William Luciano

Witnesses told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies that William L. Luciano ran out of his home on Hidalgo Lane, chasing a man with a sword. He later went back inside and returned with another knife, the witnesses said.

Luciano slashed the man in his left arm, the witnesses said.

When investigators arrived at the scene, Luciano said he was trying to protect his roommate, Patricia D. Best, from the man.
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A joint operation of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation resulted in four arrests of unlicensed contractors Thursday.

The sting, which recruited unlicensed contractors from the website craigslist.com and from newspaper ads, sends a message that the state and county agencies will not tolerate unlicensed contractors, officials said.

In Thursday’s sting, four St. Lucie County deputies and two DBPR investigators from the agency’s West Palm Beach office invited unlicensed contractors to bid on a fictitious renovation job at a privately owned building.

When the unlicensed contractors arrived and made bids, the deputies arrested them for the misdemeanor charge of contracting without a license and booked them into the St. Lucie County jail. The DBPR investigators also gave the defendants $1,000 citations for violating state licensing laws, along with cease and desist notices, prohibiting them from soliciting business as unlicensed contractors.

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PORT ST. LUCIE — A man is accused of sexually assaulting a teen after she told her father the man had touched her inappropriately.

The 13-year-old girl told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s investigators that on April 19 she and a friend spent the night watching movies with 38-year-old Carl Holler Jr. at a Port St. Lucie home as they all drank beer and margaritas.

The girl fell asleep and woke up to find Holler touching her, according to a sheriff’s report.

The girl reported the incident to her parents and her father contacted authorities.

When questioned, Holler denied touching the girl but said it was possible he might have drank too much that night and was not able to recall all that happened.

Holler faces a felony charge of sexual assault.

John Santilli

According to the woman, she had been involved with 47-year-old John Santilli for two and a half years before ending the relationship two months ago.

The woman told St. Lucie County Sheriff’s deputies that she moved and asked Santilli not to contact her but she had received several phone calls and notes from him. She has also had several UPS packages stolen and her television cable cut off, according to a sheriff’s report.

On Monday the woman said her cable had been cut off again. She told investigators Santilli admitted he had cut it and to fix it would need to enter her apartment.

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Joseph Bowen

The girl and her 10-year-old sister told their mother that her 25-year-old boyfriend, Joseph Bowen, had tried to get the older sister to sit on his lap. After she tried leaving the bedroom where the two girls were playing, the girl fell to the floor and Bowen laid on top of her while the younger girl yelled at him to get off her sister, according to a St. Lucie County Sheriff’s report.

Bowen then went to the bathroom and later left for work.

After the incident, the younger sister noticed a wet spot on the back of the 14-year-old’s pants. When their mother got home, the girls told her what happened and she called authorities.
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PORT ST. LUCIE — Police are looking for two men suspected of robbing a grocery store and tying up three people there on Friday night.

One man told police he went to the back of the La Perla meat market in the 1300 block of Bayshore Boulevard to load up a van at about 8:40 p.m. when he was grabbed and his hands bound. He told officers $600 was taken from him before he was dragged behind a dumpster.

A short while later, a second man left the store to check on his friend. It was then, he said, that he was tied and thrown to the floor. The robbers stole about $250 from him, the man said.

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Warmesha Henry

Warmesha C. Henry told St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputies she was tired of kids on Cherokee Avenue messing with her children, and admitted she carried her gun to the 2700 block of Cherokee and confronted one boy.

The 9-year-old boy said Henry, 32, came over to his house at about 7 p.m. on Wednesday and accused him of pushing her son, according to sheriff’s officials. Henry then pointed the gun at him and threatened to kill him, he said.

A witness reported that Henry had waived her gun around in the air before driving away.

Henry was arrested on a felony charge of aggravated assault and was released from the St. Lucie County jail on Wednesday on $2,500 bond.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

FORT PIERCE — In a move he hopes will help reduce expenses and deal with a projected 20 percent reduction in property tax revenues next year, Mayor Bob Benton is proposing the city consolidate the Police Department with the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office.

“To do this will probably be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my job,” Benton said. “For me to do my job in this economic time, I have to look at all of our options. One thing that isn’t an option is raising taxes. That’s why we have to look into this.”

Officials would discuss the idea at an upcoming budget workshop, Benton said. No date has been scheduled for the workshop.

A projected 20 percent reduction in the city’s property valuation will result in a loss of $3.1 million in property tax revenues next year, City Manager David Recor said. Every 1 percent reduction in taxable value represents a decrease of $158,000 in property tax receipts, he said.

“We are going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Recor said. “We really need to focus on how are we going to increase our revenues or how are we going to decrease our expenditures?”

Benton said merging the two departments could save the city millions of dollars annually. He said he doesn’t want to reduce the number of officers, but rather determine what areas in both agencies could be consolidated. (more…)

The man whose body was found by a canal Wednesday morning has been identified as Fort Pierce resident Robert Smith Jr.

At about 6:20 a.m., St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials arrived at the intersection of 25th Street and Avenue T north of Fort Pierce to find 47-year-old Smith lying face down on the bridge over the Belcher Canal, deputies said.
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St. Lucie County Sheriff’s officials are investigating the death of a man whose body was found beside a canal north of Fort Pierce early this morning.

Someone walking in the area of North 25th Street and Avenue T found the body around 6:15 this morning and called 911, sheriff’s officials said.

Sheriff Ken Mascara said the body is that of a black male in his 40s or 50s, wearing jeans, a shirt and jacket. The body, which was found next to a bicycle, was soaked, suggesting that he had been in the canal. (more…)