VERO BEACH — A 25-year-old man rolled his father’s BMW into the Indian River Lagoon and then jumped 60 feet into the water from the Merrill Barber Bridge — all as a lark, police say.

Charges haven’t been filed in the 2:30 a.m. Monday incident. But George Peniston of the 100 block of Terrapin Point could face legal consequences, said police spokesman Officer John Morrison.

Jumping off a bridge could be considered disorderly conduct punishable by six months in jail.
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Darrell Patrick Brown

According to arrest reports, detectives caught Darrell Patrick Brown tending to a crop of about 66 marijuana plants Tuesday afternoon. Authorities had spotted the plants several days earlier in the park near Jensen Beach and set up a hidden camera to see who was cultivating them.

Martin County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Budensiek went to Brown’s home nearby on 9th Avenue Tuesday and confronted Brown with the video. Budensiek in arrest records said Brown hung his head after the footage ended and said “You got me.”

Brown was arrested on marijuana possession and cultivation charges. He was bring held at the Martin County jail on $10,000 bail.

VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird refused to take a Breathalyzer test but failed most of the sobriety exercises he performed Saturday when he was charged with driving under the influence, according to an arrest affidavit released Monday.

While Baird faces some legal consequences for the charge, county officials said the matter wouldn’t have professional ramifications.
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VERO BEACH — Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird was charged with driving under the influence Saturday night.

“I would like to apologize to the public and (Indian River County) commissioners and I will continue to work hard for the county,” Baird said Sunday. “This is a personal matter and I plan to handle it personally.” (more…)

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — St. Lucie County officials say they’re tired of paying higher-than-Medicaid rates in hospitals for their jailed inmates.

St. Lucie County is lobbying the state to force hospitals to accept the Medicaid rate for inmate medical care. But hospitals are warning that forcing more people on the Medicaid rolls could increase costs to taxpayers.

As it is now, when a Medicaid patient goes to the hospital, the county does not get the bill. Hospitals are required to accept and treat indigent patients. If that same person needs medical care at a hospital while an inmate, the county — and ultimately taxpayers — pay the bill, St. Lucie County Commissioners say. (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 — Law enforcement officials searched a home Monday they suspected of being a methamphetamine lab and arrested two people.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and the Sebastian Police Department, launched the investigation following a tip early Monday, Sheriff’s Detective Eric Flowers said. A local pharmacy notified law enforcement after someone bought ingredients commonly used for making methamphetamine, Flowers said.
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PORT SALERNO — Ann Gunsolus can’t bear the thought of losing her home, even though it’s a makeshift campsite in a privately owned woods a stone’s throw from U.S. 1.

“Cry: That’s what I do so far is cry,” Gunsolus said, while thinking about where she will go when the authorities evict the homeless people from the woods. “When you have nothing, there’s not much you can do.”

Gunsolus and more than a dozen other homeless men and women fear sheriff’s deputies will roust them as soon as Thursday from the patchwork of tents and tarps they call home. (more…)

JENSEN BEACH — Detectives arrested a woman accused of attacking and robbing an elderly woman outside a Jensen Beach restaurant Saturday afternoon, according to documents released Monday.

Kristen Beth Swift, 23, of the 2300 block of Northeast Indian River Drive, has been charged with robbery by sudden snatching and battery on a person over 65 years of age.

The incident took place in the 3400 block of Northwest U.S. 1 at 2:40 p.m., just after the 82-year-old woman had parked her car in a handicap space at Olive Garden. Swift pulled up behind the woman’s car and asked her for directions to Indian River Drive, the affidavit says.
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STUART — A Martin County grand jury on Wednesday returned first-degree murder and robbery indictments against two Stuart residents accused in the April 5 beating death of Keith A. Hall, who died three days after being attacked.

Charged are James Louis LaForteza, 29, and Kobi Anderson, 15, who authorities say beat Hall into unconsciousness to steal $40 he’d shown the man and teen in an attempt to buy drugs. (more…)