A six-member jury took only two hours to find Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird not guilty of DUI late Wednesday afternoon.

Baird, noticeably jubilant, sat with his attorney Bobby Guttridge as the court clerk read the verdict at 3:57 p.m. Baird then hugged his girlfriend and deferred comments to his attorney, before leaving the courthouse. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Put a kid on a bike on a race track sprinkled with jumps, lumps and bumps, and you’re likely to have one happy kid. Or teenager. Or adult, for that matter.

A new bicycle track for riders who love speeding through 1,000 feet of tricky obstacles is expected to open near Crosstown Parkway and Interstate 95 in Port St. Lucie in October. (more…)

STUART — An affidavit released by sheriff’s deputies accuses a man of a brutish attack Tuesday on an 11-year-old boy.

William Raymond Dion, 18, of the 5800 block of Southeast Avalon Drive, has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and battery.

According to the affidavit, the boy was riding his bicycle near the intersection of Southeast Dixie Ross Street and Southeast Robert Loop Road at 6:40 p.m. when Dion hit him in the hip and the face with a chunk of cement.

He then pushed the boy off his bicycle as the boy attempted to get away, the affidavit says.

The boy’s face was extremely swollen when deputies arrived. His parents took him to an unspecified hospital for treatment.

Dion was being held Wednesday in the Martin County Jail in lieu of $10,500 bond.

By staff report, TCPalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 19-year-old bicyclist sustained critical injuries Monday night after being struck by a dark-colored vehicle that fled the scene, police said Tuesday.
John J. Mejias, of the 2700 block of Northwest Hatches Harbor Road, was pedaling north on Floresta Drive south of Thornhill Drive about 8:20 p.m. when a vehicle hit him from behind, Officer Alex Gaufillet said, standing at the scene.
Mejias, who was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, ended up about 130 feet from where he was struck. (more…)

Police composite of suspect.

The 17-year-old girl said she caught the man peeping into her home in the Tradition development at about 6 a.m. on Thursday. She called authorities but the man had fled the area before officers arrived, police spokesman Sgt. Robert Vega said.

In hopes of catching the suspect, Officer Dewayne Riesen hid in a nearby park this morning, when he saw a man riding a bicycle approach the teen’s home in Southwest West Park Avenue at about 6 a.m., Vega said. The man peered through the window before Riesen approached him, Vega said.

A struggle broke out between the two and after a few minutes, the man broke free and ran off on foot, Vega said. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Police are looking for a man whom a 10-year-old girl said followed her from her school bus stop on Friday before tossing a photograph of male genitalia at her.

The girl said she was walking from her bus stop on Southwest Meridian Avenue when the man followed her on a bicycle and threw the explicit photograph at her, according to a police report.

About two weeks before, the girl had seen the same man on a bike following her from the bus stop, she told police.

Another girl told police there were more pictures on the corner of Neptune Avenue and Rosser Boulevard, but police did not find any, the report states. The report doesn’t state the nature of those pictures.

A man living on Meridian Avenue told police he had seen a man riding a bicycle and smoking a cigarette that afternoon on Rosser Boulevard and Aledo Lane.