn’t returned their messages and inquiries.
Journalists have to verify facts, its their job. You don’t make damning accusations like that, without verified information. Sorry Howes supporters, maybe you think the public will believe anything you say in defense to confuse them.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:20 am
Well Animus,
Maybe she lifted paint from Howes’ car before.
Heck, if was spur of the moment, how did she know it was Howes?
Don’t know who to believe but it sure is fishy and I don’t think Howes is that stupid. No way to tell for sure but your “damning” evidence is quite flimsy to anyone looking at it objectively.
Not sure who to believe. Can we write in Ebony Shavon Green on the ballot?
October 14th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Let’s not forget one thing. During the first round of voting one judicial candidate’s car got keyed and another candidate’s wife had her tires slashed. Wouldn’t put it past hateful staff in the courthouse and I wouldn’t put it past that bunch to make up a story that’s hard to disprove about a candidate for judge who they don’t like.
October 14th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Nut job Bernstein claims about his wife’s tires being slashed were totally unfounded. His wife drove 20 miles to get home on slashed tires, yeah right. Like his candidacy the tire claim was a fraud and desperate cry for attention.
October 14th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
I’m sorry for making up such a story. I just want to get your vote. How did I do?
Signed: Candidate Fry
October 14th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
I never cease to be amazed by the human imagination. People would rather believe the incredible, than consider the reasonable.
First everyone was all on this, “its a bogus police report” kick, because this can’t be real. But now that the police report seems real, its the “well they staged a paint transfer and filed a false police report” to sabotage Howes trick.
As for the comment as to why someone would happen to see the driver and know who he is. Um duh, if you’re running for office and everyone either has seen you around or seen ads and meet and greets, how are you not going to get spotted? This didn’t happen in the dead of night, hello? Afternoon? You’re the people that people will notice. Not some guy from up the street that no one knows or cares about.
Everyone is giving Howes a LOT of credit, as if politicians aren’t morons. Or at least that we’ve never seen a politician make a dumb mistake. EVER. Guess we don’t have any morons as mayors, commissioners, legislators or Congressman. Our country is in great shape. No politicians ever make dumb moves.
No politicians EVER get caught screwing up. They are PERFECT, always. Wait, then why is America going through issues? Must be some other reason, the MENSA-member politicians are running this place like a well oiled machine. I think they are next going to invent cars that run on powdered water, and achieve world peace and Howes is working on the blue prints.
October 14th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
One last thing, if you think this evidence isn’t damning, good.
There are a whole bunch of criminals locked up in jail on evidence less than this. Circumstantial evidence. Six pack photo identifications of people that no one is familiar with, unlike a popular candidate for office. Questionable jailhouse snitch testimony based on sweet plea deals.
Of all the people sitting in jail worldwide, America has 25% of those people, and we’re beating China at the number of people locked up. We would convict a ham sandwich and lock it away if we could.
The only difference between those people and John Howes, is no one knows them, and no one cares about them, they’re poor, they’re not running for judge, but they stay locked up they stay on “flimsy” evidence. Guys like John Howes, they’re untouchable.
So here’s the key go open their jail cells, since their evidence is flimsy too, and let’s see how society really looks then.
October 16th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Ebony is a lot more alert than I am. I have been practicing law in Broward for 15 years, and I follow the judicial elections. I could not pick Howes out of a line-up. The fact that Ebony can, and the fact that she recalls his name, tells me she must really follow politics. How many of Howes’ campaign materials even have his photo on them?