PORT ST. LUCIE — A 54-year-old Port St. Lucie man faces DUI charges after allegedly laying down his motorcycle several times on the Crosstown Parkway Friday night, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office arrest affidavit.

Roger Dale Syner, of the 200 block of Southwest Inwood Avenue, was arrested after 8 p.m. and charged with a traffic felony for DUI and a misdemeanor for refusing a breathalyzer test. It was the fourth DUI in Syner’s lifetime and third in 10 years, according to the affidavit.

A witness driving behind Syner watched him drop his motorcycle at least three times while he was speeding eastbound, according to the affidavit. He told officers he had just enough to drink.
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A minor league pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles farm system was charged with driving while under the influence Sunday night, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.
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A six-member jury took only two hours to find Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird not guilty of DUI late Wednesday afternoon.

Baird, noticeably jubilant, sat with his attorney Bobby Guttridge as the court clerk read the verdict at 3:57 p.m. Baird then hugged his girlfriend and deferred comments to his attorney, before leaving the courthouse. (more…)

VERO BEACH — The DUI trial of County Administrator Joe Baird continues today with more defense witnesses testifying about his physical condition before his arrest at 10:25 p.m. May 16 in Vero Beach.

Baird “appeared perfectly normal to me” around 10 p.m., Baird’s long-time friend John Binkley testified Tuesday at the end of trial testimony for the day.

Testimony is expected to end today, possibly in time for the case to go to jurors for a decision.
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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

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…)

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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STUART — The image of a man’s arm wrapped around her front tire still haunts Jessica Leslie eight years later.

It was November 2001 when a 20-year old Leslie of Boca Raton was coming back from an evening of partying that she decided to drive home drunk. She told her story to a crowd of about four dozen at a Thursday community program at the Martin County Administrative Center on the dangers of drinking and driving.

Leslie never made it home but ran over Patrick McDonough, 41, killing him. (more…)

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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VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird’s first public appearance in his DUI case came Wednesday in a court hearing that was quickly postponed at the request of defense and prosecution attorneys.

The attorneys said they needed more time to prepare their cases.

But Indian River County Judge David Morgan told the attorneys he intends to set the case for trial the week of Aug. 24.

Baird has pled not guilty to DUI and speeding charges and is asking for a jury trial.

Outside the courtroom, Baird, 52, declined comment on the advice of his attorney. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, Karen Deigl, president of the Indian River Senior Resource Association, who was there for moral support and to drive him to the hearing, Baird said.

The state revoked Baird’s driving license because he refused to take a Breathalyzer test at the time of his arrest on the night of May 16.

Baird’s case next comes up for court review on Aug. 19 when Morgan is scheduled to take up what he didn’t hear Wednesday: Defense attorney Bobby Guttridge’s request that charges against Baird be dismissed because he said police didn’t have justifiable reasons for stopping him.

Police said he was speeding and made a wide turn, according to court records.

Also, Guttridge wants Morgan to suppress Baird’s statement to police that he was going to the Long Branch Saloon, a bar in Vero Beach, when he was stopped by police.

Assistant State Attorney David Dodd said he may have some additional witnesses. Before trial, attorneys are allowed to interview witnesses who may be called to testify at trial.

By Elliott Jones, TCPalm.com