Arrested US Rep: Another Florida TV Anchor Gone Wild!

Florida. We all know it’s the home of swamps, humidity, old people and the most depraved crime stories this side of the 21st century. What you might not know, and what comes as a total non-shock, is that this phallic-shaped land mass hanging off the lower 48 has a penchant for producing scandalous TV personalities.

The Sunshine State has quite an impressive list, recently welcoming a freshman congressman to its ranks of lowlifes when Republican Trey Radel was charged with cocaine possession earlier this week.

Let us know what you think: Is something wrong with Florida?

Before winning his seat in 2012, Radel worked as a TV reporter and anchor. His new scandal prompted us to take a look back at some our favorite Florida TV characters gone wild. Sometimes they get arrested for carrying a concealed weapon on school grounds, taking a U-turn and getting belligerent with cops, or driving with a suspended license. Sometimes the cameramen get stabbed at unruly town halls or get arrested for fights with their girlfriends. And at other times, much more sordid affairs go down.

Rick Sanchez

This ex-CNN anchor actually got his start as an anchor for WSVN Miami. When he was lead anchor in 1990, Sanchez was involved in a drunk driving accident that left a pedestrian paralyzed. He was charged with a DUI for a blood alcohol level of 0.235 percent—more than twice the Florida limit—but he was not charged with causing the accident, as the other party was also drunk and had jumped out of another car. Still, the incident was hard for Sanchez to shake, especially when the pedestrian died five years later in an assisted living facility. (But not too hard to shake—MSNBC hired Sanchez years later, and then CNN gave him a job.)

After six years on CNN, Sanchez was fired for trotting out the old Jews-run-the-media theory, adding that they cannot be “an oppressed minority.”

Kristyn Caddell

The WPTV-Channel 5 reporter lost her job at the station in 2011 after the National Enquirer published photos of her out and about with the married Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator fame.

Both Hansen’s and Caddell’s careers took a hit after news of their alleged affair broke, with Caddell saying no networks would hire her, and Hansen losing a possible shot at replacing Ann Curry on Dateline.

Bill Kamal

Bill Kamal was chief meteorologist at WSVN-Channel 7 in Fort Lauderdale for 10 years before he was busted for attempting to solicit sex from a minor in 2004.

In a plot very similar to To Catch a Predator, Kamal pulled into the parking lot of a convenience store in South Florida, expecting to meet a 14-year-old boy he had first “met” on the Internet. Instead, it was an undercover detective and Kamal was arrested and fired from the station within 24 hours. Local Florida stations seem to have a high bar for dismissal: Before the web sex sting, Kamal had been arrested twice for drunk driving, but managed to keep his job at Channel 7.

Kamal served a four-year prison sentence before moving to a halfway house in Philadelphia. He reportedly now works in Boston in the hospitality industry.

Rob Lopicola

 

Two years after Kamal’s arrest, another South Florida “star weatherman” quit his job at WPTV-Channel 5. No one was sure why until 2012, when Rob Lopicola was arrested and charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor. The mother of a teenage boy came home to find Lopicola in the shower and called the cops.

Lopicola was accused of performing oral sex on a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old (the age of consent in Florida is 18). He claims he thought the boys were 18, but investigators say Lopicola posed himself as 18 when seeking sex on Craigslist. GossipExtra.com published alleged text messages from the meteorologist, including the rather horrifying message, “I like being a dad to my bd thats why I like young. And 15 is perfect baby. 10th or 9th grade?” In addition to his TV work, Lopicola worked as a personal trainer, bartender and stripper in a gay club.

On Nov. 5 of this year, the now 43-year-old pleaded guilty to a third offense: attempted sexual battery of a child.

Darryl Tardy

This Jacksonville anchor was caught in a “park sex sweep” back in 2004, when police busted seven men soliciting sex in Westside Regional Park. First Coast News should have done a more thorough background check on Tardy, who was arrested four years earlier in Rochester, New York, in a similar sting and charged with public lewdness.

Michael Koolick

It’s not just sex! But it is another meteorologist. CBS4 weatherman Michael Koolick tried to get Lortab from a Miami doctor in 2010, and when the doctor denied him, Koolick tried to fake a prescription using sophisticated FedEx Kinko’s technology. He was charged with four counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, trafficking hydrocodone and attempting to obtain a controlled substance by fraud. His bail was set at $75,000, in comparison with the $9,000 bail posted by George Zimmerman on his most recent assault and battery charge.

Lynn Gordon

 

This WSVN-Channel 7 reporter (notice a pattern?) was charged with a DUI in 2008, and tested positive for cocaine. She also had prescription pills without a prescription.

Lisa Hayward

This WSFL morning anchor also got slapped with a DUI in 2010, after crashing her car into a tree in Pompano Beach.

Rob Schmitt

This one wasn’t as clear-cut: The WPLG reporter was arrested on battery charges, but the charges were dismissed two months later for lack of evidence. But not before he got his own mug shot to add to the infamous Florida cabal.

We think the long line of mug shots speaks for itself. Florida, you got some ‘splainin to do.