ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A Tallahassee law firm has put the school district on notice that it will be taken to court if it doesn’t promptly produce public records first requested in June about a contract with a computer software company.

Attorneys Edwin Bayo and Bill Furlow declined to say who they represent in their attempt to get documents and e-mails between St. Lucie County schools and Skyward Inc., a Stevens Point, Wis.-based supplier of school administrative software. The district began seeking a contractor in 2007 and Skyward’s software came online this summer. (more…)

VERO BEACH — Jury selection begins Monday in the DUI trial of Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird and prosecutors will get to use key evidence the defense wanted excluded.

County Judge David Morgan refused defense attorney Bobby Guttridge’s request Wednesday to toss out the May 16 arrest, which the attorney said was based on an invalid stop. (more…)

STUART — It was “bizarre” for Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder to repeatedly pat the short, spiky haircut of Detective Jennifer Heard, her lawyer said, and he expects Heard’s sexual harassment complaint to lead to a federal discrimination suit.

“We fully expect to file a lawsuit and just litigate the matter,” said Justus Reid, a lawyer representing Heard. “The overall theme will be gender discrimination and, in effect, sexual harassment that went on in the department.”

Heard filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May alleging the sexual harassment against her began shortly after she was hired in September 1996 and continued for the next 12 years in the form of sexual advances, catcalls and a suggestive nickname. She also accused Crowder of belittling her by patting her on the head.
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FORT PIERCE — A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Sunday on a DUI charge after she reportedly was seen weaving in traffic and stumbling when she exited her sport utility vehicle, according to an affidavit released Monday.

Two breath tests measured 49-year-old Consuela Hall Curtis’s blood-alcohol level as 0.144 and 0.153 percent — greater than the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Curtis is a court security deputy who joined the Sheriff’s Office in 2003, according to the Sheriff’s Office. She was off duty in her personal vehicle at the time.

An off-duty sheriff’s sergeant saw Curtis driving west Sunday afternoon on Okeechobee Road from Interstate 95, noting her GMC SUV was weaving and cutting across all lanes of traffic.
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FORT PIERCE — After Julia Rolon-Estrada died of a gunshot wound to the artery in her leg on July 26, 2006, she was wrapped in a blue tarp and again in a green blanket before being buried in the yard of her Port St. Lucie home, near a rear sliding glass door.

A dog trained to find cadavers helped authorities locate the newly tilled grave, which was covered with a wooden pallet holding 20 mulch bags stacked on top.

Rolon-Estrada’s jailed husband, 43-year-old Albert Estrada, state prosecutors say, is the man guilty of killing his wife and high-school sweatheart, who had walked out on him the night before she died at age 39.
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FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie County Fire District crews Thursday morning battled a fire suspected of being arson at a rooming house under renovation, according to the Fire District. There were no injuries.

Fire District crews were called at 5:50 a.m. to the incident in the 500 block of Douglas Court and had the fire under control by 6:15 a.m.

“No one was inside at the time of the fire but it’s reported that a gentleman had been living in the home,” Fire District spokeswoman Catherine Chaney said.

The fire started in the attic and damaged about 50 percent of the structure, which does not have power.

Chaney declined to give details on what led investigators to label the cause as arson.

The property is owned by Rey Property Investors LLC, according to the St. Lucie County Property Appraiser’s Web site. The three-bedroom home was bought in December for $70,000.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

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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STUART — Nine years ago, a drunk Donald Flewellen drove a stolen van across the center line, causing a collision that killed two people and left illegal Guatemalan immigrant Luis Jimenez permanently brain damaged.

Less than four months after his December release from prison for two counts of DUI manslaughter, authorities say Flewellen, 52, was behind the wheel of a borrowed car and caused a hit-and-run crash with property damage in Fort Pierce.

Already charged with two counts of violating his supervised release, court papers show when Flewellen returns to court Aug. 17, he’ll face additional charges of leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and driving on a revoked driver’s license related to an April 5 traffic collision.
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OKEECHOBEE COUNTY — The death of a 49-year-old woman found by family members appears to be a homicide, and a sheriff’s spokesman Wednesday said a neighbor has been taken into custody.

Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office deputies went Tuesday night to an address in the 2700 block of Northeast 11th Court and met with Roberta “Bobbie” Elizabeth Christensen’s son and daughter-in-law.

They reported coming to the residence in the Pine Ridge Park subdivision to see Christensen, a waitress at Golden Corral, and finding her dead inside.

A preliminary examination indicated the death was “most likely the result of a homicide,” a release states.

“The nature of the injury appears to be from a sharp instrument,” the release states.

A neighbor in his 20s was taken into custody Wednesday and Detective Ted Van Deman, sheriff’s public information officer, said he will be charged in connection with the death.

“We’re confident we have the right person in custody,” Van Deman said.

Sheriff’s detectives are interviewing others to determine whether anyone else could have played a role in the death.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to reveal a possible motive and also declined to provide further details about Christensen’s injuries.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Law enforcement agencies are working to get rid of the hundreds of backlogged DNA cases to make for a safer Treasure Coast.

The Indian River Crime Laboratory hired a DNA criminalist through a $94,922 forensic science improvement grant with the Port St. Lucie Police Department from the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice.

Lab Director Dan Nippes said the backlog for St. Lucie, Indian River, Martin and Okeechobee counties at the end of June was 646 cases.
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