DMB cancels due to COVID
The Dave Matthews
Band has canceled its West Palm Beach concerts for this weekend after a band member came down with COVID-19.
The Grammy-winning band, whose popular hits include “Crash Into Me” and “The Space Between,” was scheduled to perform Saturday and Sunday nights at the ITHINK Financial Amphitheatre, an outdoor venue.
“Due to a positive Covid case inside the band, we must regretfully postpone tonight and tomorrow nights’ appearances in West Palm Beach, FL.,” the band posted on its website. “We are incredibly sorry to all our fans who planned to spend the holiday weekend with us. Please hold on to your tickets as we work towards a rescheduled date.”
The band did not identify the member.
It’s not the first time COVID-19 has impacted the band. In November, saxophonist Jeff Coffin contracted the virus and couldn’t perform a twonight run at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows went on, with saxophonist Ben Golder-Novick filling in, according to reports.
A September concert in Durant, Oklahoma, was canceled, with the band tweeting, “it was not possible to implement the band’s COVID-19 policies in this venue.”
The three South Florida counties and seven other counties in the state now have high COVID community levels with much of the rest of Florida rising to medium levels, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
All of the pandemic’s key indicators have been on the rise since late March as new subvariants of omicron work through the state. Positivity rates across South Florida are at their highest levels — at or above 20 percent — in nearly four months. And COVID-related hospitalizations statewide are at a nearly threemonth high.
Baltimore, rapper Young Moose settle
A court settlement calls for the city of Baltimore to pay $300,000 to resolve claims that police officers planted drugs on a rapper known as Young Moose.
The Baltimore Sun reports that the city’s spending board is poised to approve the settlement payment at a meeting next week. Lawyers for the city reached the agreement with Kevron Evans on May 10, but city officials will vote Wednesday on whether to approve it.
The city already has paid more than $10 million to settle lawsuits against officers who served on a task force notorious for its members corruption.
Evans sued several Baltimore police officers, including a former detective, Daniel Hersl, who served on the infamous Gun Trace Task Force. Hersl is serving 18 years in federal prison after being convicted in 2018 of charges stemming from a corruption investigation of the task force. He was accused of stealing money before and after he joined the task force.
Evans’ lawsuit accuses officers of applying for warrants based on false allegations and illegally arresting him.
The Sun said it couldn’t reach lawyers for Evans or Hersl for comment on Friday,
Evans said the officers’ persistent harassment robbed him of lucrative career opportunities and tarnished his reputation. Evans was arrested right before he was supposed to go on stage for a performance at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office vacated Evans’ conviction in 2020 during the review of hundreds of cases involving the convicted and disgraced Gun Trace Task Force officers.
Actor Josh Charles portrays Hersl in the HBO series “We Own This City,” which is adapted from a book written by former Sun reporter Justin Fenton.
Florida gallery owner arrested for fraud
A Florida gallery owner has been arrested on federal charges for peddling fake art pieces, claiming the cheap reproductions were in fact originals by Andy Warhol, Banksy, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat and others, federal prosecutors said.
A complaint filed in South Florida federal court Thursday accuses Palm Beach art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in his alleged scheme to sell forged copies of high-end art.
Bouaziz, a French citizen of Algerian descent, was ordered released on $500,000 bail after an initial hearing Friday. He has not yet entered a plea to the charges, according to court records. He could face many years in prison if convicted.
Bouaziz sold some of the forged art pieces for hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, prosecutors said in a news release. An FBI criminal affidavit said undercover agents put $22 million down for several of the fake pieces.
Claiming to be an art expert and an official appraiser, Bouaziz appraised the inauthentic artwork he sold to the victims at an increased rate, the FBI affidavit said. To give one example, the FBI says Bouaziz bought a Warhol reproduction print for $100 and sold it for $85,000.