The Ave Maria Herald The Ave Herald Propaganda Paper for the community of Ave Maria, Florida that would make Joseph Goebbels proud. Ave Maria, Florida

It's interesting that the Ave Herald fails to mention that the suspect is presumed innocent and instead threatens to publish a police report envolving minors. The Ave Herald is a disgrace to the community and it's response to the Ripoff Report speaks for itself.

The police incident report quoted in The Ave Herald, an excerpt of which was provided as part of the rebuttal, is, despite whatever "Gabriel" wants to believe, the actual police incident report released by the Collier County Sheriff's Office. It is signed by the sheriff's deputy who responded to the scene, Cpl. Michael Varaly.

The Ave Herald refrained from publishing the entire report so as not to unnecessarily disclose the names of witnesses or even the suspect, although we had - and still have - the legal right to publish that information. (Even though the suspect is a minor, because he is charged with a felony, his name may be reported by the media.) If it the full report were published, people could see that it is divided into several parts -- Witness Statements, Suspect Behavior, Narrative, etc., with each describing different aspects of what the responding officer did and observed at the scene.

"Gabriel" refers to Det. Scott Peterson, who is with the Major Crimes/Special Victims Unit of the Collier County Sheriff's Office. He followed up the investigation, but did not write the initial incident report. Since "Gabriel" mentioned Det. Peterson by name, anyone is free to call him and ask about the veracity of the police incident report cited by The Ave Herald. But please, do it yourself, and don't take the word of "Gabriel."

With respect to the question "Gabriel" asks about why The Ave Herald revised the story a day later to include information from the police report, the answer is simple. The report was not available when the original story was written, and when it was provided to us by the Sheriff's Office, the story was updated.

This is not the actual Police Report. If you look on the top left corner you will see the words "Incident Report", and the word "NARRATIVE" to the far right. I will say it again, there is no such statement about a text for help in the official police report signed by Detective Scott Peterson.  Why was the original story published without the "Help me" text paragraph on Thursday, September 20, and then revised with it on Friday, September 21? It seems that the spin machine at the Ave Herald is hard at work trying to "Help" somebody out with this one, maybe a golf buddy? Keep up the bad work and you'll be called out again. 

"Gabriel" erroneously and maliciously asserts that "There is no such statement about a text message contained in the police report, or anything even remotely close to it in nature."

The Ave Herald report was completely accurate, and the police report does, indeed, contain exactly that statement.

For further information, please see The Ave Herald response here and the page of the police incident report from the Collier County (FL) Sheriff's Office is available here in PDF format.

The Ave Herald