If you're a regular reader, you know that— because the news in Key West is often so strange— we sometimes feel that we have to tell you, "We're not making this up." A good example is our Page One story about a cop arresting and jailing a 50-year-old woman for getting bodypainted and going topless during Fantasy Fest. The thing is, however, that the woman doesn't have any breasts! She had a double mastcctomy in 1999!
It gets better. The young Assistant State Attorney, apparently a leftover from the Zuelch administration, is going to take the woman to trial! The only thing we can figure is that newly-elected State Attorney Mark Kohl hasn't been informed about this silliness. This is the same Assistant State Attorney who brushed off appeals from City Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt and others to simply drop the charges against the dozens of women who were arrested— and jailed— during Fantasy Fest for playfully showing their breasts for beads. "It's only a misdemeanor," she reportedly said. "All they have to do is pay a fine." She misses the point bigtime. Many of those arrested had to spend hours at the jail, much of that time shivering in the ice-cold air conditioning with their hands cuffed behind their backs, being oogled by the officers. For those from out of town, their vacations were ruined.
This is stupid! The new State Attorney, Police Chief Buz Dillon, Mayor Jimmy Weekley and whoever else has to get involved should get involved and fix it!