By Elliott Jones

A man who didn’t like being told to get off a car in a parking lot became irate and made threats with a gun, police reports show.

He man is suspected of threatening the car owner and the owner’s grandchildren during the incident around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday at the St. Lucie Place Apartments on St. Lucie Boulevard. (more…)

MIAMI — Convicted pot grower Kobie O. Gary, son of famed Stuart lawyer Willie Gary, is expected to face a federal judge in Miami Wednesday morning to begin what’s scheduled to be a two-day sentencing hearing before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore.

Gary, 30, of Jensen Beach, faces a mandatory minimum of five years behind bars and up to a $2 million fine after pleading guilty in January to conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute 100 or more marijuana plants.

Gary’s co-defendants, Stephen Shepherd, 33 of Hobe Sound, Scott Gibson, of Stuart, and David Grant, 26, of Jensen Beach, have all pleaded guilty to the same offense.

In each case, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss two additional charges of maintaining a place to cultivate, possess and distribute more than 100 pot plants.

Gary’s legal team have said they intend to argue their client qualifies for a “safety valve exception,” which allows the court to sentence him to a shorter prison term provided Moore is convinced he wasn’t a ringleader or used guns in the offenses.

In court papers, the attorneys are recommending a two-year sentence: one year incarceration and another year substance abuse treatment supervised by the court.

Gary and Shepherd were arrested Oct. 27 when Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies raided a Hobe Sound house at the 7200 block of Mulberry Drive and found more than 230 pot plants in various stages of growth. Authorities then said the marijuana had a street value of about $100,000.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors filed a 33-page transcript of Gary’s “safety valve statement” to authorities in which he details his role in the Hobe Sound grow house operation.

His attorneys meanwhile, filed several letters written in support of Gary, including a statement from former Martin County Commissioner Elmira Gainey, Bishop Harold Calvin Ray, senior pastor of the Redemptive Life Fellowship in West Palm Beach, and Talbert O. Shaw, president emeritus of Shaw University.

This story will be updated as the hearing proceeds.

STUART — Gov. Charlie Crist will be joined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael W. Sole and several local and environmental leaders to tour the St. Lucie River and estuary today.

The visit will emphasize Crist’s focus on protecting the health of the Everglades, according to the governor’s press office.

The visit is set for 10:30 a.m. at Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage, 615 Anchorage Way, Stuart.

STUART — All 139 charges filed against an attorney’s legal assistant arrested in June 2008 on suspicion of stealing from her boss were dropped Monday, according to the Martin County Clerk of Court Web site.

Port St. Lucie resident Wandalyn Jackson of Port St. Lucie was arrested by Stuart Police Department detectives on suspicion of writing herself more than 50 checks totaling more than $15,000 from her employer’s probate law firm in Stuart. The case was scheduled to go to trial Monday.

The 139 counts against Jackson were a combination of charges of grand theft, petit theft, forgery and uttering, or using, a forged document.

STUART — For years, the Martin County School District was a mainstay of Florida Mechanical LLC.

The district called the Riviera Beach-based contractor nearly every day for repair jobs, while authorities say school employees routinely signed off on company invoices that included extra charges.

So informal had the contractual relationship become that company President Ken Morgan described it this way: “They would call us when things would break.” So cozy had the personal relationship become that district workers lunched with company employees and allowed them to assist with home repairs.

One district employee even spent a weekend at Morgan’s vacation home in St. Augustine. In exchange, Morgan got the use of the employee’s frozen drink machine at two company parties.

That all ended last year. Acting on a tip, new schools Superintendent Nancy Kline launched an internal investigation into allegations of employee misconduct, and later purged staff in the maintenance, facilities and purchasing departments. She also stopped $235,000 in remaining payments to Florida Mechanical.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement report released Tuesday clears former district and company employees of allegations of fraud but details a business relationship that likely cost the district thousands in unnecessary expenses. (more…)

STUART — Carl Ellwanger’s shirt says it all: Still plays with trains.

Twice a week Ellwanger and more than a dozen other members of the Martin County Model Railroaders spend most of the day working on a 65-foot-long miniature train lay out.

They will show off the results of that work at the non-profit organization’s annual expo Saturday at the Martin County Fairgrounds. The expo, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., costs $5 for adults and is free for children under 12.

Last year, about 1,200 people turned out for the exhibit, which is the group’s primary fund-raiser each year.

“The kids stand outside and look at it in awe,” said Bob Cottone, president of the railroaders. (more…)

STUART — Months after Martin County Schools Superintendent Nancy Kline conducted a sweeping housecleaning of district staff based, in part, on preliminary information in a state audit, a final report shows that employees violated board policies in bidding, contracting and purchasing.

None of the five violations merited the state’s most serious classification. The auditors deemed only two of the five “significant.”

The report came this week from the state Auditor General’s Office, which conducts routine audits of the state’s 67 school districts. The office has no oversight authority and cannot enforce its findings.

Kline said the final audit was no surprise, saying district officials fixed the most serious problems.

“Maybe, if anything, it kind of validates the decisions that were made,” she said.

Those decisions — to terminate long-standing employees and bring in consultants — brought fierce criticism from some school board members and former employees during much of Kline’s first year in office.

(more…)

The state Auditor General’s final report about the Martin County School District is available. The report, released today, has two “significant deficiencies” and three “additional matters.” Auditors found no “material weaknesses,” which are the most serious findings.

See the report here.

Lured by its proximity to race tracks, a sports car racing team has opened up shop in Martin County.

Extreme Speed Motorsports, owned by veteran race car driver Scott Sharp, will run his team out of a building on Jack James Drive in Stuart.

The team will race a Ferrari 430 GTC in the American Le Mans series, which is a sports car racing series in the United States and Canada in which drivers participate in endurance and sprint races that last from 100 minutes to 12 hours. (more…)