Vero Beach City Manager Gabbard to retire Oct. 15.
Vero Beach City Manager Jim Gabbard, 61, announced his plan to retire at the close of the last of three days of budget workshops. The past year has been a contentious one for the embattled City Manager. He has spent much of his time beating back criticism and controversy over soaring electric rates, and what has been viewed as bloated staffing levels in the city, despite the dire local economic conditions. "There is no issue, it's just time for me to do some other things in my life," Gabbard told the Vero Beach Council. More in Aug. 5th issue of Vero Beach 32963.
Rare armed robbery jolts Ocean Drive
The brazen lunchtime armed robbery of an Ocean Drive store last Saturday – the first beachside robbery in memory in which the shopkeeper was attacked by the invaders and stunned repeatedly with a Taser gun – reportedly netted the thieves as much as $100,000 in jewelry and has left the oceanside business community more than a bit shaken. Up and down Ocean Drive this week, shop owners were reviewing security measures in light of the robbery of Lou Wilson Fine Jewelry, where two daring robbers – described as white males between 25 and 35 years of age – entered the store not long after the end of the Saturday farmer’s market across the street and confronted the owner, Wilson. As Wilson attempted to greet them, he was immediately hit with an M26 Taser (the literature for which describes it as “the first system short of lethal force that could truly stop aggressive, focused combatants”), which was then cycled two more times. “Your muscles just all start to quiver and the third shot dropped me,” Wilson said. READ MORE
FP&L and Vero: Hard to tell what they are saying in private
A week after a flurry of reports involving what Florida Power & Light may or may not offer -- and may or may not do -- in regard to purchasing the Vero Beach Electric Utility, the situation appears more confused than ever. That’s largely because FP&L – perhaps realizing that no two members of the current dysfunctional City Council or city officials are in agreement on how to proceed – is being ultra cautious in its public comments about what it is saying to any of them privately, and what, if anything, Vero Beach customers stand to gain from an FP&L deal. Councilman Brian Heady was among a few of the elected city leaders to meet privately with three executives from the power behemoth on July 14 to preview the presentation made public at Tuesday’s special call meeting. According to him, FP&L will need to give the city enough to pay off the bonds, to fund any penalty it might owe to the Orlando Utilities Commission and give Vero customers FP&L rates. READ MORE
After the Hatch plea, what’s next?
The surprise plea bargain which ended the eight-week trial of disbarred attorney Ira C. Hatch appears to be a pragmatic decision by the State Attorney’s Office who feared endless appeals from Hatch and his Viera attorney. State Attorney Bruce Colton’s office has been accused of committing a major flinch for not giving the jury a chance to come up with a verdict. We now know that the verdict would have been “guilty” on at least 20 of the 45 counts, including the racketeering and money laundering charges. But with the deal, most legal observers believe Hatch will be sentenced to 30 years in prison, minus the 30 months he’s already served, making him about 90 years old upon release. For the victims, it allows the many pending civil lawsuits to go forward. How it will play in the annals of Vero Beach history will largely depend upon the sentence handed down by Judge James Midelis on Aug. 25. READ MORE
Ira Hatch facing up to 30 years in racketeering plea deal
Six members of the jury said after the theft and racketeering case against former Vero Beach attorney Ira C. Hatch had been settled by a plea agreement that they were one day away from coming in with a verdict of guilty on multiple charges. “We were pretty close,” juror Wilson Chery said, right after Hatch had agreed to plead guilty to a single charge of racketeering and put his fate in the hands of Senior Judge James Midelis, who could send the disbarred attorney to jail for 30 years. In the course of their two days of deliberations, jurors had made it to Count 21 of the 45 charges against Hatch – with a finding of guilty for each one. “We had a lot of guilty counts,” Jury Foreman Brent Atwell said. Sentencing will take place on August 27th.
‘Owner,’ ‘treasurer,’ and ‘operations manager’ makes surprise appearance at Hatch trial
Margaret P. “Marjorie” Hatch, the longtime wife and business partner of disbarred attorney Ira Hatch until their secret divorce six months ago, made a cameo appearance in the closing minutes of the criminal trial of her husband on 40-plus felony charges. But nothing she had to say in her 10 minutes on the witness stand suggested that she had any direct involvement in her husband’s business dealings. Indeed, under cross examination Marjorie testified that she did not have any independent knowledge that the state at one point tried to seize her bank accounts, said she had not witnessed anyone trying to take the money, and only knew what she read in the paper. With her day in court over for the moment, it appears Marjorie Hatch will maintain her silence – at least for the moment -- on what, if anything, she knew of Ira Hatch's business dealings. READ MORE
Biggest loser: Schlitt cash kept Hatch's Ponzie scheme afloat
Ira C. Hatch had courted the escrow money held by the Schlitt family companies for years, offering quicker and more exhaustive services to the other real estate brokerages that were vying with the Schlitts for business. But the Schlitts proved a tough nut for Hatch to crack. Entrenched in Vero Beach for decades, with family business tentacles in not only commercial and residential real estate, but also in insurance and the building trades, they declined Hatch’s many offers to let him harbor and control escrow deposits. But by 2006, after hearing so many clients sing Hatch’s praises, the Schlitts finally agreed. If they hadn’t, the Hatch house of cards might have come tumbling down a year earlier. READ MORE
Hatch partner rebuffs bid to spread blame
Defense attorney Gregory Eisenmenger has dropped hints that his defense of Ira Hatch will include an effort to pin the blame for some or all of the missing $4 million in client funds from Hatch’s escrow company on his junior law partner, Kevin Doty. For Hatch and Eisenmenger, Doty could be reasonable doubt in the criminal case, and just as importantly, Doty’s actions could be used in defending against pending civil suits. But Doty, whose testimony was long-awaited, firmly rebuffed suggestions that he knew -- or participated in -- what was going on. READ MORE
Eisenmenger's meandering courtroom style
As the trial of disbarred attorney Ira Hatch on 46 felony charges of grand theft, racketeering and money laundering meanders through a fourth week, the most unusual – and tedious -- element of the case seems to be the style of defense attorney Gregory Eisenmenger. The litigator’s courtroom technique at times appears to be lulling the jury of six plus four alternates and the sitting judge into a stupor with his frequent objections over minute points, long rambling cross-examinations that are often off point, and his failure to tie up long jags of questioning into salient arguments. He has taken to prodding certain witnesses – so much so that several have lashed back, giving him dirty looks and sarcastic remarks. He has subjected several, some of whom lost jobs or money with the closure of Coastal Escrow, to questions so bizarre and tangential that some are left perplexed on the witness stand. READ MORE
Dragonfly joins Gulf battle to rescue wildlife
Vero Beach boat-builder Mark Castlow has lived his life on the water. He has made his living making and selling boats, and spent his free time surfing and fishing. Now he is asking far more urgent questions than whether the redfish are running, or the waves are good. Armed with little more than passion, he is attempting to wade into the battle for the Gulf of Mexico, as self-appointed commander of what he is calling the Dragonfly Environmental Army. Mustering the celebrity firepower of singer Jimmy Buffett, a longtime acquaintance and resident of Palm Beach, Castlow has begun customizing his flats-fishing boats, the namesake of his company, Dragonfly, for use in rescuing wildlife along the coast of the Gulf. READ MORE
New twists in the Ira Hatch fraud saga
As the Ira Hatch fraud trial drags on, with no end expected for weeks if not months, Vero Beach 32963 examined what have been some of the more intriguing aspects of this bizarre case.
How did Hatch – who got the court to certify him as indigent -- wind up defended by a top criminal lawyer who receives no fee.
To read how Hatch managed to enlist free of charge the services of a veteran criminal defense attorney based 60 miles from here instead of being forced to rely on experienced public defenders, click here.
How was Hatch, according to witnesses, able to use escrowed client funds as his private piggy bank.
To read how the state is building a case that appears to hinge on jurors believing Hatch used money from Coastal Escrow Services accounts to fund a lavish lifestyle for his family, click here.
How is Hatch’s family living like millionaires on the $1,500-a-month he now gets from Social Security?
While Hatch is considered indigent inside the courthouse, Margaret “Marjorie” Hatch, his wife during the period for which he is now on trial, somehow pays bills running $12,000 a month with only Hatch’s $1,500-a-month Social Security as declared income. For details from financial affidavits, click here.
Vero admits electric rates will never approach those of FPL
City of Vero Beach Acting Electric Utility Director John Lee has stated what we all knew would be true: Despite urging on all fronts to get rates down, electric bills will go no lower for utility customers under the city’s current business plan. In fact, bills will go up by $2.50 per 1,000 kilowatt hours in September when a current rebate expires, and they might go up even more in the short term due to increased transmission fees imposed for using Florida Power & Light lines to bring power to the city’s 33,000-plus customers. In short, Lee said the city is pretty much stuck with its current expenses, unless the Council is prepared to impose less-robust staffing and pared down services going forward. READ MORE
