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A 23-year-old Port St. Lucie woman was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for having a sexual affair with a 14-year-old boy.
Josefina Tax Barrera, aka Diana L. Aguirre, of Port St. Lucie, pleaded no contest Aug. 5 to a charge of lewd or lascivious molestation. Circuit Judge Dan Vaughn could have given her up to 15 years in prison.
By Nicole Rodriguez
PORT ST. LUCIE — First-grader and Port St. Lucie resident Andre Gomes Lopez, 7, beat out more than 25,000 entries in the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest, winning second place nationally in the first grade category for his original story, How to Get Rid of the Shy Bugs. Andre was among 12 national winners from across the U.S. whose short stories were judged by the likes of famous children’s authors, illustrators and content experts as Ann M. Martin, author of The Baby-sitters Club series, R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series and Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company, just to name a few.
“We were so amazed when we found out he was one of the winners,” Andre’s mother, Shindy Lopez said. “He feels so proud of himself.”
By Lamaur Stancil
Barbara Michelle Groce (Photo: Indian River County Sheriff's Office)
VERO BEACH — A Kentucky woman sought to buy a large amount of oxycodone with her two children in tow last week, police said.
Barbara Michelle Groce, 23, of Somerset, Ky., was charged with trafficking oxycodone and child neglect Thursday. She posted $27,500 bail at the Indian River County Jail Friday. (more…)
By Will Greenlee
Carl Dolan and Brian A. Fuller, both 39, of Port St. Lucie, were arrested at 3:30 a.m. Monday on sexual battery familiar or custody and contributing to child delinquency or dependency charges following the incidents.
Carl Dolan
PORT ST. LUCIE — The co-owners of a local eatery each face charges after being accused of inappropriately touching a 17-year-old boy and providing him with cigarettes and alcohol, according to arrest affidavits released Monday.
Dolan and Fuller opened Wicked Burger in Tradition at the beginning of the year.
The victim told police that Dolan and Fuller took him on about three trips to Orlando. He said during one trip, he’d had about three rum drinks and Fuller performed a sex act on him.
By Will Greenlee
PORT ST. LUCIE — A 29-year-old woman accused of biting a boy on the arm and hitting him in the mouth was arrested Monday on a felony charge, according to an affidavit released Tuesday.
Rebecca Lynn Cummins, of the 2000 block of Southeast Colfax Court in eastern Port St. Lucie, faces an aggravated abuse of a child charge following the Sunday incidents. (more…)
By James Kirley
FORT PIERCE — A 56-year-old man was charged Saturday with lewd and lascivious battery on a person younger than 12 after the guardian of a 4-year-old girl went to sheriff’s detectives to report that the child had complained to her that she had been touched on the genitals while left at the man’s home.
Paul Maurice Gould, of the 1200 block of Fleetwood Lane, was in the St. Lucie County Jail Sunday in lieu of $500,000 bond. He was arrested after investigators with the Sheriff’s Office and child welfare officials interviewed both the girl and Gould, who denied any wrongdoing.
By Jim Mayfield
The mother of a former Hobe Sound boy, claiming her son was taken out of a YMCA of the Treasure Coast summer program by his step-grandmother without proper authorization, has filed suit against the organization in Martin County Circuit Court.
Camille Loose filed her action Tuesday claiming the YMCA failed to establish or follow proper protocol for releasing children in its care and failed to hire or train adequate staff in connection with the June 20, 2006 incident. (more…)
By Will Greenlee
FORT PIERCE — A 26-year-old woman faces a child neglect charge after officials found her 3-year-old son alone on a porch and the woman’s home and bedroom in “complete disarray,” according to a recently released arrest affidavit.
When police arrived Monday at Jordan Elizabeth Olone’s home in the 1900 block of South 26th Street, an investigator saw a fire department ladder leading to the second floor porch.
A state Department of Children and Families investigator said she’d arrived for a follow up investigation and noticed Olone’s 3-year-old son alone on the porch. The DCF investigator knocked on the door for about 15 minutes without a response. (more…)
FORT PIERCE — A woman accused of leaving her 4-year-old daughter home alone and lying about it to St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators faces a felony child neglect charge, according to an affidavit released Wednesday.
Karin J. Vallone, 49, was arrested Tuesday morning after a neighbor told a deputy she was leaving for work at 7:31 a.m. and heard the child “screaming and banging on the window from inside the house.”
The neighbor said she drove by the house, and noticed Vallone’s vehicle wasn’t in the driveway. She pulled in another neighbor’s driveway, got out and heard the girl screaming louder.
The neighbor said the girl was crying and said, “My mom left me to go to my school.”
According to the affidavit, Vallone of the 5400 block of Shannon Drive, returned at 7:39 a.m., and told a deputy she took her son to his bus stop. Vallone said her mother was at home with the girl, though Vallone said her mother was sleeping.
When the deputy told Vallone to wake up her mother, Vallone said she wasn’t there.
Vallone said she left her daughter home alone.
OKEECHOBEE COUNTY— Deputy Sarah Green is a mother and grandmother, so she’ll never forget April 21.
Green was sent to do a welfare check on 2-year-old Lilly Harden. Someone opened the manufactured home door on Highway 98 and told Green the little girl and her mother weren’t home.
The deputy went inside anyway and noticed a closed bedroom door.
Lilly Harden was in that bedroom. Deputies think she’d been left there to die.
“Her head was hanging back because she couldn’t support,” Green said. “She was lifeless, limp, just nonresponsive.”
Lilly is now slowly recovering at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. Doctors say she’s suffering from Shaken Baby Syndrome.
“This is a beautiful little 2-year-old girl, small for her size, about 20 pounds maybe,” said Green. “And right now, she’s being deprived of the right to be a normal little girl. To skip, to jump, to use her imagination.”
Lilly’s mother’s live-in boyfriend, 26-year old John Coleman, is charged with aggravated child abuse and child neglect.
The arrest affidavit details the abuse.
Coleman told detectives he paddled Lilly on several occasions, using a belt or makeshift paddle. Coleman said he would also force the little girl to stand in the corner on one foot as punishment, according to the affidavit.
The report continues, stating Coleman would smear dirty diapers in Lilly’s face as punishment for not using the bathroom.
Coleman told deputies that, on the night of April 21, he was tossing Lilly in the air. He threw her up so high, she hit her head on a wooden beam and was knocked unconscious.
Coleman put Lilly in her bed and later tried to wake her up by shaking her, the affidavit stated.
Investigators say Lilly’s mother, 28-year old Amanda Ashby-Harden, never reported the abuse. She’s charged with child neglect.
Detective Ted Van Deman choked up when describing the case.
“She had significant abuse, significant,” he said. “This is the worst I’ve seen.”
Van Deman said doctors aren’t sure if she’ll ever fully recover.
Lilly’s grandmother said she showed significant improvement Wednesday. The little girl woke up and started talking for the first time since April 21.
Her family said in a statement, “Lilly is improving on a daily basis. She has a long recovery ahead of her. At this time she is awake, has limited control of all extremities and is unable to see. It is unknown at this time if and how much vision will return.
“Her recovery is measured in baby steps and we have a lot of baby steps to go.”
The family has set up a trust fund to help pay for Lilly’s medical expenses.
Donations can be made to the Fraternal Order of Police Officer Assistance Fund at any Seacoast National Bank.
Donations also can be sent to 4351 Hwy 441N, Okeechobee, Fla., 34972. Make checks payable to the Fraternal Order of Police Officer Assistance Fund.
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