PORT ST. LUCIE — A 36-year-old woman was arrested Wednesday after selling an informant nearly 160 oxycodone pills, according to an affidavit released Thursday.

Gina M. Sanchez, of the 100 block of Everglades Boulevard in Stuart, met the informant about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard.

The informant, who met earlier with a police investigator, had been given $1,020 and had been followed to the scene by members of the police department’s Special Investigations Unit.

The informant got into Sanchez’s vehicle, and Sanchez exchanged 157 oxycodone pills for the money.

Police arrested Sanchez on a felony trafficking in oxycodone charge and took her to jail.

Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

HOBE SOUND — Pennsylvania natives Bryan Theiss and Christina Gillin first met nine years ago while working as lifeguards on a beach in Ocean City, N.J.

Married since April, the couple recently started the first private lifeguard service in the Treasure Coast. Bryan Theiss is an emergency medical technician and ocean rescue lifeguard for Palm Beach County.

“I love saving people. It’s the best feeling,” Theiss said.
(more…)

STUART — Stuart Defense Attorney Robert Udell has been disbarred after agreeing to surrender his ability to practice law amid allegations he committed ethical and possibly criminal violations and fraudulently billed the state’s Justice Administrative Commission.

Defense attorney Robert Udell (right) leans onto the shoulder of Nathaniel Brazill after the verdict in Brazill's murder trial in May 2001. Brazill shot and killed teacher Barry Grunow on the last day of school in May 2000. Brazill, 14, was convicted of second-degree murder murder in the slaying. Photo by Lannis Waters/ The Palm Beach Post.

(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Sleep has been hard to come by ever since someone broke into what Gayle Crothers considers her sanctuary.

She pulled into her driveway Monday afternoon and noticed a strange car backed up to her house. “I came in the front door and there was a man standing here, or actually two men, but behind the door there was a third one I did not see,” says Crothers.

The men pushed Crothers down and took off, leaving with her Ipod, a laptop and several remotes. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — City Hall critic Dave Mittler is demanding City Councilwoman Michelle Berger publicly apologize for calling him and his former neighbor, John Methvin, “professional anarchists” during a Sept. 28 City Council meeting.

The issue has Mayor Patricia Christensen reassessing how City Council meetings are conducted.

Mittler’s call for an apology comes after Methvin called the City Council office about two weeks ago demanding Berger apologize for making the remark or he would show up at the next council meeting with “guns loaded,” a statement he later said was a figure of speech.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council voted 4-1 at its Monday night meeting to move forward with making Midway Road the dividing line between the city and Fort Pierce.

But officials have just begun ironing out the details regarding utilities and annexations in the joint planning agreement.

The council agreed to assign Midway Road from the Indian River Lagoon to the St. Lucie County Fairgrounds as the boundary. Councilwoman Michelle Berger had requested at the council’s Oct. 19 meeting a follow-up discussion about the joint planning agreement for services north of Midway Road.

“I’m quite comfortable putting a line at Midway Road,” Berger said.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 54-year-old Port St. Lucie man faces DUI charges after allegedly laying down his motorcycle several times on the Crosstown Parkway Friday night, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit.

Roger Dale Syner, of the 200 block of Southwest Inwood Avenue, was arrested after 8 p.m. and charged with a traffic felony for DUI and a misdemeanor for refusing a breathalyzer test. It was the fourth DUI in Syner’s lifetime and third in 10 years, according to the affidavit.

A witness driving behind Syner watched him drop his motorcycle at least three times while he was speeding eastbound, according to the affidavit. He told officers he had just enough to drink.
(more…)

FORT PIERCE - Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they have dismantled a Cuban smuggling ring operating on Florida’s Atlantic coast.

ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas said agents arrested seven people Oct. 15. Local police arrested another suspect on drug charges. Another remains at large, officials said.

The alleged Port St. Lucie-based group faces charges including conspiring to smuggle Cubans into the country between June and December of 2008. They could face decades behind bars if convicted.

Overall, Cuban migration has plummeted in the last year. Authorities attribute the drop to stepped up investigations and prosecutions, the lifting of some U.S. travel restrictions, a bad economy and a crackdown on the communist island.

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 42-year-old man was arrested after allegedly leaving his baby daughter alone in a vehicle at a business on South U.S. 1, according to an affidavit released Wednesday.

Tyrone R. Anderson, of the 1900 block of Southeast Hillmoor Drive in Port St. Lucie, faces a felony child neglect charge following the Tuesday afternoon incidents in the 10700 block of South U.S. 1.

A witness reported seeing the vehicle about 4:30 p.m. with the baby inside. The vehicle was running and no adult was present. The witness said another person indicated the vehicle was parked in the same spot about 3:45 p.m.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Each time City Hall critic John Methvin attends a City Council meeting, he’ll be screened for weapons by a police officer using a metal detector.

In a telephone conversation last week with an employee in the City Council office, Methvin allegedly demanded Councilwoman Michelle Berger meet with him to apologize for calling him and his neighbor, Dave Mittler, “professional anarchists” during a Sept. 28 council meeting. He said if Berger refused to meet with him, he would show up at the next council meeting with “guns loaded.”

Methvin said his remarks were taken out of context and were a figure of speech.
(more…)