Hallandale official may be censured for anti-Muslim rant
HALLANDALE BEACH — An elected official from Hallandale Beach who accused a newly elected Muslim congresswoman of being an anti-Semite who might “blow up Capitol Hill” could face censure from her commission colleagues.
Commissioner Anabelle LimaTaub has come under fierce attack in recent days for comments she made on Facebook after Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was sworn into office on Jan. 3. Tlaib was sworn in, only to hours later vow to help fellow Democrats go after President Donald Trump and “impeach the mother------.”
Five days later, Lima-Taub signed an online petition seeking to remove Tlaib from office and posted the petition on her personal Facebook page.
“Proudly signed,” Lima-Taub wrote. “A Hamas-loving antiSemite has NO place in government! She is a danger and [I] would not put it past her to become a martyr and blow up Capitol Hill.”
Hallandale Beach Commissioner Michele Lazarow, who like Lima-Taub is Jewish, said Wednesday she plans to seek a public reprimand of her colleague for promoting bigotry, fueling hatred and creating a hostile environment for the region’s Muslim community.
Denzel McCampbell, a spokesman for Tlaib, commended Lazarow for standing up against hateful rhetoric directed at Muslims. Tlaib has never advocated for violence, he added.
“It is our hope that [LimaTaub’s] community holds her accountable and encourages her to accept that our country is made up of all different faiths and ethnicities,” McCampbell said. “It is what makes America unique and special.”
Muslim advocacy groups have been demanding an apology from Lima-Taub after the South Florida Sun Sentinel broke the story on Monday. Some have called for her resignation.
from Ibar. That turned out to be a match for some of the DNA on the shirt.
sent the sample in connection with this case,” not the defense, prosecutor Chuck Morton said. And that, he argued, proves it was Ibar whose image was captured on surveillance footage in Sucharski’s home.
The video showed Sucharski, 48, entertaining Anderson and Rogers, both 25, early on June 26, 1994, when two men burst in, beat them, robbed them and shot them to death.
Prosecutors believe Ibar is the gunman seen wearing the T-shirt over part of his face to conceal his identity, then removing it once the victims are dead. The second man was believed to be Ibar’s former co-defendant, Seth Penalver, who was convicted in 1999 and sent to death row only to be found
not guilty
2012.
Penalver was in court for closing arguments Wednesday.
Morton pointed to numerous arguments to establish Ibar’s guilt, including eyewitness testimony connecting Ibar to Sucharski’s stolen Mercedes shortly after the murders and the DNA evidence.
“There’s no indication that there was tampering or contamination,” Morton said. “Ibar left this shirt behind. That’s this case.”
But defense lawyers Waxman and Joe Nascimento said it’s far more likely that the killer is the unknown person whose DNA was also found on the shirt.
A hair on the shirt did not belong to Ibar, they said.
And the shirt was in a bag that had been opened and reopened so many times that the company that performed the DNA test made a note of the bag’s condition, Nascimento said. after
aretrial in
In addition, both defense lawyers said, none of the fingerprints lifted from the crime scene belonged to Ibar. Morton said it was because the gunmen were wearing latex gloves.
The defense lawyers presented the murder as a professional hit — too many valuables were left behind, said Waxman. “This looked like a contract execution by experienced murderers.”
Morton also challenged a defense facial-recognition expert who told the jury last week that the man in the grainy surveillance video was not Ibar. A prosecution expert said he could not exclude Ibar, but could not be certain it was him.
If Ibar is found guilty of first-degree murder, the same jury will return at a later date to decide whether he should be returned to death row.
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