PORT ST. LUCIE — Members of the anti-tax group Treasure Coast Tea Party are demanding an apology from city officials, claiming their civil rights have been violated.

Organization members said they were singled out at the city’s Freedomfest over the weekend by being put into a special area — with a sign nearby stating Port St. Lucie did not back their views or opinions.

A spokesman for the city called the accusations “nonsense.” But Port St. Lucie officials continue to receive e-mails and phone calls critical of the city’s actions at the new Civic Center.
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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.”
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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.
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FORT PIERCE — A registered sex offender and his girlfriend were arrested Tuesday following allegations that they beat an 11-year-old girl and her siblings, according to records released Wednesday.

The 11-year-old girl told sheriff’s investigators John Louis Cooper, 30, burned her with a cigarette lighter. She said she feared being raped by Cooper because he “raped a 13-year-old girl before,” records show.

Cooper was convicted in 2002 of lewd act on a minor less than 16 and is a registered sex offender because of it, records show.

The girl said Cooper and his 32-year-old girlfriend, Kathy Ann Carson, push them around and punch her and her 9-year-old brother “all the time,” according to the report.

The brother had an injury on his finger he said was caused by Cooper purposely burning him with a lighter, records show.

The elder girl said Cooper punches her in the chest when she misbehaves, the records show. The boy said he has difficulty with bed-wetting and Cooper punches him in the chest because of it. The boy also was found to have a “fungal scalp infection” that had been present for months.

Cooper faces two counts of child abuse, and Carson was arrested on a single child abuse charge. Carson’s charge stems from alleged abuse on a 4-year-old girl. A doctor examined the 4-year-old girl and the two older children and founds signs of abuse or neglect.

Cooper and his girlfriend live in the 5100 block of La Salle Street.

By Will Greenlee, TCPalm.com

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…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A registered sex offender who allegedly offered unlicensed massages via Craigslist was arrested after meeting with an undercover detective and asking her to remove her top, according to records released Thursday.

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office officials began investigating Jon Richard Glasure, 47, after learning he’d allegedly been giving massages in his home.

Sheriff’s investigators found Glasure, of the 2300 block of Southwest Santana Avenue, posted on the popular Internet classified site Cragislist offering massages for ”donations.” (more…)

State officials said they are reviewing the actions of 10 employees at two Treasure Coast prisons in incidents where children were shocked with stun guns when visiting for Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day.

The incidents happened on April 23 at the Indian River Correctional Institution and the Martin Correctional Institution, according to the Department of Corrections. Several children, ages 8 through 14, were at the facilities for the educational initiative, department spokeswoman Jo Ellyn Rackleff said.

Five employees at each facility are on paid administrative leave for the investigation, she said. None of the children were seriously hurt, Rackleff said.
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It’s common to see Treasure Coast teens and preteens using cell phones for sending text messages and photos.

But it’s also becoming common for teens nationwide to send other things via their phones or computer Web cameras, including explicit and sexual photographs that have given the phenomenon a new name — sexting.

“It’s been going on for several years here. We just didn’t call it this,” said Detective Brian Broughton of the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. “Now it has a little buzz word, but basically we’re referring to the same thing — when children would take nude pictures of themselves and send it to other children.”
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Thursday, April 23, 2009

VERO BEACH — Two students have been charged with making multiple bomb threats to Vero Beach High School, authorities said.

The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office Thursday charged Taren Lee Stage, 17, with six counts of making a false bomb threat. Deputies pulled Stage out of a class about 10:30 a.m. Thursday and took him to the Sheriff’s Office. The charges are second-degree felonies, which Stage will face as an adult, Sheriff Deryl Loar said.

Early Thursday evening, the Sheriff’s Office also charged Brittany Ann Walker, 18, of the 300 block of 21st Avenue, with one count of making a false bomb threat, according to Walker’s arrest affidavit.

Deputies also have identified a “person of interest” in connection with the bomb threats, according to Walker’s arrest affidavit, but that person was not named. Sheriff’s Office spokesman Deputy Jeff Luther declined to release further information, saying the case still is under investigation.

Stage, whose affidavit was not released, implicated Walker when deputies questioned him, according to Walker’s arrest affidavit.

While in custody, Walker told Stage she received a text message that he had been arrested and she knew she “was next,” the affidavit states.

Six bomb threats were called into VBHS since March 3 — four in the last week. One bomb threat was called into Sebastian River High School on March 3. According to the affidavit, in some of the calls, Stage gave the phone to Walker to dial the school and then she’d hand the phone off to the “person of interest.”

The students used three different phones and blocked the phone numbers from appearing on the school’s caller ID system, officials said.

Luther said deputies took their time to make sure they had those responsible for making the calls. (more…)

VIERA — For five years, the Palm Bay couple considered Gary Sebastian, the father of their 14-year-old daughter’s best friend, a close acquaintance, trusted to protect their child during the girls’ weekend sleepovers or to hang out at their home during get-togethers.

So, they were stunned when they discovered last summer that 41-year-old Sebastian had been sending their daughter inappropriate text messages, mailed her a package filled with sex-related items and provided her with alcohol on at least one occasion.

And they weren’t satisfied Wednesday when a judge sentenced the former Palm Bay firefighter to three and a half years in prison and five years of sex offender probation. (more…)