Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Miami Herald - May 27, 2005
Sara Olkon, solkon@herald.com
The Broward State Attorney's Office agreed to withhold adjudication against Robert Gimilaro in connection with a 2004 run-in with a Hollywood police officer.
Gimilaro had been charged with aggravated assault against a law-enforcement officer -- a felony that carries at least three years in prison.
Broward Assistant Public Defender William Lanphear successfully argued that his client had been in a state of involuntary intoxication brought on by a combination of pain medications his doctors had prescribed for AIDS-related pain.
"What a burden has been lifted," Gimilaro, 52, said Thursday by phone. "I'm still trying to process it."
Gimilaro's condition had been steadily deteriorating for about two years after his HIV diagnosis in 1999. He continued teaching pre-calculus at William H. Turner Technical Arts Senior High in Miami-Dade, until he found himself stumbling in class.
On the day of the incident, Gimilaro recalls taking the narcotic Percocet, the anticonvulsant Neurontin and Benadryl for his allergies.
That evening, a Hollywood police officer caught him speeding and tried to pull him over. The officer said the defendant tried to hit his police car with his vehicle, sped from the scene, then rammed into a parked Volvo.
The officer was not injured in the incident; Gimilaro suffered minor injuries.
After his arrest on Feb. 22, 2004, Gimilaro stopped teaching or driving. The retired teacher will have to serve five years' probation and pay any restitution costs.
"Here was a guy who deserved a break," Lanphear said. "This was not your run-of-the-mill criminal."
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