PORT ST. LUCIE — When Maria Trigueiro and her husband, Jose, bought a home in Lake Forest after living in New Hampshire, they did so under the impression that the vegetative buffer between the home and Florida’s Turnpike would remain untouched.

About six years later, Trigueiro is upset that St. Lucie West Services District officials are pulling up invasive, non-native Brazilian pepper trees in the surrounding community. The trees behind her house are still in the ground, but she is worried they will be coming down soon.

Under its development permit through the South Florida Water Management District, St. Lucie West Services District is required to check its property and destroy invasive plants such as the Brazilian pepper, which crowds out native vegetation and can damage the local environment.
(more…)

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.
(more…)

INDIANTOWN — For years, the owners of J&R Outfitters ran a hunting lodge featuring exotic game such as Asian water buffalo, Nilgai antelope and Pere David deer thinking they had all the required Martin County permits.

But several code violations were discovered at J&R Outfitters last fall after the opening of a shooting range that outraged nearby homeowners with incessant gunfire.

Now Bill Richey and Joe O’Bannon are aiming to keep their hunting lodge open by jumping through all the regulatory hoops that apply to their business at 7600 S.W. Fox Brown Road.

“We never dreamed that what we were doing was illegal and we never tried to get away with anything,” said Richey, a former state prosecutor. “We have been no secret in Martin County. We have been here for 20 years.” (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A man accused of speeding along St. James Drive at more than 100 mph with an unrestrained 2-year-old child in the back seat is facing charges, according to a recently released arrest affidavit.

A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigator Monday afternoon spotted a green Honda Civic driving south on St. James Drive at an estimated speed of more than 70 mph.

The affidavit gave this account:
(more…)

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.
(more…)

VERO BEACH — Local amateur fossil collector James Kennedy appears to have made an unprecedented archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here up to 13,000 years ago.

A prehistoric bone fragment found near Vero Beach contains a crude engraving of a mammoth or mastodon on it.

“It is humbling to realize that we are seeing what the hunter saw more than 13,000 years ago,” Purdy said.
(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…)

Martin County lost 130 residents between 2007 and 2008, and growth in the rest of the Treasure Coast has slowed to a crawl, according to population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Department.

St. Lucie County, once the one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, saw a population increase of 1.9 percent. Indian River County grew by less than a percent.

But even in the midst of the housing market crash, the Hispanic population is growing in all Treasure Coast counties.
(more…)

FORT PIERCE — Police found seagulls with ropes around their necks along with decayed fish and toys hanging from two palm trees in the 800 block of South Indian River Drive, a recently released report said.

Seagulls were hanging from one tree and items described as “miscellaneous toys” had been placed above the birds.

On the other tree, police found assorted toys, sandals, about nine decayed fish and two seagulls with ropes around their necks.

(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.
(more…)