The Space Coast Rocket

Current local and political news stories on the Space Coast

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

🚨 Randy Fine Tries to Kill Private Process Servers After Viral Video of Him Hiding Under his Desk from One 🚨

State Senator Randy Fine has filed Senate Bill 826, which would eliminate private process servers in Florida, making it significantly harder for people to be legally served in civil cases. This move has raised major concerns about accountability and access to justice.

Why does this matter? Fine himself made national headlines last year when he was caught on video HIDING UNDER HIS DESK at his state representative office to avoid being served for a deposition. Instead of facing legal proceedings like everyone else, Fine dove under his desk and later told law enforcement in a sworn statement he feared for his life, claiming he thought Hamas had come to kill him. He then tried to have criminal charges filed against the process server, the attorney, Jennifer Jenkins, and Robert Burns over the issue. None of which happened.

His own legislative aide contradicted him, stating in her own sworn statement that she wasn’t afraid at all and that they regularly pretend no one is in the office to avoid unwanted visitors. Her complaint was that the incident prohibited her from making her daily call to family in Russia from the legislative office which is another matter of concern.

Fine then tells law enforcement he was hiring attorney Alan Landman to get out of the depositions. He ended up having to sit for both of them. However, he paid Landman from his campaign finances after admitting it had nothing to do with his office or campaign. That resulted in an ethics complaint for which he is scheduled to have a probable cause hearing in April as well as an ongoing felony criminal investigation for illegally using campaign finances for private attorney fees.

Now, just months later, Fine is pushing a bill that would make it even harder for people like him to be held accountable in legal cases.

📽️ Watch the video of Fine hiding from a process server, then read the bill for yourself:

🔗 Link to the bill SB 826 https://t.co/IzmqHS64vL

Link to Fine’s sworn statement to BCSO: https://t.co/lzkonniGen

Link to his Russian assistant’s sworn statement: https://t.co/rpGMpWMM6e

What do you think? Should politicians get to change the law to avoid being served? 💬⬇️

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

Our readers just voted 2 to 1 in favor of Florida's property tax amendment. With 2,348 votes and over 40,000 views, here is what it signals for November and what passage would mean for your community.
https://t.co/N7MWA9pB06

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/YSNr7moP4z

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

WATCH: Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded at Cape Canaveral SLC 36 just before tonight’s static fire test. This was a brand new rocket booster and brand new second stage according to Blue Origin.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

BREAKING: @blueorigin New Glenn rocket exploded at Kennedy Space Center just before tonight’s static fire test.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/jXJBgDR36l

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

@ElectBilzerian Sent you a message. Check your inbox.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

@DannyKPolitics You're a little behind. We filed the complaint (along with several others) over 2 years ago. The hearing has been scheduled (once again) for the end of August. Conveniently and inexplicably AFTER the Republican Primary.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/eerA0Tts9v

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

A Brevard shaved ice owner's video shows a teen paying with a fake $100 bill and saying "keep the change."
She didn't call the cops. The mom never paid. Now she's speaking out — and warning every Florida business about "movie prop" money.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/LhNPKo2oIR

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

🚨 SPACE COAST ROCKET INVESTIGATION 🚨
For 40 years, Brevard County has known Pete Bandré as the man who saved our sea turtles.
The founder of the Sea Turtle Preservation Society. The conservationist who in 1982 stopped for coffee at Indialantic Beach, found 50 dead hatchlings in a parking lot, and built a movement that changed Florida forever.
This week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced a criminal investigation into the deaths of as many as 52 sloths at Sloth World, an Orlando attraction that was never built.
Pete Bandré is named in that probe.
He served as Vice President of Sloth World Inc. He was the licensed importer of record at the warehouse where 21 sloths from Guyana arrived on December 18, 2024 and were dead by December 22. He was the licensee at a storage unit with no electricity, no running water, and no heat. A storage unit located in the parking lot of an Orlando karaoke bar.
PETA has filed a felony animal cruelty complaint against him.
Six weeks before the story became national news, his name was quietly removed from Sloth World's corporate filings.
The Sea Turtle Preservation Society's online tribute page honoring him as founder has disappeared. His photographs have largely vanished from search results. The Sloth World website has been wiped.
National outlets have covered the deaths. None have reported the Brevard connection.
Until now.
The Space Coast Rocket has spent days reviewing Florida Department of State corporate records, FWC incident reports, federal nonprofit filings, and the public statements of every party involved.
Read the full investigation: https://t.co/LQST01VCph

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/9vxWpXRNEm

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

A newly filed Palm Bay Police affidavit served on Snap Inc. lays out a 14-day digital trail between 19-year-old Lucas Jones and 28-year-old registered sex offender Colie Lee Daniel, including an explicit photo Jones sent that Daniel screenshotted and forwarded to a friend three days after they connected on Snapchat. Crime scene photos in the article.
https://t.co/ijtXd7hvDC

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

@PeterSchorschFL Um, you specifically enabled Randy Fine for years and took payment to do so. Have a seat.

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

UPDATE: The Florida Supreme Court has transferred the Brevard judicial election lawsuit to the Leon County Circuit Court.
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The judge assigned to hear the case? Angela Dempsey, who resigned from her own county court seat ONE DAY before Judge Garagozlo's retirement letter, to avoid facing a challenger who had outraised her by $120,000.
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She is now being asked to decide whether the Governor can cancel judicial elections through strategically timed departures. She did the exact same thing.
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A motion to disqualify will be filed.
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This is also not just about Brevard. Judicial elections have been cancelled in at least five Florida counties this cycle: Brevard, Orange, Leon, Palm Beach, and Sarasota. At least five candidates with active campaigns have had their races eliminated. Voters across millions of Floridians have lost their right to choose their own judges.
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Full story below:
https://t.co/5C4eAvfLX3

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

SENTENCED: Vero Beach Doctor Gets 1 Year in Jail After Decade of Sexual Misconduct Allegations
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Dr. Christopher David Olenek, 63, the longtime owner of East Side Urgent Care in Vero Beach, has been sentenced to one year in the Indian River County Jail after being convicted of Battery Touch or Strike.
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This is the same physician we covered when he was first arrested in November 2025, after a job applicant reported he inappropriately touched her during a "shadowing" demonstration on how to use an EKG machine. At the time, Sheriff Eric Flowers revealed that Olenek had nine reported incidents of inappropriate touching dating back to 2011, involving both patients and staff. After his arrest went public, more than 20 additional women, including a juvenile, came forward with similar accounts.
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Investigators wrote in the probable cause statement that Olenek had been "perpetrating sexually motivated crimes against women for over a decade without recourse," using the privacy of the exam room, where there were no cameras or witnesses, to commit his crimes. One former employee said Olenek offered her "a promotion in exchange for leaving her husband to be with him," then blocked the door when she refused.
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Prosecutors used the Williams Rule to introduce evidence of his prior pattern of conduct, even on incidents outside the statute of limitations.
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A doctor's office is supposed to be one of the safest places a person can walk into. For more than a decade, Olenek turned his into a hunting ground. He took the Hippocratic Oath to "do no harm" and used the trust that comes with the white coat as cover.
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One year in the county jail does not undo what these women lived through, but it does finally put him behind bars where he belongs.

https://t.co/TQHWtqeJ6A

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

DeSantis filed a proposed Florida congressional map today (SB 8D).
For Brevard, it reshapes District 8 by removing Indian River County and expanding the east Orange County portion.
Senate vote Wednesday. Full breakdown:https://t.co/aOf1N568UM

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

BREAKING: A Brevard County judicial candidate and a local voter have filed an emergency petition directly with the Florida Supreme Court, challenging Governor DeSantis's decision to cancel a scheduled county court election.
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Judge Benjamin Garagozlo wrote a letter saying he planned to "retire." The Governor called it a "resignation," accepted it the same day, and cancelled the election. The judge says he never intended to resign.
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Candidate Maggie Wagner had been campaigning for nearly a year. She showed up to the Supervisor of Elections office with a $7,590 check to qualify. They turned her away.
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Now she and voter Marcie Adkins are asking the Florida Supreme Court to intervene.

https://t.co/amDA3FSAfF

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

https://t.co/OsMoeutPFZ

[The Space Coast Rocket @CoastRocket]

Judge Garagozlo was retiring. Two local attorneys spent nearly a year running for his seat. Then five days before his term was set to end naturally -- he secretly filed a resignation instead.
Gov DeSantis now picks the judge. Election cancelled.
https://t.co/KT1bD1xOod