FORT PIERCE — A man told police he was kidnapped over the weekend by four men and that two of them demanded money so they “could eat and smoke crack,” according to a recently released report.

The 20-year-old victim said he was walking on South 23rd Street shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday when an older gray Chevrolet Malibu with four men in it approached. Two of the men got out and told him to hand over all his money.

The victim said he had no money on him and was told, “It’s either your cash or your life.”
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STUART — An alleged crack dealer’s plan to allow a client to buy him shoes in exchange for drugs was stopped short by Stuart police Friday, according to an affidavit released Monday.

Michael Deshawn Harris, 30, of the 7900 block of Southeast Kingsway Street in Hobe Sound, was charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and resisting arrest without violence.

Police had been watching a foreclosed home in the 800 block of Southeast Nassau Street after a suspicious vehicle was reported parked in the driveway several times that day.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Shirley Littlefield’s eyes filled with tears as she picked up her daughter, third-grader Elizabeth, from what was truly her last day of school at Port St. Lucie Elementary.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Littlefield said. “We’re getting split up, and it hurts.”

The 34-year-old building closed its doors to students, teachers and staff on Wednesday as part of a plan to deal with St. Lucie County School District budget constraints.

Closing the school, as well as Southbend K-8 and Anglewood Center, which taught pregnant teens, is expected to save $30 million next year. (more…)

STUART — A constitutional challenge is prompting the Martin County commissioners to rethink a strict noise ordinance they enacted in February to crack down on loud music at bars and other businesses.

Deanna Kernan, the owner of the Martin Downs Sports Resort in Palm City, and Susan Masterson, the resort’s manager, have asked a county judge to declare the noise ordinance unconstitutional because it is “overbroad.”

Kernan, 42, of Palm City, and Masterson, 39, of Stuart, also have asked Judge Stewart Hershey to dismiss the misdemeanor charge they violated the county’s noise ordinance because music from the resort could be heard more than 150 feet away. (more…)

ROSELAND — Slabs of stucco-covered clay bricks, which had once held up a U.S. Coast Guard station and then a crab-processing house, lay in heaps around folk singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie’s contractors.

Guthrie and Melbourne builder Joseph Horschel had hoped to preserve the old walls on the outside while making a home out of the 80-year-old building, which overlooks the Indian River Lagoon, in the 13000 block of North Indian River Drive, north of Sebastian.

They were going to add stronger walls inside to stand up under hurricane winds. But they couldn’t save the walls.

“That was a disappointment,” said project designer John Anderson, from Indian Harbor Beach. “We found cracks we couldn’t see until we got all the stucco off … It was too much to work with, so unfortunately we were not able to do what we hoped to do and save the walls.” (more…)

Jeffery Servidio

Jeffery Servidio was at the Martin County Jail on $52,750 bail this morning after encounters with two elderly Jensen Beach residents last week.

One 89-year-old woman told Martin County Sheriff’s deputies a man had pushed her inside her home in the 1200 block of Northwest 21st Street after she answered the door New Year’s Day morning, according to sheriff’s reports.

The man ran off in a white pickup after she screamed for help, she told investigators.

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FORT PIERCE — An apparent spat involving sardines and Vienna sausages erupted into a beating and ended with a 43-year-old local man going to jail, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

The victim on Sunday told investigators she went to visit her ex-boyfriend, Maxie L. Davis, 43, who lives in the apartment behind hers, and they watched television.

The victim said Davis, of the 3500 block of Sloan Road, went out and she popped open a can of sardines and some Vienna Sausages, a popular canned wiener product. (more…)