VERO BEACH — County Administrator Joe Baird was a victim of police “rush to judgment,” his defense attorney said in the opening arguments of his DUI case Tuesday.

Bobby Guttridge told jurors when Baird stepped out of his Jeep when it was stopped May 16, Baird was wearing a flowered Hawaiian lei around his neck. Because of that, police “never gave Baird the benefit of doubt.”

Baird was arrested after attending a community fundraiser in Wabasso at which Guttridge said Baird had two beers. But Assistant State Attorney David Dodd told jurors Baird failed all of the police roadside sobriety tests. Baird couldn’t stand on one leg, walk a straight line, count backwards or follow the movement of a pen with his eyes.

Guttridge blamed that on Baird having physical problems, including vertigo.

Dodd also said an officer found an alcoholic beverage spilled on the floorboard of Baird’s Jeep.

Prosecutors Tuesday morning are putting the arresting police officers on the stand to testify. Vero Beach Police Lt. Matt Harrelson is first. He stopped Baird at 10:26 p.m. May 16 near the Miracle Mile Plaza on 21st Street.

Harrelson testified he could smell alcohol when he was within 6 feet of Baird. Because of Baird’s appearance, he called in a DUI investigator.

By Elliott Jones

Note to teens facing a potential prison term: don’t use your MySpace page to post photos of police officers and wish “AIDS and genocide to all law enforcement.”

That’s what Stuart resident Jesse Alan Walker, 19, did while awaiting a June trial in which a jury convicted him of robbery with a firearm related to a 2008 home invasion armed robbery. At trial, he was accused of planning the robbery with two then-20-year-old co-defendants, who once played football for Jensen Beach High School.

“I hate the (expletive) police,” Walker posted on MySpace last December, along with photos of Stuart Police officers and derogatory comments.
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Asked in a questionnaire by Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers for TCPalm.com’s “Ask the Candidates” page whether they had been convicted of a felony, both candidates on the ballot for state Senate District 28 seat wrote “no.”

The answer from one of the candidates isn’t accurate, according to a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers investigation.

According to court records and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Eastern Pennsylvania, Democrat Bill Ramos, a mortgage broker from Jensen Beach, pleaded guilty to a single count of embezzlement of postal funds — accepting a three-year probation and repaying the missing money — in 1989. That charge is a felony.

Ramos said Thursday he didn’t consider pleading “no contest” the same as a conviction.

“I answered specifically as it was asked,” Ramos said. “It just said have you ever been convicted of, and I answered no. I plead no contest.”

The court documents show Ramos pleaded guilty.

Assistant State Attorney John Cannizzaro, of Florida’s 19th Judicial Circuit in Fort Pierce, said judges advise defendants before they enter a guilty plea that the action is the same as being convicted at a jury trial.

“There is no difference,” he said. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A father at a house where 10 children were suspected of living in filth pleaded no contest Monday to a child neglect charge.

Rupert Anthony Thompson, 32, father of some of the children and stepfather of others, was arrested in October 2008 after authorities say they found feces, flies, roaches, trash, dirty diapers, rotting food, urine and exposed electrical outlets in the house in the 1100 block of Jasmine Avenue. The children ranged in age from 4 months to 12 years.

As part of a plea agreement, the State Attorney’s Office will recommend Thompson receive two years of probation when he’s sentenced by Circuit Judge Larry Schack. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 19.

Staff report

STUART — A California woman arrested for defrauding a Palm City couple out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in furniture, flooring and home accessories was sentenced to 15 years in prison as part of a plea deal she struck with state prosecutors.

In addition to prison, Corrine Victoria Blakely, who pleaded no contest to first-degree grand theft, was also ordered to pay $267,508 in restitution to the couple and serve 15 years of probation after her release from prison.

Authorities said Blakely, 47, fraudulently posed as an interior designer in 2006 when she was hired by a 67-year-old Palm City man to do about $400,000 in renovations to a home in the 3200 block of Southwest Winding Way.

Court papers show the man never received $129,000 worth of furniture for which Blakely was paid. When asked when the goods would arrive, Blakely provided fraudulent invoices and “padded bills,” which she falsified to perpetrate the fraud, investigators concluded.

As part of her plea bargain, state prosecutors dropped a count of organized fraud, grand theft from a person 65 years of age or older and practicing interior design without a license.

Blakely, who at one point had promised but later failed to repay thecouple, was arrested in January and extradited from California.

By staff report, TCPalm.com

STUART — A judge Wednesday ordered the former owner of Arthur’s Dockside restaurant to spend a year in the county jail on a tax fraud charge, prompting his wife to burst into tears and break down outside court.

Arthur Dombrose, 71, was also ordered to serve two years of community control and two years of probation.

Standing before Martin Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer, Dombrose showed little emotion as deputies fingerprinted him and led him away.

Last July Dombrose entered a plea of no contest to a first-degree felony tax fraud charge after failing to pay $187,000 in sales tax collected from customers between March 2005 and April 2006. (more…)

You don’t have to win Home & Garden Television’s green home in Port St. Lucie to get an up-close look at the hydroponic garden and solar-power system.

The house, at the Tradition development, will be open for public tours April 20-June 6. Tickets are $15.

The domestic cable network built the 2,430-square-foot home for its second annual green home giveaway contest.

It’s one of a handful in Florida that has received platinum-level certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.

TREASURE COAST — When Port St. Lucie High School pitcher Kyle Hurley steps on the mound next year, his baseball team might be limited to 20 regular season games — five fewer than now.

The Florida High School Athletic Association has proposed chopping the maximum number of contests by 20 percent for all varsity sports except football; and by 40 percent for all junior varsity sports including football. A board vote is expected in April.

The typical sports regular season would go from 25 varsity games to 20; and 25 junior varsity games to 15.

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FORT PIERCE — A 63-year-old Port St. Lucie man was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to 30 years in prison for sexual encounters he admitted having with an 11-year-old girl in 2007.

Stephen J. King was sentenced to 30 years for attempted lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under 12 by a perpetrator over 18 and 15 years behind bars for lewd or lascivious exhibition, but Circuit Judge Robert Belanger allowed the terms to run concurrently.
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