In all, a total 60 A-listers contributed. It took time, nearly two years, said organizer Karla Preissman. The first to respond to her requests was Jeb Bush, who shipped her The Travels of Babar. The last? The prez. Obama rush-mailed a pop up book of the White House two weeks ago.

What charity will benefit? For more, and the pictures of Thursday night’s preview of the auction at the Elliott, please click here.

Since September, the former strangers have endured a grueling jury selection process, listened to gory details about the 2002 murder of Joan Loughman and cried along with Loughman’s family in court as they described their heartache.

They became part of the jury that recommended last month that Gosciminski die for the crime. And on Friday, they became part of the audience that watched Belanger follow their recommendation and sentence Gosciminski to Death Row for the killing — for the second time.

“I’ve never had this happen before,” Assistant State Attorney Lynn Park said of the jurors’ presence. “Three others said they wanted to come but couldn’t make it.”

Belanger said testimony about Gosciminski’s military service and mental health problems failed to outweigh the cruelty and cold planning that justified a death sentence.

Gosciminski, who won a new trial last year after the Florida Supreme Court overturned his original death sentence, never looked at the jurors during the short hearing.

Assistant Public Defender Mark Harllee said he and Gosciminski had expected Belanger to follow the jury’s recommendation, although the judge could have sentenced him to life in prison. Harllee said Gosciminski, who maintains his innocence, plans a vigorous appeal again.
Park and Assistant State Attorney Chris Taylor said Gosciminksi killed Loughman to steal her jewelry after the two met at an assisted living facility where Loughman had placed her father.
Loughman was beaten and stabbed to death on the morning before she was scheduled to return to her native Connecticut. Gosciminski’s girlfriend at the time said she saw him washing himself of blood shortly after the murder, and that later that day he gave her a 2-carat diamond ring believed to be Loughman’s.
If Gosciminski’s new appeal prevails, he’ll join a small group of Death Row inmates from the Treasure Coast whose cases have volleyed back and forth between circuit and appellate courts for years.
Alphonso Cave, one of several men convicted in the 1982 Stuart murder of Frances Slater, was sentenced to death the same year, but received the same sentence again in 1993 and 1997 after winning appeals. James Morgan stood trial four times for killing an elderly woman in the late 1970s before he escaped Death Row with a life sentence in the 1990s.
Loughman’s daughter Karen Stillman, who was in court Friday, said she hopes she and her family won’t have to sit through yet another trial.
“Last time I really thought it was final,” she said. “This time I’m taking it one day at a time.”
For now, Stillman said, she’ll try to leave the case behind her except for memories of kindness from prosecutors and the jurors, whom she hugged before leaving the courthouse.
The jurors in the courtroom Friday said the experience has forever changed their lives. One of the women broke down in tears again as she remembered the penalty-phase testimony from Stillman, who was pregnant when her mother was murdered. Stillman testified she never had a chance to tell her mother she was having a girl.
“I just felt so deeply sorry,” said one juror, who declined to give her name. “It was both a deeply disturbing and deeply interesting experience, but it’s good to see the justice system work.”

The U.S. District Court grand jury in Fort Pierce indicted Kobie Gary, 30, of Jensen Beach; Stephen Shepherd, 33, a tenant at the $125,030 home in the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive in Hobe Sound that was the alleged grow house; and Scott Daniel Gibson of Stuart.

Gary and Shepherd were arrested Oct. 27 when Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies raided the house and, according to a complaint certificate unsealed Thursday, found 213 marijuana plants. Gibson was arrested Aug. 15 when, according to the complaint, deputies found 12 jars containing 170.2 grams of marijuana and paper bags with marijuana plant trimmings.

If convicted, Gary and Shepherd face from five to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine for each of two charges, manufacture and possession with intent to distribute more than 100 marijuana plants and conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, plus up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine for a charge of conspiracy to maintain a place for growing marijuana.

Gibson faces the same charges; but because of a prior criminal history, he could face up to life in prison and a $4 million fine on the conspiracy to manufacture marijuana charge.

Time Line

According to a criminal complaint filed by a special agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration:

March 27: A “source of information” tells a Martin County Sheriff’s Office sergeant that Scott Gibson was maintaining a marijuana growing operation in a triplex in the 3000 block of Indian Street in Stuart, and the “grow was funded by a male named Kobie Gary.”

Aug. 14: Deputies dispatched to “a call of a suicidal man” at Gibson’s Indian Street house report the smell of marijuana coming from the house and marijuana plants growing in the back yard.

Aug. 15: Acting on a search warrant at the Indian Street house, deputies find 12 jars containing a total of 170.2 grams of marijuana, trimmings from marijuana plants and 11 marijuana plants in the back yard. Gibson is arrested at the house.

Week of Oct. 5: A source reports the smell of marijuana coming from a house in the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive in Hobe Sound.

Oct. 13: Subpoenaed records show the electric bill at the Mulberry Drive house was $319.43 in August, $615.58 in September and $665.84 in October.

3:09 p.m. Oct. 27: Gary is arrested as he leaves the Mulberry Drive residence.

3:20 p.m. Oct. 27: Deputies arrest Steven Shepherd as they execute a search warrant at the Mulberry Drive residence and find “a fully operational indoor marijuana grow, with marijuana plants in each bedroom. Deputies seize 213 marijuana plants and an intricate lighting system.

Also found is an invoice in Gary’s name for “7 million beneficial nematodes and 1,500 live lady bugs. … A person growing marijuana will use these organisms because they will kill insects but are non-toxic to humans.” In Gary’s car, they find a key to the Mulberry Drive house’s front door, a receipt for the home’s electric bill and a small amount of marijuana.

Tyler Treadway, TCPalm.com

A third vaccination station will be Nov. 21 at the same location and time.

“Because of limited supplies, right now we are only targeting people who fall within one of the priority groups and who do not have access to the vaccine through their doctor,” said Larry Lee, St. Lucie County Health Department Administrator.

The priority groups, as identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are at highest risk for severe complications from H1N1. They are: pregnant women, people who live with or care for children younger than 6 months of age, people from 6 months to 24 years of age, health care and emergency medical services personnel, people 25 to 64 years old who are at higher risk for H1N1 because of chronic health disorders or compromised immune systems

For more information, visit www.stluciecountyhealth.com or call 1-877-FLA-FLU1.
TCPalm.com

In early October the outdoor mall filed for bankruptcy in federal court, a move that halted a foreclosure lawsuit filed by the mall’s creditor, LNV Corp. of Nevada, in Indian River Circuit Court. LNV Corp.’s attorney Kenneth Curtin contends the mall defaulted on a $32 million loan for purchase of the 329,000-square-foot mall in 2007.

Now Curtin has filed a lawsuit asking for money from owner Irwin Tauber and his Tauber Family Trust, Tauber, of Bay Harbor, is a principal owner of the mall west of Vero Beach.

Curtin says the trust is personal guarantor of the loan.

During a foreclosure court hearing before the bankruptcy filing, Tauber’s wife, Laura Tauber, testified that the trust also has been affected by the economy’s downturn.

In 2008, the trust’s worth was estimated at $158 million, but she said “that has changed substantially.”

She didn’t elaborate.

The mall’s income has dropped off to the point the mall faces “serious issues that need to be addressed,” she said.

In the past few weeks, the mall announced the addition to a new tenant and the enlargement of one store. The new store is the Coach Factory Outlet.

“I’ve spent enormous time at the mall,” Laura Tauber said.

Elliott Jones, TCPalm.com

About 3:35 p.m., the Albatross seaplane blew its left motor just after take off and crashed in a wooded area, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office news release and Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen.

Passenger Michael Hasted, hometown not provided, received minor injuries and was listed in stable condition at Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute. Pilot Robert Swawston and passenger Larry Mclun, hometown for both not provided, were not injured, the release states.

Officials didn’t have information on the plane’s destination. FAA records show the plane is registered to Albatross Adventure Inc. trustee of Wilmington, Del.

About 30-40 gallons of fuel leaked out and by Thursday evening St. Lucie County Fire District officials were still cleaning the spill, the release states.

FAA investigators are expected to be on the scene Friday morning to investigate a cause of the accident.

The airport is about 1.5 miles west of U.S. 1 at 3000 Curtis King Blvd.

School board officials had suspended Portillo and stripped her of her tenure for the May 2008 incident, in which she asked Alex Barton’s classmates at Morningside Elementary to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive.

Alex was subsequently diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism. His mother, Melissa Barton, sued the school board and Portillo in August, saying the “Survivor-style” vote-out caused Alex irreparable psychological harm.

By then, school officials had restored Portillo’s tenure and said she could return to teaching as soon as mid-November.

Portillo’s reinstatement is on the agenda for Tuesday’s school board meeting, joined with several other personnel matters.

Schools spokeswoman Janice Karst said board members could approve Portillo’s return along with the other items collectively. Or they could take up the matter separately and discuss their decision before they making a final vote.

If they approve her return, Portillo will likely be teaching science and reading to sixth-graders at Allapattah K-8. Karst said Portillo could start as early as Nov. 19.

Superintendent Michael Lannon said in June that he had considered recommending that the board fire Portillo but decided against it. Instead, he recommended that the 12-year veteran be returned to an annual contract and prohibited from teaching young children again in St. Lucie.

Melissa Barton says her son is still in therapy over the incident but is now an honor roll student at Jupiter Academy, a private school he began attending this year.

“My preference would be to let this beach heal and to not allow too many people,” Bausch said Monday.

Bausch is one of a group of citizens the county has started consulting to formulate a plan for the beach as it prepares to rehabilitate the well-loved park, which has been closed since early last month.

While the county is accepting bids to restore the park’s crucial sand dune, the head of the Parks and Recreation department held his first meeting with a citizen advisory board to create a new management plan for the beach.

Martin County is planning to start rebuilding the popular park’s crucial sand dune, a project expected to cost at least $1.2 million, in January.

The county closed the beach Oct. 6, around the same time it closed the beach last year, because erosion had exposed tree stumps and chunks of concrete on the beach.

Richard Blankenship, director of the county parks and recreation department, was asked by county commissioners in September to create a vision for the park’s future that would detail when the park would be open and how to prevent deterioration.

He met for the first time Monday with a group of citizens to get their input on the park, and the group of less than 10 came up with a wide variety of suggestions, from posting more signs to reducing parking spaces, but all agreed that lessening user impact on the beach in some way would be ideal.

The decimated sand dune to be rebuilt is near the beach’s northern parking lot, said Kathy FitzPatrick, the county’s coastal engineer, and bidding will wrap up at the end of the month.

The county completed a two-year permitting application process to rebuild the dune, damaged along with the northern section of parking lot by storms in 2007, and is now awaiting permits.

The worm rock reef from which the beach takes its name prevents the county from completing a full beach replenishment, but the dune reconstruction will at least contribute to stability and vegetation.

Once the project is bid out, the county will pump sand from the shoals of the St. Lucie River Inlet west of the beach to build the sand dune. There is no guarantee that the dune will not be affected by the frequent shifting of sand that takes place in the park. The process is expected to take several weeks.

The Martin County has already been considering a number of options for healing the park. One of the costliest would be purchasing a private property on the north side of the beach and moving bathrooms that washed away there. But the cost makes the choice unrealistic, officials said.

Sharon Massaglia, a Jensen Beach resident, said people need to be informed of their effect on the beach and reef in order to protect the park, where she would bring her son when he was young. She said there could even be some type of instructional video, like the ones shown at Sea World exhibits, about the park.

Sam Mahoney, who worked as a lifeguard at Bathtub Beach and elsewhere before lifeguards were taken off-duty there, said that parking could be lessened to protect the beach’s stability. He also was concerned about visitors taking too many fish from the reef.

Blankenship told the group that he planned to go to the county commission with a plan in December and invited the group to think of a plan and meet again Nov. 16.
By Alex Tiegen, TCPalm.com

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

Port St. Lucie police were called to the school Wednesday, two days after the alleged incident happened, when the 6-year-old’s mother came to the school “very upset,” according to the police report.

School Principal Harriett McGriff told police she spoke with kindergarten teacher Martha Ensley and that Ensley “admitted to having (the student) clean the urine and admitted giving her ‘dolphin dollars’ afterward,” the report states.

Dolphin Dollars are play money given to Floresta Elementary students to reinforce good behavior. The play money can later be exchanged for toys and activities at a school store.

Police consulted with the state attorney’s office and decided no crime had occurred.

Janice Karst, school district director of communications, said an internal investigation is under way to determine if school administrative rules had been broken.

The student’s mother could not reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, and Floresta Elementary administrators referred inquiries to Karst.

The investigating officer met with Ensley and asked the teacher to explain what happened. According to the officer’s report, Ensley said she has a classroom policy that students are supposed to clean up their own restroom messes.

A student urinated on the floor and did not clean up after the mess. Ensley is quoted in the report as saying the 6-year-old girl followed usual procedure by raising her hand and telling her the bathroom was fouled with urine.

“Mrs. Ensley told me she was in the middle of a lesson,” the report states, “and told (the girl) to just clean it up. (The girl) returned to the restroom and wiped up the urine. (Ensley) then gave (the student) Dolphin Dollars as a reward.”

Ensley told police she did not enter the restroom and did not know how much urine was in it. Later, the girl described it for police and school officials as “a yellow puddle on the floor.”

The officer’s report states that “Mrs. Ensley admitted she made a poor decision” and “was not trying to demean the student or cause her any harm.”

The officer reported Ensley also said “that this type of things happens often in kindergarten and asked what to do if a custodian was not available. I offered her some suggestions in regards to obtaining some cleaning solutions and rubber gloves for herself, but advised her against having children clean up bodily fluids, especially from other students.”