INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Authorities announced Monday they made three arrests after three Storm Grove Middle School students were hospitalized when they became ill from snorting crushed Roxycodone pain pills and using other drugs.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said one of the sick students, a 13-year-old girl, named students at the school who were providing prescription drugs and marijuana to her and others, Sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther said.

The Sheriff’s Office charged Halee Marie Webb, 14, of the 100 block of Harris Drive, Sebastian, and Jacob Scott Martin, 13, of the 100 block of Midvale Terrace, Sebastian, each with felony distribution of a controlled substance. Another 13-year-old girl had a juvenile affidavit filed against her for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, Luther said.
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SEBASTIAN — An elderly Sebastian couple remain hospitalized with serious burns following a mid-day fire Monday in their duplex unit in the 1000 block of Louisiana Avenue.

Karen Baker, 68, and her husband, Jimmy Yates, 75, were taken to a burn treatment facility in Orlando after initially being treated at Health First in Melbourne, officials said.

Barker, who is an invalid on oxygen, had burns on about 45 percent of her body, said her daughter, Debora Wagner.
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SEBASTIAN — City Council candidate Joseph Scozzari is trying to avoid any last-minute surprises by explaining why, 31 years ago, he became a convicted felon.

Scozzari said he was a 17-year-old single father who owned and operated pony rides in New York. He and a group of four others decided to take nine saddles from a vacant barn. The saddles belonged to some judges and attorneys and the young Scozzari and the others ended up arrested.

Scozzari said the others could afford lawyers, but he had a public defender who told me he was facing some time in prison if convicted of burglary.
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A Sebastian woman remained in custody Tuesday in Brevard County after she roughed up and robbed someone she was partying with and threatened to arrest him, though she is not a law enforcement officer, according to an incident report.

Dawn Leigh Kravis, 31, of the 1000 block of Roseland Road, Sebastian, was charged with robbery with no weapon, kidnapping and false imprisonment of an adult and fraudulently impersonating a law enforcement officer in the commission of a felony. She was being held at the Brevard County Detention Center in lieu of $48,000 bail.

A 53-year-old man who lives in the 9100 block of U.S. 1, Micco, called the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office about 6 a.m. Saturday and said Kravis had robbed him, the report said. He told deputies he had been partying most of Friday and early Saturday with Kravis and another woman, the report said.
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SEBASTIAN — Police investigators said they uncovered a criminal enterprise involving ill-gotten prescription drugs, out-of-state pill smuggling and stolen auto parts when they searched a home last weekend.

Investigators spent 30 hours searching an undisclosed home late Friday and most of Saturday, said Sebastian Officer Steve Marcinik, police spokesman. Eight investigators recovered more than 3,000 pills with a street value of $60,000, as well as $6,500 worth of stolen property and $4,500 cash, investigators said.

“This shows a direct link between theft and the illegal prescription drug business,” Marcinik said.
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VERO BEACH — An autopsy is scheduled Friday for a 5-month old male infant found dead inside a hot SUV Thursday evening, said Vero Beach Police spokesman John Morrison.

Gannon Werking died Thursday after his mother Stephanie Werking of Sebastian left him inside a parked vehicle, according to a police department news release.

About 5 p.m. Thursday, a passerby called 911 when he saw a woman “screaming hysterically” in the parking lot of First United Bank at 17th Street and Indian River Boulevard, Morrison said.

“The child was obviously deceased at the scene,” he said, adding the cardiopulmonary resuscitation was not performed on the infant. (more…)

When the Martin County Commission fired Duncan Ballantyne from his $147,250 a year job as county administrator on St. Patrick’s Day, a pot of gold awaited the seasoned bureaucrat.

For starters, Ballantyne remained on the county payroll for a month after he cleaned out his office because he was entitled to a 30-day notice of his termination.

Since his official last day on April 23, Ballantyne has collected a total of $84,451 as a result of the severance package he negotiated when he was hired in the fall of 2005, county records show. And his initial severance period doesn’t end until Aug. 23.

Ballantyne’s severance package is not unusual for local government managers and attorneys on the Treasure Coast. In fact, 13 local government managers and attorneys in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties are entitled to severance pay for six months, or longer, if they are fired without cause. (more…)

ROSELAND — Law enforcement officials searched a home Monday they suspected of being a methamphetamine lab and arrested two people.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and the Sebastian Police Department, launched the investigation following a tip early Monday, Sheriff’s Detective Eric Flowers said. A local pharmacy notified law enforcement after someone bought ingredients commonly used for making methamphetamine, Flowers said.
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In these tight times, pay cuts and layoffs are affecting all ranks of school district employees from office staff to administrators.

But during the 2007-08 fiscal year, more than 61 Treasure Coast school district administrators earned more than $100,000. Now, some of these top earners are bracing for budget cuts.

Treasure Coast school superintendents made top dollar with Indian River County Schools Superintendent Harry La Cava taking home the biggest paycheck at $192,750.

However, for the 2009-10 fiscal year, La Cava is volunteering to take a 10 percent cut from his base salary, which equals about $17,500.

“If everybody is taking some kind of hit, we’re right in the mix of it,” La Cava said.

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SEBASTIAN — The woman who kept her mother’s mummified remains in a bedroom of their home for six years told police she never reported the death because she couldn’t afford burial expenses.

According to interview records released Tuesday, Penelope Sharon Jordan had maintained the ruse over the deception of the fate of Timmie Jordan since 2003. The story she gave to a Sebastian officer Monday morning was that her mother, who was born in 1913, was living in Melbourne. However, officers said Penelope Jordan couldn’t provide an address for where her mother was staying.
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