OKEECHOBEE — Trevor Keezer didn’t start working at The Home Depot to make a religious statement. He just wanted to earn money for college.

“I want to go to school to become a nurse,” said the 20-year-old Okeechobee resident.

Keezer says for 19 months, ever since he started working as a cashier at The Home Depot in Okeechobee, he’s worn a button with an American flag on it that reads: “One nation under God, indivisible.”

Keezer sees the quotation, taken from the pledge of allegiance, as his way of supporting American troops at war, and of expressing his Christian faith.

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OKEECHOBEE— A plane made a belly landing at the Okeechobee County Airport this afternoon, according to the sheriff’s office.

The plane landed at the airport in Okeechobee around 1:30 p.m. with its landing gear still up, said Det. Ted Van Deman. He did not know what type of plane was involved or how many people were on board. No injuries were reported. He did not know if the pilot forgot to put the landing gear down or if there was a mechanical failure.

The National Transportation Safety Board will like be called in to investigate, Van Deman said,

FORT PIERCE — With the start of school just weeks away, school and health officials on the Treasure Coast want parents to know they are prepared for swine flu and will coordinate efforts to prevent its spread through the public schools.

They also ask that parents and students follow this simple advice to help: “If you’re sick, stay home,” said Larry Lee, administrator of the St. Lucie County Health Department.

School and health officials announced their efforts at a joint press conference today at the St. Lucie County School District offices in Fort Pierce. They noted that public schools in St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee counties have about 83,000 students about 300,000 family members.
With frequent travel in the four-county region, they agreed to cooperate in controlling the spread of H1N1 virus. (more…)

It takes eight members of an animal hospital's staff to hold the python, caught on Wednesday. (Courtesy of Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital.)

“He’s been sighted by residents many times for the last couple of years,” Jennifer Van Buren said of the 17-foot-2-inch Burmese python that was killed Thursday behind the Okeechobee Veterinary Hospital, just outside the city.

The snake measured 26 inches in circumference and weighed 200 pounds when its carcass was pulled out of a canal behind the animal hospital, the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

A hospital veterinarian, identified by commission officials as Jim Harvey, shot the python.
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The early retirement of state Sen. Ken Pruitt will cost local governments — and therefore taxpayers — more than $475,000.

Tuesday’s special election to replace Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, for one year will cost at least that much.

Elections officials in the five counties that comprise state Senate District 28 base their costs projections upon printing, staff overtime, poll worker costs, advertising and the cost to mail out absentee-style ballots. (more…)

OKEECHOBEE COUNTY — The death of a 49-year-old woman found by family members appears to be the result of a homicide, and sheriff’s investigators are interviewing “persons of interest,” the sheriff’s office stated Wednesday.

Sheriff’s deputies responded Tuesday night to an address in the 2700 block of Northeast 11th Court and met with Roberta “Bobbie” Elizabeth Christensen’s son and daughter-in-law.

They reported coming to the residence in the Pine Ridge Park subdivision to see Christensen, a waitress at Golden Corral, and finding her dead inside. (more…)

The week-long process called early voting, where ballots are cast on optical scan equipment at county elections headquarters and a couple other locations, kicks off Monday morning for the special state Senate District 28 election.

Elections officials will oversee early voting at the main office in each county. St. Lucie and Palm Beach counties will open secondary locations, at the Port St. Lucie City Hall and the North County Courthouse in Palm Beach Gardens.

As of Friday morning, election officials reported 19,802 voters in Florida’s Senate District 28 have cast their votes, using the vote by mail ballots, since the start of the month for the Aug. 4 special election to replace retiring Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie. (more…)

A Belle Glade man arrested Wednesday on an attempted murder charge is the latest suspect to land behind bars in connection with two Okeechobee County shootings from early this month.

Ethan Harris, 26, is being held at the Palm Beach County jail without bond.

Harris is accused of shooting Okeechobee County resident Javaris Johnson, 24, in the back as Johnson was riding his three-wheel motorcycle along Front Street at about 11:30 p.m. on July 2, according to the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office.

Jarvis Johnson was able to keep riding until the end of the block, where he veered into an empty lot, Sheriff’s Det. Ted Van Deman said.

A past dispute over rental property prompted the shooting, Van Deman said.
Johnson had been competing against Okeechobee resident Byron Brinkley, 29, over a lease agreement to open up a bar at the corner of Front and Fifth streets, Van Deman said. In the end, Johnson outbid Brinkely.

When Jarvis Johnson’s cousin, Tarrance Pryor, 30, heard that he had been shot at, he went to confront one of Brinkley’s acquaintances, 29-year-old Keith “Ki-Ki” Johnson, Van Deman said. Keith Johnson ended up shooting Pryor with a pistol, Van Deman said.

Keith Johnson fled the scene but was arrested later that night during a traffic stop. Brinkley was also arrested that night on charges of helping Johnson flee.

Harris fled the scene and it took some days before investigators were able to pin him down as a suspect for Jarvis Johnson’s shooting.

A detective with the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office is on paid administrative leave after a jail inmate accused him of sexual misconduct, officials said.

Detective Sgt. T.J. Brock, 51, was placed on leave after sheriff’s officials learned from the FBI on Friday that a 39-year-old female inmate at the Okeechobee County Jail reported the incident, Undersheriff Noel Stephen said Tuesday.

Stephen said the woman told investigators the incident took place at the sheriff’s office, but Stephen declined to explain how the woman, who had been incarcerated since April on a misdemeanor charge, would have allegedly made her way from the jail to the sheriff’s office.

The undersheriff said ongoing criminal and internal investigations prevented him from discussing the case in detail.

Stephen, however, did say the woman was not raped.

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T.J. Brock

Det. Sgt. T.J. Brock, 51, was placed on leave after sheriff’s officials learned from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Friday that a 39-year-old female inmate at the Okeechobee County jail reported the incident, Undersheriff Noel Stephen said today.

The woman said the incident took place at the sheriff’s office, Stephen said, but declined to explain how the woman, who had been incarcerated since April, made her way from the jail to the sheriff’s office, citing ongoing criminal and internal investigations into the allegations.

But Stephen did say the woman was not raped.

The woman has been transported to another facility while the investigations are underway, Stephen said.

Brock is a 24-year veteran on the force who is assigned to the criminal investigations division, Stephen said.