A former candidate for the Florida Legislature acknowledged to state investigators that she lied when she said she was a medical doctor who had removed 77 bullets from 32 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016.
The Florida Department of Health last week issued a cease and desist order against Catherine "Elizabeth" McCarthy, ordering her to stop holding herself out to be a medical doctor.
In a report accompanying the order, McCarthy apologized to a state health department investigator, saying she "wanted to be somebody in the community."
"I'm sorry that I gave any impersonation," McCarthy said in the report. "I knew it was wrong and I should have stopped."
Earlier this month, McCarthy withdrew from the 2020 Democratic primary for a Florida House seat that covers suburban Orlando. In a letter to elections officials, she cited "professional obligations" as her reason for withdrawing. The seat currently is held by a Republican and state records show McCarthy had raised only $1,500 by the time she withdrew.
Reached by telephone on Monday, McCarthy said she couldn't talk because of the cease and desist order.
Online state records show she had led two businesses in the past decade, C.A.R.E. For Women Foundation Inc. and Encore Events, but both enterprises were dissolved.
McCarthy had represented herself as a medical doctor at two political forums this year and was confronted about her credentials by a reporter for Florida Politics website after one of those events, according to the Department of Health report.
At a gun safety forum in March attended by U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, along with a sheriff and a Pulse survivor, McCarthy introduced herself as a former nurse who had gone to medical school in her 40s.
She described the Pulse nightclub shooting as "probably one of the hardest things in my career" and unfolded a handkerchief with bullets that she said had been extracted from shooting victims, though not the Pulse victims.
Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 patrons and seriously wounded dozens more at the gay nightclub in 2016. Most of the victims were sent to the hospital McCarthy claimed to work at, just blocks from the nightclub, during a massive police and emergency response.
McCarthy is facing Department of Health civil charges of intentionally misrepresenting herself as a medical doctor and could face a fine and costs of nearly $3,100.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
