Emanuel Melendez Figueroa, arrested on 100 counts of possessing child pornography, including images depicting both male and female victims as young as infants.
Father of teen driver who killed 4 in Poinciana crash has trial delayed
The trial for Richard Ferguson, who allowed his unlicensed teen to drive his vehicle and cause a fatal September 2023 crash, is now scheduled for trial July 28. The case had been set to begin July 15.
At a pretrial hearing Tuesday, a judge allowed for a continuance in order for the state to acquire all necessary depositions from the family of the four victims— Trinidad Hernandez and her grandchildren Miley, Marven and Anayari Cruz. Investigators say Ferguson’s teen son caused the fatal crash at San Miguel Road and Laurel Avenue when he did not stop at a stop sign, and the two vehicles collided at nearly 70 mph.
Ferguson, 68, was arrested in February 2025 and charged with four counts of manslaughter. Ri’Shard Laroy Ferguson, now 16, turned himself in and was taken into custody at the Juvenile Detention Center. He is charged with four counts of vehicular homicide, causing a crash with serious bodily injury and driving without a driver’s license.
Substitute teacher’s child abuse trial also pushed back
Also Tuesday, the trial of Casmore Shaw, a substitute teacher charged with child abuse in an April 29 incident at Neptune Elementary School, was continued until Sept. 22. It was scheduled for the July trial docket as well.
Shaw, 71, was charged with child abuse/simple assault or battery after a student told the school nurse that Shaw grabbed him by the shirt collar, lied him from his seat and walked him to the corner of the classroom, after the student said he knocked a book and a box of crayons of his desk onto the floor. A school nurse noticed scratches on his right shoulder.
Administrators carried out reporting protocol to the boy’s mother, the School District and the Department of Children and Families. Shaw, who ran for School Board in 2020 and served as a State Committeeman for the Osceola Democratic Party and secretary of the Osceola County’s Democratic Black Caucus, claimed he grabbed the student by the hand.
Intercession City man charged with 100 child pornography possession counts
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office has arrested a 40-year-old Intercession City man on 100 counts of possessing child pornography, including images depicting both male and female victims as young as infants.
Emanuel Melendez Figueroa was taken into custody on June 20 following a tip received in April through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline.
According to an arrest affidavit, investigators traced the tip to Figueroa’s South Orange Blossom Trail home and uncovered numerous disturbing online messages allegedly sent through the Badoo dating app. Detectives said Figueroa frequently contacted adults and requested sexually explicit photos of their children or of both the parent and child. In at least one instance, he reportedly sent an explicit photo of himself.
At the time of his arrest, Figueroa was already serving a five-year sex offender probation term for a prior child pornography conviction. His probation conditions specifically prohibited him from possessing pornographic material or accessing the internet.
Figueroa is currently being held at the Osceola County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
Kissimmee man charged with child molestation
Kissimmee police have charged Jorge Luis Gandia-Oquendo, 36, with multiple counts of child molestation following a report made to a local domestic abuse support center.
Gandia-Oquendo is facing four counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the ages of 12 and 16, according to court records. Reports said the alleged abuse was st reported by the victim and her mother to Help Now of Osceola, a domestic violence treatment center, which then noti d authorities.
At the time of the report, Gandia-Oquendo was already being held in the Osceola County Jail on unrelated domestic violence charges. He refused to speak with investigators regarding the new allegations.
Editor Ken Jackson contributed to this report.
