WILTON MANORS—Boyd Corbin, a candidate for mayor of Wilton Manors, FL will face a six-member jury trial on November 10, 2014, six days after the general election. Corbin is charged with felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a bamboo tiki torch, during an outdoor 2012 Halloween costume contest hosted by Michael Walters a professional female impersonator.
The incident occurred on a stage in the parking lot of a bar with over 1,000 people in attendance. The only witness to substantiate Walter’s claim is a friend who sells him flowers for his weekly drag show. Corbin insists he was the one who was attacked when the drag queen came off the stage with a flurry of angry punches and a kick that caused the high heel wearing Walters to lose his balance and fall, bruising his leg.
A security guard’s deposition states he had to restrain the drag queen from his attack on Corbin, yet the Broward County State’s Attorney’s Office refuses to drop the felony assault charges costing Corbin $20,000 in legal fees. Walters told a local newspaper he went to the emergency room the next day, but his story changed during his sworn deposition.
The Wilton Manors Police Department took a recorded sworn statement from an independent witness, a retired police officer, who backed Corbin’s version of the events. This statement was “misplaced” by the state’s attorney office for over a year before the defense could depose this witness. During a September 5, 2014 court hearing, the defense lawyer, the lawyer working for the state’s attorney’s office and the judge had a side bar discussion. Corbin’s defense lawyer told him that the state’s attorney’s lawyer told the judge she refuses to go to a trial with this case on ethical grounds since the charges are so ridiculous.
Broward County has twice the per capita arrest rate of other Florida counties. This is not because of a higher incidence of crime. The police know that the Broward County State Attorney’s Office routinely prosecutes a high number of cases brought to them. Most felony arrestees accept a misdemeanor plea since they don’t have $20k to hire a private lawyer for a jury trial.
Officer Kevin Laughren who arrested Corbin was named Wilton Manors police officer of the quarter when he set a record of 63 arrests during the third quarter of 2012. The Wilton Manors police detective who worked this case, Frank Pilewski, knows Corbin and his friends from Pilewsky’s routine drinking at local bars over the past decade. He did not make an attempt to interview the security guard involved with the incident before or after the arrest. Corbin is waiting for the results of an Internal Affairs investigation from a June 2014 incident where Pilewski is being investigated for allegedly battering Corbin in front of a security guard at another Wilton Manors bar.
Corbin is using this and another resident’s arrest as examples of how the Wilton Manors Police Department needs to focus on home invasions and two decades of sexual activity in Colohatchee Park instead of knowingly arresting innocent residents. During his campaign he has knocked on a majority of the 12,000 resident’s doors asking them to look at his website www.mayorboyd.com. The website’s “Arrest” page includes police reports, witness statements and depositions from his arrest.
Photo of Boyd Corbin courtesy of MayorBoyd.com
