Charges dropped despite cocaine found

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From the Boca Raton News

Charges dropped, despite cocaine found on console

March 30, 2004

by Kelli Kennedy

Citing lack of evidence, authorities dropped charges against a Boca Raton man who was arrested after police found drugs inside his car.
Michael Persin, 50, was driving his white Hummer “over sidewalks and with the lights off” in the Hidden Valley Plaza on North Federal Highway on March 13, according to an incident report.
Police found 1.5 grams of cocaine “in plain view on top of the center console” and a crackpipe “inside the driver’s door compartment,” according to incident reports.
Persin was granted a “no file’ in court Monday morning, meaning charges were dropped because authorities said there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the drugs belonged to him.
Persin, who lives at 846 Coventry Street, has a criminal history dating back to 1986 that includes shoplifting, grand larceny and cocaine possession.
Boca Raton police accompanied a caseworker from the Department of Children and Family Services to Persin’s home on February 25th, after receiving a call that the suspect
Was using cocaine and entertaining prostitutes at his home while his 9-year-old daughter was present.
A search of the home revealed a stash of crack cocaine and several items of drug paraphernalia sitting on top of Persin’s bedroom dresser and in the trashcan. Additional cocaine was also found inside a small tin container located on the dresser. Persin’s 9-year-old daughter was home at the time and was “coloring on the floor with her nanny,” according to police reports.
The suspect told police the cocaine and paraphernalia belonged to his ex-girlfriend, Heather Campbell, according to the incident report.
Police also uncovered a crack cocaine rock inside Persin’s right pants pocket and a “razor blade with some white pasty substance.”
Persin was charged with cocaine possession and may face additional charges of child abuse. His nine-year-old daughter is still inside the home and is being cared for by her nanny, according to a source. Calls placed to his home were not returned Monday evening.
“My concern is that history is going to repeat itself. That child is in danger and she needs to be taken away,” said Jacques Bobrowsky, the ex-husband of Stacie Persin.
The 44-year-old woman was on probation after being convicted of manslaughter and vehicular homicide in 2000 for her role in a Boca Raton car accident that killed her 9-year-old daughter, Haley. Investigators said Stacie was high on cocaine as she drove her daughter to school on Feb. 22, 2000. Persin pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide and accepted a plea deal to serve five years probation, court records show.
She is currently serving time in Broward Correctional Institution after she violated her probation and tested positive for cocaine.
After the death of his daughter, Bobrowsky, a Boca Raton resident, created Haley’s Rights, a nonprofit organization dedicated to investigating criminal cases involving children that result in what he calls “unjustifiable” sentences of the guilty.
Bobrowsky spent several years in and out of court as his ex-wife seemed to elude the justice system, always finding a loophole until she was finally sentenced to prison last year. Now he fears the same thing may happen with Michael Persin.
“How they could not have enough evidence is unbelievable,” said Bobrowsky. “Especially when the police report says the cocaine was in plain view in the car.”

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