ST. LUCIE COUNTY — After weeks of police officer training in a classroom, Indian River State College students move on to a small platform that provides a high-tech simulation of how they react in a real-life situation.

They’re given a weapon that only emits lasers and equipped with a belt that zaps them if they put themselves in danger.

“It teaches consequences if they make bad decisions,” Stephen Huntsberger, associate dean of Public Service Education for IRSC, said of the VirTra Systems simulator at the complex.

The simulator is one of the planned demonstrations at Friday’s public open house at the new Indian River State College Public Safety Complex.
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FORT PIERCE — A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Sunday on a DUI charge after she reportedly was seen weaving in traffic and stumbling when she exited her sport utility vehicle, according to an affidavit released Monday.

Two breath tests measured 49-year-old Consuela Hall Curtis’s blood-alcohol level as 0.144 and 0.153 percent — greater than the legal limit of 0.08 percent. Curtis is a court security deputy who joined the Sheriff’s Office in 2003, according to the Sheriff’s Office. She was off duty in her personal vehicle at the time.

An off-duty sheriff’s sergeant saw Curtis driving west Sunday afternoon on Okeechobee Road from Interstate 95, noting her GMC SUV was weaving and cutting across all lanes of traffic.
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STUART — The nonprofit Surfrider organization isn’t doing much celebrating two weeks after its 25th anniversary Arts and Music Celebration has left about $75,000 in unpaid debts, about half to local vendors.

The Treasure Coast chapter president has resigned under pressure from the local board, which said he exceeded his authority in organizing the event.

And, the Surfrider Foundation’s Florida group of chapters has canceled its state conference to put that money toward paying the bills.
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STUART — Nine years ago, a drunk Donald Flewellen drove a stolen van across the center line, causing a collision that killed two people and left illegal Guatemalan immigrant Luis Jimenez permanently brain damaged.

Less than four months after his December release from prison for two counts of DUI manslaughter, authorities say Flewellen, 52, was behind the wheel of a borrowed car and caused a hit-and-run crash with property damage in Fort Pierce.

Already charged with two counts of violating his supervised release, court papers show when Flewellen returns to court Aug. 17, he’ll face additional charges of leaving the scene of a crash with property damage and driving on a revoked driver’s license related to an April 5 traffic collision.
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Theresa Caputo of Stuart, in black, hugs another woman Wednesday at the scene of a memorial that was built along Cove Road near Stuart. Caputo, a mother of three, said her children all knew and grew up with those killed. (DEBORAH SILVER/Treasure Coast Newspapers)

A few teenagers in board shorts and T-shirts lifted their sunglasses just long enough to wipe away their tears and hug one another in the grass along Cove Road Wednesday afternoon as they stood above a swelling memorial site.

Amid her tears, a mother bent down, reached through the letters, flowers and mementos and clutched a golf ball in her hand.

Angela Coady said she knew one of her son Nick’s friends had put it there intending for it to stay, but when she saw it she decided she had to take it with her.

“The last time I saw him he was going to play golf. He was happy as a lark,” she said. “The next time I saw him, he was dead.”

Nick Coady, 18, and his friends — Christopher Harold Briglio, 18, and Connor William Graver, 16, — were all killed early Tuesday when the Jeep Grand Cherokee that Coady was driving slammed into the back of a John Deere truck and overturned.

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MARTIN COUNTY — The county stands to save a bundle on construction of the Green River Parkway’s southern segment as competitive bids for the project came in several million dollars below what was anticipated.

Guettler Brothers Construction LLC of Fort Pierce submitted the low bid of $4.966 million to construct the parkway’s southern segment that will run from Jensen Beach Boulevard south to a round-a-bout at Baker Road and tie into Northwest Dixie Highway (State Road 707). (more…)

VERO BEACH — Court hearings on County Administrator Joe Baird’s traffic cases have moved to after 1:30 p.m. today at the Indian River County Courthouse on State Road 60, according to the office of the judge handling the case.

Hearings were to be held this morning on motions filed by Baird’s attorney, Bobby Guttridge. But County Judge David Morgan has moved them to this afternoon when he will review the status of a number of cases, his office staff said.

Baird, 52, was arrested May 16 on charges of DUI and speeding. That was in connection with late-evening traffic stop in Vero Beach.
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INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The attorney for County Administrator Joe Baird says the police traffic stop that led to Baird’s arrest on DUI and speeding charges was illegal.

And on Wednesday, attorney Bobby Guttridge plans to ask County Judge David Morgan to throw out the case, according to court documents. (more…)

STUART — A group of residents suing Martin County because they contend the extension of airport runways at Witham Field has damaged their property values will have to wait until December to find out how the trial will be handled.

Attorneys for the group have filed motions asking they be allowed to file a class-action suit, a request opposed by Martin County, which operates Witham Field. (more…)

PALM CITY — Martin County Commissioner Ed Ciampi closed his ice cream and chocolate shop at the Publix shopping center on Martin Highway in May and anticipates reopening in late July at a new location in a strip mall on Mapp Road.

It was the second setback for Ciampi’s 3-year-old chain of “Sweet Sarah’s” ice cream and chocolate shops. Last year, Ciampi closed his shop in Port St. Lucie because of a lack of traffic at a shopping center near Veteran’s Memorial Park.

“We all have to adapt to the current economic conditions and I’m doing just that,” Ciampi said. “Three or four years ago, when I started this process, the economy was different. So now I’m making smart decisions to stay in business.”
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