PORT ST. LUCIE — A man was flown out following a crash involving a motorcycle and a vehicle, the St. Lucie County Fire District said.

Fire District crews were called about 3:45 p.m. Monday to the incident in the 1400 block of Southeast Port St. Lucie Boulevard, spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.

She said the motorcyclist wound up underneath the vehicle and suffered multiple injuries. Port St. Lucie Police officers were investigating the crash, Chaney said.

Shortly before noon, deputies were called to the airport after a single engine 2008 Cirrus plane crashed, the release states.

The two men on board were taken to Martin Memorial Medical Center with what appeared to be minor, non-life threatening injuries, according to the release. The men told deputies they were flying to Boynton Beach when they made a hard landing at the airport.

The names of the men were not released. However, Federal Aviation Administration records show the plane is registered to Outfitter Rotary, LLC of Jacksonville, Ore.

Officials with the FAA are investigating, spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. No further information was available Saturday.

Cox, who is Indian River County’s oldest living veteran, was silent while he was presented with awards, a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol and even 100 gold coins to remember the occasion.

“This is one of the few times in my life that I don’t know what to say,” said Cox, who was accompanied by his wife Basilisa at the luncheon in his honor. “I don’t know how to thank you except to say I will continue to do the best I know how to do.”

A native of Mississippi, Cox was raised in Louisiana and was in the construction business when World War II broke out. He volunteered with a Naval construction battalion, known as the Seabees, and helped rebuild airfields, hospitals and other support facilities for the U.S. Navy and Marines in the South Pacific.

In recognition of Cox’s birthday, Chris Hill, an aide to U.S. Congressman Bill Posey, presented Cox with a flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol building on January 27, 2010.

“He seems like the nicest guy in the world,” said Hill. “His dedication to his country and the VFW is very impressive, and I’m glad to be here.”

VFW District Commander Bob Shultz said he was happy to honor Cox on his birthday.

“There are a lot of things in the VFW that I really enjoy doing,” said Shultz. “And saying ‘thank you’ to people like Charlie is certainly one of them.”

A number of other organizations, including the American Legion and the Veterans Council of Indian River County, noted Cox’s service to veterans as well as his role founding Habitat for Humanity in Indian River County.

“On behalf of the Veterans Council, we extend our congratulations on this momentous occasion,” said council president Eric Wieler. “We wish you all the best and God-speed.”

Other guests at the birthday party included family members and longtime friends of Cox.

“He’s led quite a life,” said Bob Graves of Vero Beach. “I’ve known him since 2001 and we’ve become very good friends. He’s a God-fearing man and he likes to do well for everyone.”

Larry Wapnick, who has known Cox through several veterans’ organizations, said Cox is “unbelievable” and has always been an advocate for veteran’s affairs.

“What is so amazing is that he’s still right on the button at his age,” said Wapnick. “When he talks, everyone listens. I can just imagine what he’ll do in the next 100 years.”

The Enstrom F-28 C helicopter encountered a strong wind gust just before it crashed, said Kathleen Bergen, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman.

The pilot, whose name or other information wasn’t immediately available Saturday, suffered only minor, non-life threatening injuries, officials said. The pilot was the sole person on board.

FAA aircraft records show the helicopter is registered to Richard C. Theriault of Vineland, N.J. It is unknown whether he was the pilot.

The helicopter, built in 1976, crashed about 11:30 a.m. near the southeast end of the airport. It was found on its side with at least one of its two rotors mangled. The rotors were facing south.

About 25 of its 45 gallons of fuel leaked out, said Catherine Chaney, St. Lucie County Fire District spokeswoman.

Officials from the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, St. Lucie County Fire District and FAA investigated the incident throughout Saturday.

No further details were released.

Other times it looked like a giant Hawaiian lei. Regardless of the shape, the 20-minute aquatic event and preceding beachside memorial was honoring a beloved surfer who died earlier this week following a shark attack.

“He really touched the community and a lot of people’s lives,” friend Stephanie Hudson Forsberg said of Stephen Schafer during the event.

Schafer, 38, died Wednesday after an 8- to 9-foot shark bit him while kiteboarding in waters a quarter of a mile off shore and just south of the guarded area at Stuart Beach. Lifeguard Dan Lund rescued Schafer from the water, but the surfer later died from his injuries.

The mood was anything but somber, though there were hugs and tears, for the estimated more than 1,000 people who attended. The feeling was more of a celebration as surfers, family and friends remembered “Mr. Smooth.” Pictures of Schafer surfing were distributed among the attendees.

Schafer was Martin County’s first fatal shark attack. It was the second all-time on the Treasure Coast, with the first in 1998 in Vero Beach, according to records from the University of Florida Museum of Natural History.

Schafer’s mom, Jean Schafer-Cox, attended the event. However, family and friends waived off any attempt by the media to interview her, saying she asked for privacy.

“He was just a mellow person,” friend Jordan Schwartz said.

During the 20-minute paddle-out, surfers stuck flowers in the back of the their wet suits and formed a large circle. Two life guards on one Jet Ski patrolled the waters for sharks, though none appeared.

About eight people paddled to the circle’s center to share their memories of Schafer, who worked as a graphic artist and photographer.

Schafer graduated from Martin County High School about 20 years ago before earning his bachelor’s degree in environmental studies at University of California - Santa Barbara.

Afterward, the surfers tossed the flowers in the center and in unison splashed the water before catching a wave back to the shore.

“It was incredible,” said event organizer and family friend Don Ryan. “The conditions were great. Waist to chest (height) waves, clean off shore winds.”

Organizers said surfers from as far as Rhode Island and New Jersey attended the service. All available parking spaces were filled by noon, latecomers parked in any vacant area they could find.

Miami surfer Bill Strohmenger said he wasn’t a close friend of Schafer but attended the service because of the surfing “brotherhood”.

“What happened to him could happen to any of us,” he said. “Like any sport their is an element of danger.”

CONTRIBUTIONS

Memorial contributions may be made to the Rivers Coalition Defense Fund, P.O. Box 2627, Stuart, FL 34995; or a fund established at any Seacoast National Bank.

Money donated to the fund will be used to buy a sculpture to put in Stuart Beach, said friend Stephanie Hudson Forsberg.

STUART — A jury awarded dermatologist Ricarado “Rick” Romagosa $1.24 million late Friday in his breach of contract and wrongful termination lawsuit.

Attorneys for Romagosa asked earlier in the day for more than $2.8 million in civil damages against Dr. Tim Ioannides, his former boss at Treasure Coast Dermatology.

Jurors, who deliberated for about two hours beginning shortly before 9 p.m., declined to elaborate afterwards. Exiting the courthouse after the two week trial, one woman juror said “we did our best.”

Romagosa appeared pleased with the verdict, and shared hugs with several members of his legal team.

He also seemed relieved the trial in his protracted legal battle was over.

“The whole last 4 1/2 years were absolutely a very, very, extremely painful ordeal,” he said. “And looking back, it could have been avoided if people would do what they say they’re going to do.”

Ioannides declined to comment after court, and his trio of attorneys wouldn’t say whether they would consider an appeal.

At trial, Romagosa claimed he’d been fired without cause in June 2005, a year before his three-year contract expired at Treasure Coast Dermatology, which Ionnides operates in Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties.

Ioannides had countersued, and Friday his lawyers requested damages of $260,000, the amount they said he was owed for what Romagosa, his former best friend, cost him when he left and set up a rival practice, Romagosa Dermatology Group across the street from Ioannides in Stuart.

Throughout the trial, both sides pointed to the 2005 break up of an office romance for sparking a rift that ruined their decade-long friendship and led to their professional separation.

During closing arguments Friday, Romagosa’s attorney Paul Reid, described Ioannides as a greedy “crook” who promised his client a lucrative contract worth millions of dollars in salary and bonuses but never intended to pay up.

“From the very beginning he didn’t intend to live up to his promises,” Reid told jurors. “He wanted it all.”

He accused Ioannides of unfairly overcharging Romagosa for office expenses and not paying him promised bonuses.

Leon Patricios, who represents Ioannides, rejected the characterization of his client, and said it will be up to the jury to decide who’s telling the truth.

“The only fraud, the only cheating going on, was these two doctors cheating on the women in their lives,” Patricios said. “That’s the proof that was in this courtroom.

“Yeah, there was some cheating going on, but not with the (employment) contract.”

He acknowledged too, that throughout the trial, “there was mudslinging in this case that was inappropriate.

“This man’s reputation is on the line and it’s in your hands,” he told jurors shortly before they began deliberating.

Helicopter crash at the St. Lucie County International Airport in Fort PIerce on Saturday February 6, 2010. Photo by Eric Phaler.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A helicopter crashed during or shortly after take-off Saturday morning at the St. Lucie International Airport, sheriff’s officials said.

Initial reports indicate the pilot, whose name or other information wasn’t immediately available, suffered only minor, non-life threatening injuries. The pilot was the sole person on board.

The 1976 helicopter crashed about 11:30 a.m. near the southeast end of the airport. It was found on its side with at least one of its two propellers mangled. The propellers were facing south.

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and Fire District officials were on scene continuing to investigate the incident.

No further details were released. This story will be updated when further information is released.

“I lost everything,” Jean-Pierre said calmly and directly while showing pictures of his Port-au-Prince hospital that was decimated from the recent earthquake. Jean-Pierre, 48, is the lead physician at the hospital.

Moline Jean-Pierre, the doctor’s wife, sustained her injury at that very hospital when it collapsed. She remained in Haiti for three weeks before a missionary group flew her and her husband to Fort Pierce, where doctors agreed to perform the necessary treatment for free.

Dr. Anjan Shah said relief surgeons in Haiti did a good job of stabilizing the leg and preventing infection. The pelvic bone also was broken. Shah said he plans to monitor the 47-year-old woman for the next few weeks, but expects a full recovery following the three-hour surgery.

“Her husband’s ability to take care of this wound as well as the surgeons that got to her and stabilized her are probably going to make the biggest difference in the fact that she’s going to save her leg,” Shah said.

The cost of the free treatment roughly would have been five figures, hospital spokeswoman Jana Eschbach said.

Now, Dr. Jean-Pierre said he is hoping for stabilization in his country, where his two young children remain. The hospital had been around for 10 years before collapsing three weeks ago.

“I have no house to live (in). My house fell down like the hospital,” Dr. Jean-Pierre said. “We have only God.”

The doctor spent Wednesday night in Fort Pierce, but hopes to get back to his children soon. The two children are American citizens, though the parents are not, but getting them on a plane is difficult, he said.

“My wife cries all the time,” Dr. Jean-Pierre said. “She wants to see the children. I don’t know how to help them get here so they can go to school. … We don’t know what to do. We continue to pray.”

Eric Pfahle, TCPalm.com

A special agent from HUD’s Office of the Inspector General met with City Manager David Recor Thursday to inform him of the investigation and indicated the FBI might also assist in the investigation, according to a City Hall news release.

Recor said the city would fully cooperate with the investigation and offered assistance from investigative resources in the Fort Pierce Police Department.

The Community Services Department administers state and federal dollars to assist low-to-moderate income families in obtaining affordable housing, as well as provides money for rehab work on homes.

The investigation comes after a forensic audit conducted by Kessler International of New York City, a company that specializes in uncovering white-collar crimes and corruption, called Community Services “a corrupt organization” that used state and federal housing money for the benefit of employees, friends and relatives, while other qualified applicants were put on a waiting list.

The audit also cited acts of “theft,” “fraud,” and “cronyism.”

Recor ordered the $15,580 audit after questions over suspicious mortgages issued to city employees, one of which worked in the Community Services division and received money from a program she helped implement, became public.

Last week, Recor referred the Kessler audit to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office to determine if any criminal charges should be filed.

Recor said the city’s current and future federal entitlement dollars do not appear to be at risk “in large part due to the city’s swift action and immediate communication with the HUD regional office in Jacksonville regarding the city’s future plans.”

To demonstrate its commitment to changing “business as usual,” at City Hall, the city is reviewing its organizational structure and evaluating alternative approaches to traditional services provided by Community Services, the release states.

Recor shut down the Community Services Department earlier this week and put all full-time Community Services employees on administrative leave with pay. He also let all temporary employees in the department go.

Recor said services in the department would remain at a standstill until the city conducts its own internal review of programs and determines how to restructure the department.

Alexi Howk, TCPalm.com

Schafer was a popular surfer in the Stuart Beach lineup who was well-known for his smooth surf style and calm demeanor.

“Today is a sad day. We lost a good friend to the ocean yesterday and a great person,” said Jim Christ, 41, of Jensen Beach, who surfed with Schafer often at Stuart Beach. “Steve was always a joy to be around and was a great surfer.

“I am in shock, not wanting to believe that he and I will never share waves again, as we have so many times in those after work sessions. ‘Mr. Smooth’ we called him because of his wonderfully smooth surfing style and demeanor. He was a joy to watch surf and a joy to have a beer with and some intelligent conversation.”

Steve’s close friend, Stephanie Gray, 39, of Stuart, recalled when the two first met while surfing at Stuart Beach.

“It was a beautiful, sunny day at Stuart Beach and as I was paddling out. I was mesmerized by the power and grace of the surfer riding the wave in front of me and suddenly, was smacked in the face by his spray and instantly annoyed,” Gray said.

“I asked myself, ‘Who is that guy?,’” and nearly 10 years later, I am fortunate to call that guy my friend. Steve and I could still chuckle over the ‘spray’ because of course, he doesn’t remember it and would probably take back every drop if he could. He was a kind and gentle person and everything was better when he was around. I will always fondly recall his salt-encrusted smile.”

Chris Shultz, 49, of Stuart, knew Steve when he was just a child and watched him grow up to become an excellent surfer and all-around waterman.

“Steve was one of the most talented surfers to ever come out of Stuart and was a great person,” Shultz said. “Some guys he grew up with went on to the pro tour and some just got burnt out, but Steve went to San Diego to continue his education and no one could touch him out in the water when he came back.”

Lisa Rose, 46, of Stuart, Steve’s friend and fellow surfer, will remember him for his constant encouragement.

“Steve was the kind of guy who would encourage you to go for a wave and pushed you to become a better surfer,” said Rose, “He was just the nicest guy in and out of the water, and we’re all going to miss him so much.”

A paddle out for Steve Schafer will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb. 6 at Stuart Beach. Call (772) 287-0041 or (772) 283-9002 for more information.

Justin Beard, TCPalm.com