December 2009 Updates

Join us for a Photo Fundraiser for Rescues Thursday 12/10/09! We are very excited that Robin Hoffenberg, the owner of Conversation Pieces and photographer, Sarah Brown are planning this event which will benefit many dogs and now for the first time, cats! More specifically, our cats! Proceeds that night will go to: Feline Friends, www.felinefriendsfl.com, Sabbath Memorial Dog Rescue, www.sabbathrescue.org. & ARF-Animal Rescue Force, www.animalrescueforce.org. Please help them help us!

June 25th, 2009 Updates

It has been more than six months since our last update, but you will see why after reading this. I'm a very quiet person. I don't do small talk. I usually don't say a word until it is necessary. That's a pretty strange trait for a person in charge of a news section, but maybe I think your time is valuable too.

On June 8th, 2009, we received a copy of the Investigative Action Report regarding the theft of $11,290.69 from our bank account by a former volunteer, Charles Saltzman. It is an eleven-page report. The final two paragraphs of the report summarize the investigation:

Based on all the facts of the case, it is apparent that Charles Saltzman did not have consent or authorization to withdraw the $11,290 from the Helping Hands to Animals Inc, SunTrust Bank account which was still an active account. Saltzman was not an authorized signer of the SunTrust account and did not have authority to remove any funds. Saltzman used the status of the State of Florida, Division of Corporations In-Active Helping Hands to Animals Inc, changing the directors, president, vice president adding himself to the new-active Corporate Filing for Helping Hands to Animals Inc, to provide to SunTrust Bank to facilitate the withdraw of funds from the SunTrust Bank Helping Hands to Animals Inc, account.Mr. Saltzman did in fact commit Grand Theft by knowingly obtaining and using the property of Victim Cindy Weber/Feline Friends Inc, with the intent to temporarily or permanently deprive them of the right to the property, thus violating FSS. 812.014. Property is valued at over $10,000 but less than $20,000.00, a Felony in the 3rd Degree.
In the NARRATIVE SECTION, it is reported that the investigator met with Al Guttmann, Supervisor of the Broward State Attorney's Office Economic Crime Unit, and Don Tenbrook, State Attorney assigned to the Economic Crime Unit as well.
The purpose of the meeting was to file this case and issue an Arrest Warrant for the subject Saltzman for Grand Theft and Scheme To Defraud, both 3rd Degree Felonies.

Obviously at this point we should be celebrating, but the State Attorneys decided after talking to our director, Cindy Weber, (we never had an attorney) and Charles Saltzman's attorney, that really no harm was done. "The money was ultimately spent on cats anyway. It wasn't like Mr. Saltzman took his girlfriend to Vegas with the money. Did we really want to put a 60+-year-old man in jail?" We still ask ourselves, "What would make the State Attorneys disregard a year's worth of their own Broward Sheriff's hard work? Why would they identify more with the perpetrator of the crime than with the victims?" As for Don Tenbrook, we don't know but as for Al Guttmann, (AKA Alberto Gutman) please Google him. It starts to make sense.

We have nothing but respect for the detectives, specifically Detective Brian McDonald and his co-workers in the Regional Investigations Division- Economic Crime Unit in Ft. Lauderdale. We sent the following letter of thanks to them:

It is probably not normal for one to write a letter of thanks after being part of a lengthy, frustrating, emotional criminal case that didn't end the way we had hoped, but to not do so would be to allow a lot of hard work to go unnoticed and unappreciated.The part of our case that went well was the investigation itself. After approximately six months, our case finally made it to the Economic Crime Unit and Detective Brian McDonald. It was made very clear from the beginning that he was not "our" detective but Broward County's detective. He wasn't trying to prove our case for us but to determine whether or not our claim actually had any merit. For the next year, he made us prove every accusation we made. He took each bit of information we gave and followed it far past what we knew even existed. His final Investigative Action Report took what we as the victims recognized as a complicated, muddy crime and broke it down to its most basic elements.
Throughout the entire year, Detective McDonald and his office were professional and thorough. The lines of communication were always open and messages were returned promptly, (Thanks Melissa!).
We hope that if anyone in the future is unfortunate enough to be victims of a crime in Broward County or anywhere, they are lucky enough to have a Detective McDonald investigating their case. We also hope that in the future the State Attorneys value the time consuming and costly efforts of the Broward County detectives. If the detective provides a year's worth of proof, a determination of guilt for Grand Theft and Scheme to Defraud along with an arrest warrant, there shouldn't be much more to discuss. Law is by nature supposed to be objective and never subjective. It's not supposed to be about who the DA's "click" with. We will not be discouraged and we hope that no one in Detective McDonald's office is either. Please keep doing investigations that make the residents of South Florida proud.
Gratefully yours,
Feline Friends
Cindy Weber, President
Beth Caron, Director

This case is definitely not over. A civil case is probable. It is a relief to be able to talk freely mentioning names. It is now "Public Knowledge". By the way, we have not yet mentioned Margaret Stefanides, or Gina Stefanides from Feline Rescue or Tamera Gibson from Animal Aid Inc. These three people were the ones that most benefited from the theft. Margaret and Gina were actually there with "Chuck" every step of the way.

Recently Thomas Francis of the New Times Blog, The Juice, wrote about our case, you can read the two part story by following these links...

Part One
Part Two

The Juice is a blog so if you feel the least bit inclined to make a comment, please do! Thank you for sticking with us for so long. As you can see when there is important news I really will pass it on.
You can read other juicey stories at...


Tom Francis added another article to his blog. Check it out!