Latest news with #QuentinSmith
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Yahoo
Cocoa woman gets prison time for enabling deadly abuse against her infant twins
A Cocoa woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for enabling child abuse that killed one of her 3-month-old twin daughters and sent the other twin to the hospital. Hannah Jones, 21, was arrested in October 2023. The twins' father, Quentin Smith, was also arrested. According to the state attorney's office of the 16th Judicial Circuit, Jones said she say Smith squeeze, hit and throw objects at the babies out of frustration, and that he picked them up by their limbs. Smith admitted to shaking, yanking and biting the twins on multiple occasions. Prosecutors say the couple never took the children to doctors for any reason. Jones pleaded no contest in February and was convicted of two counts of neglect of a child with great bodily harm. The state attorney's office said it made no plea offer in this case, and assistant state attorney Rebecca Price had asked for the maximum prison sentence of 30 years on the two charges. 'These babies came home from the hospital and spent their entire 2-1/2 months there in an abusive environment,' Price said at Jones' sentencing hearing on Thursday. 'It's only because one baby was found dead that morning that her sister lived.' Smith is still awaiting trial in the Brevard County jail. He faces two counts of aggravated child abuse by willful torture. The state attorney's office says the surviving twin has recovered and now lives safely with a relative. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
RNZ News
13-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Overnight parking to be banned on some central Queenstown streets
Queenstown Lakes District Council's Infrastructure Committee voted for a parking ban from 10pm until 6am on Park Street. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd At an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Queenstown Lakes District Council's Infrastructure Committee voted for a parking ban from 10pm until 6am on Park Street, and one side of Lake Esplanade. It also voted in favour of a new 'no stopping' rule on a section of Glenorchy-Queenstown Road. Community Requests for Service, sent to the council by residents in March and April, describe "waste everywhere, people cooking, partying, making noise in the small hours" on Park Street. One resident told the council they had counted up to 80 campers parked on the street at one time. The council will investigate parking permits for residents down the track. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd Residents of Lake Esplanade also wrote to council, complaining about people using the reserve as a toilet, hedges as bins and the lake as a place to brush their teeth. The council opted to impose the ban on both sides of Park Street, but only the lakefront side of Lake Esplanade to maintain some parking for its hotels. Council staffers assured the committee it would be possible to explore parking permits for residents down the track. Queenstown deputy mayor Quentin Smith said the rapid rate at which the problem had become worse meant it was imperative to take firm action. Councillor Craig Ferguson agreed it was important to "go hard" on the issue. "Is what we have now what we want our residents to tolerate? Going by the photos shared, and taking a quick look myself recently, down Park Street, dare I say it, for me had shades of Woodstock about it. Which is totally unacceptable." Councillor Lisa Guy said she had a bit of concern that the new night-time rules would be an inconvenience for the council staff to enforce. But she said overall, she strongly supported the overnight parking ban and hoped it would not create unintended consequences for residents. One Park Street resident said they had counted up to 80 campers parked on the street at one time. Photo: RNZ / Katie Todd The decision follows a High Court ruling in November, deeming the council's Freedom Camping Bylaw invalid . Council staff said they intend to treat freedom camping as a separate issue to parking - and revisit the Freedom Camping Bylaw down the track. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Acting Mayor Disappointed By Potential Withdrawal Of School Buses
Press Release – Queenstown Lakes District Council Whilst acknowledging these are only the early stages of a proposal at this time, were very concerned about the outcomes for our tamariki and whnau should the draft report on Project Takahe be implemented, said Acting Mayor Smith. Queenstown Lakes District Acting Mayor Quentin Smith has expressed disappointment on behalf of the community that the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Otago Regional Council (ORC) are once again considering the partial removal of the school bus services in the Queenstown region, and the transition of students who utilise these services onto the public bus service network. 'Whilst acknowledging these are only the early stages of a proposal at this time, we're very concerned about the outcomes for our tamariki and whānau should the draft report on Project Takahe be implemented,' said Acting Mayor Smith. 'QLDC has lobbied on this topic for a number of years and made formal submissions through, for example, Way To Go (our partnership with ORC and NZTA Waka Kotahi) and the draft Otago Regional Public Transport Plan. We reiterated our desire for ORC to ensure that QLDC is part of any decision making with the Ministry on the question of school bus routes as recently as last week.' 'We note Project Takahe is a national programme and therefore not limited to our district, but it has been a source of frustration for QLDC Councillors that we have struggled to get a confirmed position from ORC and be as closely involved in discussions as we'd have liked up to this point.' 'To ORC's credit, it appears that it has endeavoured to work with the government at how they might transition the public network to address the progressive withdrawal of MoE-funded services.' 'We note that no final decision has yet been made and hope there remains scope for QLDC to be involved in that process on behalf of our community.'
Scoop
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Acting Mayor Disappointed By Potential Withdrawal Of School Buses
Queenstown Lakes District Acting Mayor Quentin Smith has expressed disappointment on behalf of the community that the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Otago Regional Council (ORC) are once again considering the partial removal of the school bus services in the Queenstown region, and the transition of students who utilise these services onto the public bus service network. 'Whilst acknowledging these are only the early stages of a proposal at this time, we're very concerned about the outcomes for our tamariki and whānau should the draft report on Project Takahe be implemented,' said Acting Mayor Smith. 'QLDC has lobbied on this topic for a number of years and made formal submissions through, for example, Way To Go (our partnership with ORC and NZTA Waka Kotahi) and the draft Otago Regional Public Transport Plan. We reiterated our desire for ORC to ensure that QLDC is part of any decision making with the Ministry on the question of school bus routes as recently as last week.' 'We note Project Takahe is a national programme and therefore not limited to our district, but it has been a source of frustration for QLDC Councillors that we have struggled to get a confirmed position from ORC and be as closely involved in discussions as we'd have liked up to this point.' 'To ORC's credit, it appears that it has endeavoured to work with the government at how they might transition the public network to address the progressive withdrawal of MoE-funded services.' 'We note that no final decision has yet been made and hope there remains scope for QLDC to be involved in that process on behalf of our community.'
Otago Daily Times
21-04-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Call for change to ‘archaic' trading laws
Quentin Smith. PHOTO: SUPPLIED After one of Wanaka's busiest Easter weekends, councillors and businesses are calling for a change to "archaic" and out-of-touch Easter trading legislation limiting the offering in the tourist town. Wanaka stores are exempt from closing on Easter Sunday, but Good Friday is still off-limits and alcohol restrictions are in place for all bars and restaurants. Queenstown Lakes district deputy mayor Quentin Smith yesterday called the bylaws "archaic" and said he did not see any reason for closures to be in place during this time. "Easter's one of the busiest weekends of the year in Wānaka and so it does impact the businesses, but it also impacts the ability to service those visitors," he said. Mr Smith acknowledged the issue could be "tricky", as the council wanted people to have time off, but many of Wānaka's businesses needed the custom Easter provided. "We created a bylaw to allow the trading as far as we can, but the legislation doesn't allow us to go any further, so it requires a law change," he said. The final Wheels at Wanaka drew an estimated 65,000 people to the Three Parks event grounds over Good Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And when the town "swells" with big events at Easter "we need to be able to service those people". Wānaka-Upper Clutha ward councillor Barry Bruce had similar views, saying Easter could be a blessing for businesses in a small town. "A lot of businesses in Wānaka, they rely on those events to give them a financial boost to carry them through the shoulder season, you know, when it is very quiet." As such, he felt the laws were not appropriate in today's times and although a law change had been discussed, the council was not able to get far with central government, he said. "None of the central government politicians seem to have a lot of appetite for it, unfortunately ... they're a bit detached from areas like ours that are heavily reliant on tourism." Water Bar owner Tony May said in his nine years of running the business this was by far the busiest Easter he had seen. As thrilling as it was to see the restaurant busy, he was frustrated with the bylaws, especially the alcohol restrictions. "We've been doing it for nine years and we know exactly what we have to do," he said. "But it's completely frustrating and still lots of people don't understand ... nobody supports it that I've run into." From his experience, some visitors could be sceptical there were restrictions on alcohol consumption and he often had to "convince" patrons there were rules around what they could be served.
