news that you need to hear if you or someone you know drives on i-4 east. a big time traffic jam right near the mlk exit. right now fhp says the on-ramp is closed and ead lanes are blocked. less than 10 minutes ago we learned that the driver who died was a 32-year-old man. fhp troopers say he drove off i- 4 and came back on to the road and caused two other vehicles to crash, including a trtor- trailer carrying cardboard. the entire interstate was closed and traffic had to be diverted off of i-4. i'm jamison uhler. >> and i'm wendy ryan. a former middle school teacher, this guy right here facing serious charged. he wanted a young girl to send naked photos and videos of herself to other students. >> clifton french is live outside of the school where geist used to teach. this all started with a cell phone. >> reporter: yeah.

a smart phone with apps installed and instructed her how to send naked pictures and videos of herself to other students. while he didn't have any pictures sent to himself, we are learning that he would take that phone to see those naked images of that child. out of jail but not answering his door, we attempted to talk to 321-year-old michael geist a former science teacher charged with lewd conduct with student. >> he was always nice and respectful to me. >> reporter: his neighbors shocked by the arrest, saying that he was always friendly, even offering to watch his neighbor's young child. >> i love it here. and i think this is a good place to live. and, you know, when you hear something like that, you just don't know who your next-door neighbor is anymore. >> reporter: while his adult neighbors didn't see anything wrong, according to the school district, it was suspicious student who's came forward,

teacher. >> just said something didn't seem right about this particular teacher and a student. >> reporter: the district contacted the sheriff's office immediately and the principal called geis in for a meet. >> when they brought the teacher in, the teacher resigned immedtely. >> reporter: that was in early may. geist was hired in lalate february. he had worked for the district for less than two and a half months. and in that two and a half months, i am just uncovering a whole host of inappropriate behavior. i received a memo written by the principal of the school just down this road. i'm going to read some thanks it talks about. it talks about e-mails sent from his private account to students. it talks about discussion about porn in appropriate meetings at lunches with female students. allowing a student to twerk in front of a class and telling her to keep goin aegation of giving a child laced with pot in the memo.

incident is also listed here. now, the school district says the behavior was addressed each time something came up. but none of it was fireable at the time. and once it got to that point, geist just quit his job. there is more. we just got his -- we just got his discipline record, also his application to the school. we will bring all of that information to you tonight at 11:00. i'm reporting live in hillsborough county, clifton french. >> we're expecting an update any minute from sarasota county deputies about a man's death this morning. neighbors heard yelling and screaming and six gunshots after 2:00 a.m. so far authorities haven't said if any suspects are in custody but deputies don't believe there is any dane be engineer to the community right now. tonight we're hearing from a local teenager who says a stranger forced her to the ground and threatened her. it happened this morning during

that's near the corner of 20th street east and 50th avenue ss live together after speaking with that victim. ryan. >> reporter: she was certainly shaken up this afternoon when we asked her about what had happened right behind me in this area. the victim saying she was grabbed by her backpack and thrown to the ground right here, just steps away from her bus stop. she says she did her best to fight the attacker off of her but it was says that likely saved her life. 6:00 a.m., the victim starts her short walk to the bus stop. not far from her house, a strange man approaches. >> i was so afraid that i was going to guy. >> reporter: the man grabbed the 16-year-old by her backpack and tackled her to the grow under. >> i tried to scream for help but he covered my mouth and he said he would choke me and told me to take off my pants or he who choke me.

victim. she is the victim an attempted sexu assault. the victim says it took all of her strength to keep the man off of her. >> he tried to remove my shirt but the way i was laying, he couldn't get it off. >> reporter: a passing car sent him running. >> if it wasn't for the car, he could have gotten what he wanted and i could have died. >> reporter: he snatched the victim's cell deputies searched the entire neighborhood. but did not find anything.

are not travel related. ahead at 5:30, we will look at mr. scott's visit to washington, plus the reason that doctors say couples w concerned about zika shouldn't wait. now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> how are you doing, everybody? interesting happenings in the weather today. remember the wave off to the east? it is getting better organized. so much better organized that it is pulling in quite a bit of the moisture that was supposed to be in our immediate area and bringing it over to the east coast. there's a chance there could be

tonight. either wait for us, it won't have an impact other than bringing additional rain across the state later tonight and again tomorrow. so if you look at temperatures right now, we've had scattered showers. but still with a good deal of sunshine. temperatures in the 80s to near 90. as the low pulls north, right now it's around daytona beach, it lifts north. and then the moisture begins to come in off of the gulf. that will be an issue overnight tonight and into tomorrow morning, possibly creating some for part of our viewing area. so, again, tonight clouds begin to thicken. rain becomes likely after midnight and tomorrow morning. a closer look at that coming up in a couple minutes. >> thank you, denis. you've got to check out this crazy video going on behind me. it's a manatee county lawyer getting arrested in the panhandle. authorities are trying to figure out if she was high on bath salts when she began swerving on to sidewalks, driving the wrong way over the weekend.

after she hit speeds of 70 miles per hour. watch what happens next on this dash cam video. it shows carol refusing to unlock her door. so deputies have to actually break her window. listen to what she told them next. >> wow. a deputy was injured though when carol put her car in reverse and hit him. carol is now facing eight different charges, including assault, battery. you remember hillsborough county deputy shot and killed riggins while serving a search warrant. ober has been a family friend for years. he has asked to be taken off of

who died after shooting the mass shooting at pulse nightclub. but deputies are not sure how christopher died, only saying it does not appear that he was murdered. he was celebrating a birthday party at a home on garden lake circle and deputies found him unconscious in the backyard. an update to a deadly helicopter crash off of the east coast. the deputies believe that the rotors were be spinning fast three people died when the helicopter crashed and caught on fire in palm bay. the ntsb is examining the voice recorders for signs of what went wrong. and we're checking on how four people are doing right now, including three students after this school bus crash in lakeland this morning. tonight we know that the bus driver is getting cited for sparking the accident. the bus was headed for kathleen high school around 6:30 a.m. when it turned in front of a

three were injured, along with the pickup truck driver. right now hillary clinton's campaign says it is hopeful that the democratic presidential candidate will be back on the campaign trail by the end of the week. while she spends a second full day resting at home, president obama is stomping on her behalf. she has conceded that events like this have happened before when she was overworked and dehydrated and didn't think that t would be that big deal. so far we know that the main points of donald trump's proposal include deducting child care expenses from income taxes and guaranteeing six months of paid maternity leave. the ball room left in shock as anti-ryan lochte protesters rush the "dancing with the stars" stage. all new at 5:00, the reason that the men felt they had to

honeymoon island? take a look. we go beyond the sand. why the value of this beach is more than just dollars and cents. and ahead at 5:30, a fix for phones at risk of catching fire. the people who own the brand-

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suspects ever touched lochte or the other contestants. he has faced scrutiny after lying about a robbery in brazil during the summer olympics. we are getting a look at beach erosion in honeymoon beach. paul lagrone what did you see out there. >> let me show you the sand. it is pretty much an island. hermine just blasted this

found the value of this sand goes way beyond the dollars. >> reporter: it almost makes up for this. [audio difficulties] >> we will try to get you that story later. look at this. the beach erosion extends south to indian rocks as well. this is before and after pictures. this is the do you know before hermine. when hermine came along, gone. the dunes are gone. the manager says if you don't rebuild these, the next storm will be worse in terms of damage. paul lagrone, abc action news. now the most accurate weather team in florida, abc action weather. >> how are you doing, everybody? looking outside. partly sunny skies across the area. a lot of clouds on the east coast. but the west coast, noticeably

i'm not so sure that tomorrow we will see the same kind of setup. what is going on is there are heavier rains on the east coast. there's the tropical wave that we talked about yesterday. it's similar in the sense to what we went through with hermine. when the storm gets better organized, then all of a sudden it brings the moisture close tore it. that is what is happening right now. heavier rains on the east coast. but the problem for us is going to be over the next 12 hours as it moves north. that moisture will cut across our area. and i think our rain chances will begin to temperatures right now upper 80s to about 90 degrees. mid-80s polk county because there's more clouds there. along the coast, closer to 90 and more sunshine. outside right now, tampa checking in at 88. 87 in clearwater. st. pete 85 degrees. good deal of sunshine covering the entire area. so how are things shaping up? pretty good. a lot of folks have yi a lot of heat, a lot of humidity. but look right here, check it

time. look at -- look that the spin right there. the blob is getting more organized. the hurricane center said at 5:00 that they would turn this into a depression and issue tropical storm warnings for part of the east coast. they have backed off on that but that is a possibility for 11:00. how that impacts our weather clearly will be the next 6 to 12 hours. the biggest issue pasco. folks in citrus county. even though we've had a week to ten days to dry out a little bit, that is something that we will hope of hopefully not have to deal with. rain chances go up tonight and tomorrow. this evening looking partly cloudy. a few showers coming in. as the low center moves north, it is still going to have the moisture train, if you will, cutting across the gulf of mexico. by tomorrow night or tomorrow morning, then all of a sudden we begin to see some of this

now, where it exactly sets up, there's just no way to tell in advance. but i can tell you this, tomorrow morning when you wake up, especially if you live, say, north of i-4, i think you will have a better chance of picking up areas of heavy rain. and then by noon time, heavier rains pop up again. because what is happening is the moisture is coming in off of the gulf. as was the case with hermine, in a different location, i hate to bring up that name because it brought horrible conditions to pasco county and citrus in terms of flooding. we're not talking about anything close to that. no surge. but there could be periods of heavy rain. there's still no place for the water to go. because of that, we will continue to look at the possibility if not the likelihood of some periods of heavy rain tomorrow, tomorrow night, and even again on thursday. because here is the kicker to this forecast. that low is forecast to hang around in the northern sections of the gulf. maybe a little more north. and then after that, we will just have to see. so the bottom line, this means

rain friday, saturday and sunday. we're not going to see that sunny, hot weather and late-day storms. we have more moisture to start with. there is an isolated shower or storm in the forecast at any point in time. you can see it clearly here. this is a look at the rainfall through thursday morning. no rhyme or reason to where the red areas pop up. but there will be some out there. you can go further with this with the european model. most folks in the viewing area pick up close to rain by sunday afternoon. the heaviest, east of us. the heaviest north of us. and that storm whatever it is is not going to turn around any time soon. although some of the models bring it into the atlantic and bring it back down the road. but it's moving away. so what we're looking at, especially starting tomorrow is a train of moisture coming in and some heavy rains at times throughout the day. simple as that. washout? i don't think so. but there will be a 10 to 150-

that will get heavier rain. seas a couple of feet. water temperature 84 degrees. there's your upcoming tides and sunrise and sunset. ai better chance starting tomorrow morning for rain. at t rain chances 60% tomorrow. then by the weekend, i think we have a decent chance of rain at times but more sunshine and highs around 90. boarded up, locked up and becoming a public nuisance. why so many of the foreclosed in the tampa bay area are completely abandoned. uber and lyft continuing in hillsborough county. one of the sticking points is background checks.

>> new at 5:00, the islamic community says it will rebuild the south florida mosque that you see that was damaged in an arson. the arsonist is still on the run and terrorized the community on one of the most meaningful days of the religion. tonight investigators are begging for help to solve this case. they have phone calls with tips about the arson and none have led to a possible suspect. usually we hear about suspects getting arrested and then going to jail. but authorities say this ohio man actually broke into jail. now he is behind bars once again. chad sailor explained that he hopped a fence to get into jail because he thought men with guns are chasing him and his life was in danger.

they're coming. please. >> who is coming? >> they shot at me. they're coming. they're coming. >> well, when police arrived, sailor was the only person they saw. no armed gunmen in sight. police arrested him because he had an active warrant for theft. coming up on abc action news at 5:30, phones catching fire. the one thing that the latest update by samsung will prevent you from doing. families living next to something like this, a boarded up foreclosed home. why experts say they're not going away yet. we have patients at our office who had said they're going to delay their pregnancy. major decisions. the zika virus putting expanding families on hold. the one reason that a doctor says that some couples

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>> live from the station taking action for you, this is abc action news. >> they're called zombie homes. in foreclosure and abandoned. i'm pa lagrone. >> and i'm laura harris. despite years since the housing crash, these properties haunt tampa bay right now. adam weiner on how the vacant homes affect all of us. >> reporter: imagine for a second that this is your home. a nice single-family house here in the tampa area. but if you look to your left, you have a foreclosed home, boarded up. if you look to the right, another foreclosed home also boarded up. this is still a problem here in the tampa bay area. one problem with abandoned homes,. >> there was renters there but it was not --

>> legal renters there. >> reporter: anita williams says a bank bought this 26th avenue house, just yards away from her mom's house. >> now there's nobody there. it has been vacant for months. >> reporter: they wanted to know why. well, this house was sold just before the housing crash for over $200,000. and after the crash, the house went into foreclosure. >> so rather than make the sale at fair market value, they hold on to the stagnant inventory at unrealistic price snooze a report shows that florida still among the national leaders in foreclosures. in florida, it's the tampa bay area and the sarasota bradenton area with the highest rates of foreclosed homes that appear totally abandoned. >> the homes are overpriced. if you see a home that has been on the market for a year, clearly it's overpriced or there's something wrong with it. >> reporter: vince says that small banks that made bad lobes before the recession are usually behind the problem. if there's any good news for