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MIAMI — After a long and exhaustive investigation, the deaths of two infants and the sickening of a third at Miami Children’s Hospital is a medical mystery.
The infants, born extremely prematurely, their immune systems compromised, were in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit when two of them died of a common yet lethal bacterium in March. (more…)
FORT PIERCE — A registered sex offender and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday following allegations that they beat an 11-year-old girl and her siblings, according to records released Wednesday.
The 11-year-old girl told sheriff’s investigators John Louis Cooper, 30, burned her with a cigarette lighter. She said she feared being raped by Cooper because he “raped a 13-year-old girl before,” records show.
Cooper was convicted in 2002 of lewd act on a minor less than 16 and is a registered sex offender because of it, records show.
The girl said Cooper and his 32-year-old girlfriend, Kathy Ann Carson, push them around and punch her and her 9-year-old brother “all the time,” according to the report.
The brother had an injury on his finger he said was caused by Cooper purposely burning him with a lighter, records show.
The elder girl said Cooper punches her in the chest when she misbehaves, the records show. The boy said he has difficulty with bed-wetting and Cooper punches him in the chest because of it. The boy also was found to have a “fungal scalp infection” that had been present for months.
Cooper faces two counts of child abuse, and Carson was arrested on a single child abuse charge. Carson’s charge stems from alleged abuse on a 4-year-old girl. A doctor examined the 4-year-old girl and the two older children and founds signs of abuse or neglect.
Cooper and his girlfriend live in the 5100 block of La Salle Street.
By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com
PORT ST. LUCIE — One year ago, a 6-year-old autistic boy was brought to the front of his classroom. He left moments later feeling like an outcast.
For many, he became a symbol of how children with autism are mistreated and misunderstood.
Some experts say the case of Alex Barton, who was voted out of his kindergarten classroom 14-to-2, brought about change and awareness of how autistic children are educated. Others say there still is a long way to go. (more…)
STUART — A student was charged with battery last week after he was accused of attacking his teacher when she woke him up, according to an affidavit released Wednesday.
The incident occurred the morning of May 12, when the 14-year-old jumped up and began flailing his arms as the teacher roused him to leave the class at Challenger School, the affidavit says. He then kicked her in the left knee and punched her right forearm.
The boy was charged with battery on a school employee and suspended from school, according to the affidavit.
By staff report, TCPalm.com
FORT PIERCE — A local man accused of choking a 2-year-old boy for about 10 seconds Wednesday after the boy hit him is facing felony charges, according to an arrest affidavit released Thursday.
The child’s mother told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office investigators that she was quarreling with her father about 9:30 p.m. when her brother, 28-year-old Carey L. Bailey, got involved.
The child allegedly got upset because Bailey, of the 2600 block of North U.S. 1, was shouting at the child’s mother. (more…)
STUART — To contend with the ongoing budgetary uncertainties facing local governments, Stuart City commissioners Monday unanimously approved an early retirement incentive package for city workers.
In addition to regular retirement benefits, city employees who would be eligible for retirement by Sept. 30 can opt to receive 36 months of paid insurance at their current coverage and premium level or a lump-sum, before-tax payout of $20,000, said Stuart City Manager Dan Hudson.
(more…)
MARTIN COUNTY — Former Martin County Commissioner John William Holt Jr., who helped create the original Martin County Comprehensive Land Use Plan, died Monday at Treasure Coast Hospice. He was 79.
“He had been ill for some time,” said his wife of 57 years, Evelyn. “His heart just gave out.”
Born in Pahokee, Dec. 15, 1929, the son of John W. Holt Sr. and his wife, Hosea, Holt grew up on a ranch in western Martin County. His brother was former Martin County Sheriff Jim Holt. Like his father and brother, Holt was a rancher.
(more…)
Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City bombing
A jury has sentenced Ricardo Sanchez Jr. and Daniel Troya to death for killing the Escobedo family of four along Florida’s Turnpike in St. Lucie County.
The federal death penalty is different from the state of Florida’s death sentence in many ways.
Only 51 inmates are on federal Death Row in Terre Haute, Ind. Florida houses 392. Crimes punishable by the federal death penalty include genocide, killing witnesses, in a trial, terrorism and murder committed as part of a drug enterprise.
Florida has executed 67 men and women since the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. The feds have executed three men since Congress reinstated it in 1988. Some of the more famous of those executed were Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of sabotage for selling atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
Here’s some of those executed since 1927:
James Horace Alderman
1927: James Horace Alderman, known as “King of the Rumrunners,” was intercepted by a Coast Guard vessel 30 miles off Florida’s coast. His boat was laden with alcohol during the era of Prohibition. As Alderman boarded the vessel, he pulled out his pistol. When two Coast Guardsmen and a Secret Service agent rushed him, he shot them all dead. Later, his execution was scheduled for the Broward County Jail, but the county wanted it to occur on federal property. So a makeshift gallows was erected at the Coast Guard hangar.
“When this is read I will have passed over the brink of eternity into the Great Beyond. “I would like to state through the medium of The Miami Herald that I am feeling fine, physically, mentally and spiritually. With the wonderful comfort and strength that I received from Jesus Christ, I am assured that when tomorrow comes I will go with smiles of comfort on my face. … “As I sit here in my cell I can look back and see just what caused me to be where I am today. Drunkenness first starts a young man to gambling — and swearing grows on him — and from that step he becomes hardened in his heart in envy and hatred toward mankind. Then, as he grows up, he becomes what you would call educated to crime. Bootlegging and smuggling is the next step. And there are other angles of downfall that lead to the devil. “The money I made neither did me nor my dear family any good. We thought it did, but no. You can see what it has done — a death sentence by hanging — and a broken-hearted family.”
Read the 1929 Time magazine account of his hanging, here. (more…)
ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Proposed cuts to the St. Lucie County School District athletic budget have coaches and athletes alarmed.
The proposed $1 million decrease in the county athletic budget for next year announced Thursday means coaches will be working with less funding.
But what is even more alarming to coaches, is the elimination of feeder programs, which help develop players before they hit the varsity level. (more…)
Posters of professional athletes line the walls of Demeterius Wells’ bedroom.
His bulky textbooks from Indian River State College are stacked near his computer, and a bookshelf displays his Vero Beach High School diploma next to trophies he won on the track and field team.
His grandmother Patricia Chambers, who raised him after his mother died from ovarian cancer complications when he was 8, broke down in tears Sunday after describing the untimely death of her 18-year-old grandson early Saturday morning.
The Fort Pierce Police Department said Wells was shot several times on the 1300 block of North 31st Street in Fort Pierce at about 1:50 a.m. Saturday. Family members said he was dropping off a friend when the shooting occurred. (more…)
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