Clear77° WeatherClear77° Weather

Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

Patty Ryan, a Florida native, grew up in Pinellas Park. For more than three decades, she has lived in Tampa, where she's a reporter for the Times. She joined the staff as an editor in 2001, after 22 years at the Tampa Tribune.

Her work has been honored by the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors and the Florida Society of News Editors.

She graduated from the University of South Florida.

Phone: (813) 226-3382

Email: pryan@tampabay.com

  1. Woman sought court's help over man accused of killing unborn baby

    05/16/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Fresh from Tampa General Hospital, three days after Remee Jo Lee lost her baby to an ex-boyfriend's alleged deceit, she sought protection from him in Hillsborough Circuit Court.

    In her April 1 petition for an injunction, she listed his weapons: "guns, knives, brass knuckles." And "medicine."

    "I am afraid that he took measures to kill/abort/murder my unborn child, potentially killing me by switching my medicine," wrote Lee, 26. "And now that he is facing investigation he will continue to cause me more emotional and physical harm." ...

    Remee Lee, 26, who lost her baby, accused her ex-boyfriend of giving her an abortion drug.

  2. Tampa doctor's son accused of killing unborn child

    05/15/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan and Will Hobson, Times Staff Writers

    TAMPA — The son of a Lutz fertility doctor killed a girlfriend's unborn child by tricking her into taking an abortion drug, federal authorities said Wednesday.

    The act could put John Andrew Welden, 28, in prison for life.

    Welden forged the doctor's signature on a prescription for Cytotec, relabeled a pill bottle as "Amoxicillin" and told the woman that his father wanted her on antibiotics, a federal prosecutor asserted Wednesday....

  3. Feds need help identifying child porn suspect

    05/14/13CrimeBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    UPDATE: A man accused of raping a young girl and appearing in child porn videos has been arrested a little more than a day after authorities released images of the man, officials say. Click here to read our continuing coverage of the case.

    Our original story appears below:...

  4. Second Tampa sister charged in IRS tax fraud scheme

    05/09/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Federal agents Thursday plucked a second tax refund fraud suspect from the same family, sending Porscha S. Williams of Tampa on a path already known to her sister.

    A grand jury indicted Williams, 30, and Quincy Wimberly, 29, on charges that they conspired with Nikia Williams, 29, and others to defraud the IRS of at least $252,491.

    Nikia Williams, indicted in September, has pleaded guilty to two counts including aggravated identity theft, which carries a two-year minimum mandatory sentence. Her sentencing is May 28....

  5. Former Tampa officer gets nearly 5 years for child porn

    05/08/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — One day, a little girl was bound and blindfolded and then photographed while someone sexually assaulted her.

    Jonathan Gamson wasn't there. But he later unearthed the photo from the Internet and kept it. That choice, along with a few similar choices, will cost the former Tampa police officer nearly five years of freedom.

    "I know it's not an excuse, but in my real life, I helped children," a sobbing Gamson told U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven at his sentencing hearing Wednesday....

    Jonathan Gamson, 53, is a former Tampa police officer.

  6. Husband gets three years in HSBC gift card scheme

    05/06/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Kevin Guy helped kids grow, even other people's kids. Adults trusted and admired him. Even the federal agent who built a fraud case against Guy vouched for him Monday in federal court.

    But good deeds can't offset years of theft, U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore decided at Guy's sentencing hearing.

    Guy must serve 37 months in prison for conspiring with his wife to steal and cash $2.2 million in employee incentive gift cards from HSBC Mortgage Services, where Michelle Guy worked. His attorney had asked for probation....

  7. Sex, crime big topics for 'the Lovely D.O.D.'

    05/04/13 Human Interest By Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — One weekend in late 2011, after a night of vodka and a day of vomiting, a woman with high blood pressure collapsed on the floor of her apartment off Nebraska Avenue. She was 37.

    Days after her death, her grieving sisters tried to pay for the funeral by frying and selling fish.

    The sisters raised their fish-fry pittance in a district where others were partying hard on the money they'd made filing fake tax returns....

    The Facebook page of “Whenu Knobetta” often attracts followers because of its outrageous gossip and reality-TV nature. The site, often full of profanity and vulgarities about sex, recently has been blocked from public view.

  8. Disbarred Riverview lawyer pleads guilty to grand theft

    04/23/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — A disbarred Riverview lawyer, once a prosecutor, pleaded guilty to grand theft Monday in Hillsborough Circuit Court, accepting a plea deal that calls for her to serve three years of probation.

    Jessica Ann Bennett, 35, was accused of withdrawing $50,800 from the Merrill Lynch account of Daniel McCoy, whose wife had hired her to handle their divorce. The couple reconciled and complained to the Florida Bar, which disciplined Bennett and ordered her to pay restitution....

  9. Man accused of Town 'N Country robbery now in more trouble

    04/22/13CrimeBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — A robbery suspect attacked a deputy Monday and went after his eyes with both thumbs, authorities say.

    But after two deputies subdued the man with Tasers, they say they found something on him more worrisome than thumbs: a .32-caliber Colt revolver, with a live round in its chamber.

    The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said the incident began at 4:50 p.m. when a robbery victim flagged down Deputy Felix Moret, 59, near a bus stop at Sheldon Road and Grosse Point Boulevard....

  10. Ex-Tampa Housing Authority worker admits role in tax fraud

    04/22/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — A former Tampa Housing Authority worker has admitted in a plea agreement that she and another woman collaborated to defraud the government by filing 22 tax refund claims in other people's names.

    Of those, 20 were filed through the agency's Internet connection, the document states.

    Leah Lang, 43, worked for the Housing Authority for five years, from 2005 to 2009, based in a community relations office at Robles Park Village....

  11. Buju Banton juror must again face judge's questions

    04/16/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — A juror who helped send reggae star Buju Banton to federal prison can't seem to be rid of the 2011 drug trial.

    On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. ordered former juror Terri Wright to appear before him at a June 26 hearing.

    He wants Banton there, too.

    Already, a computer expert, with Moody's permission, has taken a crack at determining whether Wright read up on Banton and the law during the trial. Wright contends she waited until the trial was over....

    Buju Banton was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

  12. Two more indicted in Tampa on tax fraud charges

    04/10/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Tressa Vanessa Guy, 41, collected federal assistance to pay her rent last year, records show.

    But a 17-count indictment alleges that she and boyfriend Brian Eugene Simmons, 33, also participated in a scheme to collect $2.7 million in fraudulent federal tax refunds.

    The two were arrested Wednesday on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft....

  13. Judge delays ruling on idea to sell Casey Anthony story rights

    04/09/13CourtsBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA —Bob Dylan's music. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s image. O.J. Simpson's tell-all.

    They all came up Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court as a judge entertained arguments over whether rights to Casey Anthony's life story should be auctioned to the highest bidder to help pay down $792,000 in debts.

    Anthony, 27, acquitted two summers ago of killing her daughter, Caylee, did not attend the hearing, but that didn't stop others from negotiating her future....

    Casey Anthony leaves the federal courthouse in Tampa, accompanied by a U.S. marshal after a bankruptcy hearing on March 4.

  14. Tampa exotic dancer gets six years for tax refund fraud

    04/04/13CriminalBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Adult dancer Danielle Denson was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison Thursday after admitting in a plea agreement that she obtained more than $1.6 million in fraudulent income tax refunds.

    U.S. District Judge Susan Bucklew was unmoved by the defense position that Denson, 27, who lost her mother to AIDS and claimed to have an abusive father, had turned to tax fraud for self-worth and empowerment....

    Danielle Denson, 27, apologized to the victims 
in court.

  15. Crusader against graft, U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill, leaves

    04/04/13CourtsBy Patty Ryan, Times Staff Writer

    TAMPA — Not long ago, a U.S. District Court judge quizzed the region's top federal prosecutor about career plans, in a conversation that wound up here:

    "Bobby, you're not getting any younger."

    "Thanks a lot, judge."

    The judge, Elizabeth Kovachevich, was among those nodding in the wings Thursday when U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill announced that he will step down this summer to open a Miami office for a private firm that helps clients keep their corporate noses clean....