ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputy who said he made fun of a man with no arm at a softball game, and another deputy who was “discourteous” to the public each received a written reprimand, according to internal investigation records obtained Tuesday and an official.

The deputies, Thomas Johnson and Rigoberto Iglesias, were on a softball team sponsored by the jail’s food service provider during the March 8 incident, which involved two umpires.

The home plate umpire complained to sheriff’s officials that Johnson and Iglesias “behaved improperly” at the game at Lawnwood Stadium.
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Michele Nunziata

So on Monday night, Michele Nunziata’s landlord called the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and reported his concerns.

When investigators showed up at the home in the 900 block of North Kings Highway, they found a grim scene.

Three dead dogs locked up in kennels. A black wolf locked up in feces and starving. A Doberman pinscher in the same condition.

There were other animals. Three skinny pit bulls running loose in the house. A bloodhound reported to be malnourished, two cockatiels and two ferrets – all without sufficient food – and a chinchilla with food and water.

Investigators also found veterinary medicine and piles of feces scattered on the dining room floor.

Nunziata, 40, was booked into the St. Lucie County jail on Monday and is being detained in lieu of $42,500 bail. She faces 16 counts of animal abuse charges and one charge of having the wolf without a permit.

Nunziata told investigators that she had put down the dogs on Saturday and had been too distraught to remove their bodies.

The malnurished bloodhound reportedly removed from Nunziata's home.

She said she had received the euthanasia from her landlord, who had called to tell her that the syringes where in her mailbox ready for use by saying in code, “The snowman had arrived.” (more…)

Gladys Gurski Gehrig

Ms. Gehrig is a white female, 5 feet 4 inches tall weighing 160 pounds with brown, medium-length curly hair, gray eyes and wearing glasses. She was last seen wearing a purple blouse and black pants with unknown type of shoes.

Her son, Robert D. Gehrig, said his mother went to the Wachovia Bank, 2597 South U.S.1, Fort Pierce, at 2 p.m. and has not returned.

She called her caretaker at 3:30 p.m. and said she was lost. The caretaker gave her directions on how to return to her Sunset Boulevard, Fort Pierce, home.

Anyone with information is asked to call 9-1-1 in St. Lucie County.

FORT PIERCE — Six members of a Fort Pierce gang were arrested today as part of a multi-agency investigation into the group.

The investigation into the Zoe Pound gang was initiated as part of a concerted effort of regional law enforcement agencies in accordance with the state Attorney General’s Gang Reduction Initiative, according to a news release from the state office.

According to the arrest affidavit, the gang has continually been in existence since at least 1998 and currently consists of approximately 50 individuals who are involved in the narcotics trade, deal in stolen property, commit robberies, burglaries and thefts, and engage in acts of violence, including violence against law enforcement.

Zoe Pound members and associates arrested today were David Poole, 28; Michael Louis, 27; Wendell Bellevue, 21; Francis Dextra, 25; Jamel Asseille, 26; and Fred Boston, 19.

The defendants are charged with criminal racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering. (more…)

A Tuesday night undercover operation in St. Lucie County showed that 92 percent of the 58 stores visited refused to sell tobacco products to those under 18, according to St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken J. Mascara.

“We thank all those stores who are following the law,” Sheriff Mascara said. “Sadly, the five stores that didn’t follow the law all were large chain stores.”

St. Lucie County School Resource Deputies teamed up with the state Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco and the St. Lucie County Health Department’s FACE IT program (”Families Acting Collaboratively to Educate and Involve Teens”) for the Tuesday night operation. Three teams each included a volunteer teenager who was younger than 18. State law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to those under 18.

The offenders received a citation and a notice to appear in court to defend their actions.

The stores that violated the law were:

- Flying J Truck Stop, Kings Highway

- Walgreens, 2423 Orange Avenue, Fort Pierce

- Hess station, 3045 South U.S.1, Fort Pierce

- CVS, 1300 block of St. Lucie West Boulevard, Port St. Lucie

- Walgreens, 692 Prima Vista Boulevard, Port St. Lucie

More information about the work of the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco is available at its web site www.myflorida.com/dbpr/abt/index.html

The FACE IT program funded the overtime for the deputies who participated in the operation as part of the Tobacco Prevention and Education Control Program of the St. Lucie County Health Department.
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Glenn Hedrick

Glenn Hedrick, a diabetic, did not respond when called to have his blood sugar taken at about 4 a.m.

His cellmate told St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputies Hedrick, 54, wasn’t breathing, according to a sheriff’s report.

When a deputy when to check on him, Hedrick was cold to the touch, the report states.

Paramedics pronounced him dead at 4:13 a.m.
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Theresa Platt

Theresa Platt, 34, left her 6-year-old son and twin 3-year-old boys with a Port St. Lucie woman on Wednesday, telling her, “I don’t want my kids, you can have them!”

The woman told Port St. Lucie police that she had driven to Platt’s home in the 300 block of Northeast Solida Drive and offered to take her kids to school. But Platt reportedly told her she didn’t want her children any more and gave the woman their sleeping bags.

The woman also showed police numerous bug bites across the children’s legs and arms. She said Platt and the children had been living in a home in the 400 block of Southeast Seahorse Drive, which was infested with ants.

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Graham Widmann

Graham D. Widmann was booked into the St. Lucie County jail last week and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

A Martin County Sheriff’s detective conducting an online investigation found that someone in Widmann’s home in the 100 block of Celestia Court had downloaded child pornography.

When questioned last month by St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators, Widmann, 26, admitted to downloading the movies and storing them in computer hard drives, according to a sheriff’s report.

Widmann faces a felony charge of possessing at least 10 images of child pornography.

Guillermo Cabello

St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies ordered Guillermo Cabello to drop his rifle when they spotted him at the entrance of a grove off Rangeline Road on Tuesday afternoon.

Cabello said he had permission to go on the property and said he was there with two other men who were helping him hunt for the hog. Deputies couldn’t find the other two men, but when they were able to contact representatives from the company who owned the property, who said no one was allowed to hunt there.

Cabello, 66, faces a felony armed trespassing charge.

Mark Greenberg

Mark A. Greenberg told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators he did this on 38 separate occasions.

Greenberg, 53, said that when he first signed up for service he was given a modem but it didn’t work so he called AT&T and ordered a new one. According to a sheriff’s report, Greenberg said he was upset with the company for sending defective products, so he called again in November 2008 and ordered another modem, saying that the device he got was damaged.
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