VERO BEACH — Court hearings on County Administrator Joe Baird’s traffic cases have moved to after 1:30 p.m. today at the Indian River County Courthouse on State Road 60, according to the office of the judge handling the case.

Hearings were to be held this morning on motions filed by Baird’s attorney, Bobby Guttridge. But County Judge David Morgan has moved them to this afternoon when he will review the status of a number of cases, his office staff said.

Baird, 52, was arrested May 16 on charges of DUI and speeding. That was in connection with late-evening traffic stop in Vero Beach.
TCPalm.com

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The attorney for County Administrator Joe Baird says the police traffic stop that led to Baird’s arrest on DUI and speeding charges was illegal.

And on Wednesday, attorney Bobby Guttridge plans to ask County Judge David Morgan to throw out the case, according to court documents. (more…)

STUART — A group of residents suing Martin County because they contend the extension of airport runways at Witham Field has damaged their property values will have to wait until December to find out how the trial will be handled.

Attorneys for the group have filed motions asking they be allowed to file a class-action suit, a request opposed by Martin County, which operates Witham Field. (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

Hundreds of boom-time buyers in Florida have tried to use the Interstate Land Sales Act to wiggle out of real estate contracts. Some have been successful, others haven’t — but a recent ruling shines light on the risk involved in pursuing such cases.

A magistrate judge ruled late last month that three buyers at St. Lucie County’s Ocean Bay Villas who were suing in an attempt to get their deposits back must repay $76,600 in attorneys fees and costs to the developer, Stuart-based Pukka Development Inc.

“The question is: Do these lawyers explain to these buyers the risk if they lose? The developers are going to go after the attorney’s fees,” said Mark Grant, a partner at Ruden McClosky in Fort Lauderdale who represented Pukka.

In the Pukka case, the plaintiffs — Saverio Pugliese, Michael Mieves, Antonio Saladino and Stephen Matalyak — claimed Pukka violated the Interstate Land Sales Act because it didn’t file specific property reports required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida ultimately ruled that Pukka was exempt form the reports.

MARTIN COUNTY — When Martin Memorial Medical Center hired a jet in 2003 to repatriate a brain-damaged patient to his native Guatemala, hospital officials “never took the law into their own hands,” according to documents filed ahead of a June 23 trial.

“They never stuffed Mr. (Luis Alberto) Jimenez in the back of a van under the cover of darkness and drove him out of town,” Martin Memorial attorney Scott Michaud stated in papers detailing Jimenez’s predawn flight to Guatemala City on July 10, 2003.

“When Martin Memorial discharged Jimenez to the facility in Guatemala,” Michaud noted, “Martin Memorial did so with the honest belief based on the evidence it uncovered, that the hospital in Guatemala was properly equipped to care for him.”
(more…)

STUART — It just doesn’t make sense to Bill Wallace.

Why would Chrysler close a profitable dealership in a growing area?

Why would the beleaguered automaker allow a franchise in out-of-the-way Okeechobee to remain open, while closing several on the more populated Treasure Coast?

He’s selling cars. He bought more of them than he needed from Chrysler this year, at the urging of the company’s top brass, he says.

But his Wallace Chrysler Jeep in Fort Pierce is still slated to shut down after June 9, along with 788 other dealerships that Chrysler decided to close as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition.

“We weathered this tsunami, and in America, you should be rewarded for that, not punished,” said Wallace, a third-generation dealer whose grandfather opened a Chevrolet dealership in West Palm Beach in the 1930s.

Wallace is among more than 300 dealers across the country who have joined forces to fight Chrysler’s decision. The group, called the Committee of Chrysler Affected Dealers, wants more time. More time to prove it would be a mistake to ax them.

But if Chrysler gets its way in bankruptcy court - as many industry watchers believe it will - five Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers between Indiantown Road in Jupiter and Vero Beach will be among those that close next month. (more…)

VERO BEACH — The private defense attorney for Indian River County Administrator Joe Baird said Thursday he plans to enter a not-guilty plea to the driving while intoxicated charge Baird was arrested on Saturday night in Vero Beach.

Baird was driving from a Youth Guidance Volunteer Program fundraiser near Wabasso and “many people who saw him there say they don’t believe he was impaired at all,” said attorney Bobby Guttridge. “They spoke with him and interacted with him.”

Vero Beach Police allege Baird was speeding — doing 43 mph in a 30 mph zone — in his private car and crossed a centerline before an officer stopped him at 10:26 p.m. on 21st Street, according to police reports.
(more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — One year ago, a 6-year-old autistic boy was brought to the front of his classroom. He left moments later feeling like an outcast.

For many, he became a symbol of how children with autism are mistreated and misunderstood.

Some experts say the case of Alex Barton, who was voted out of his kindergarten classroom 14-to-2, brought about change and awareness of how autistic children are educated. Others say there still is a long way to go. (more…)

STUART — A circuit judge has thrown out a lawsuit from one of several people who claimed they contracted a dangerous staph infection while at Martin Memorial Hospital.

According to court records filed this week, Circuit Judge William Roby dismissed Louise and Alexander Webster’s medical malpractice case against the hospital claiming Louise contracted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in 2002 after having ankle surgery.

In his ruling, Roby said the Websters failed to prove that Webster contracted the infection because of any negligence on the hospital’s part.
(more…)