The Cooler

Just a few things for you from this morning's mainstream media.

A- Sun-Sentinel: Skeletons.

Michael Verdugo's 15 minutes of porn film fame cost him his job as a Hollywood police officer and his budding career as "Mikey V'' of HGTV's Design Star.

Verdugo is fighting to get back his police job and is preparing to sue the police department for discrimination.

Hollywood police fired Verdugo -- and Design Star dumped him -- after a 1996 video turned up on the Internet showing the future cop in a 15-minute bondage scene from a gay porn flick called Rope Rituals.

"I don't regret it," Verdugo, 35, said of his one-time appearance at age 22 in porn, three years before he became a police officer. "It was a time in my life that I wanted to explore."

Verdugo -- billed as Jeremy Wess in Rope Rituals -- said he performed nude in the short scene, but didn't engage in hard-core sex. "It was all role-playing bondage. I was tied. I used handcuffs later on in my career."

B- Herald: You knew there just had to be a silver lining.

While Scott Rothstein's alleged $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme has proved a tragedy to hundreds of former employees, creditors and investors, it has been a boon to one group -- South Florida's lawyers.

According to experts, when all is said and done, the case will result in legal fees topping $15 million. That figure includes fees to the receiver, Herb Stettin; the two law firms he hired to assist him; a cadre of lawyers and firms hired by creditors and the attorney for the creditors' committee; defense fees for banks, insurance companies and other sued parties; and fees paid to all the criminal defense lawyers hired by Rothstein partners, associates and family members.

``This is like the lawyer's relief act,'' said Guy Lewis, a Miami attorney and former U.S. attorney who has served as receiver in numerous Ponzi/fraud cases. ``It's going to be an eight-figure case. It's probably the biggest receivership in the country right now.''

C- Herald: Morin.

D- TC Palm: The most honest guy in the world.

STUART — A man engaged in some weekend “Dumpster diving” at his complex found a framed picture of a space shuttle with $3,100 squirreled away behind the photo, according to Stuart police.

Sierra Condominium Apartments resident Warren Bendix was “Dumpster diving” about 1:45 p.m. Saturday and turned up the discarded shuttle photo, which “certainly looked salvageable,” a Monday release states. Bendix took the framed photo home, and decided to change the frame.

Bendix took the frame off and found 24 $100 bills and 35 $20 bills behind the photo.

“Maybe he was feeling down in the dumps, and now he isn’t,” said Sgt. Marty Jacobson, police spokesman.

Jacobson said Bendix gave the money to police to hold. Jacobson said the money is not counterfeit.

E- WPLG: Video, Broward to Miami on a bus for free [for now]!

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