There were a number of gardens of blue pinwheels put up last week to raise awareness of April as Child Abuse Prevention Month. Students at Wakulla Middle School, the Wakulla County Health Department, and at Azalea Park with a garden of pinwheels put out by volunteers for Caroline’s Agape Project. (Photos by Shirley Howard, Elizabeth Neighbors, William Snowden)
Read More …Alfreda Nelson ran over a 9-year-old boy and left scene, sentenced to maximum
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
The woman who hit a 9-year-old boy with her car and then left the scene was sentenced last week to 15 years in state prison, the maximum sentence for the charge of leaving the scene of an accident with serious injury, a second degree felony.
The courtroom was packed on Thursday, March 26, for the sentencing hearing of Alfreda Nelson as the case drew widespread attention last year over the concern for the boy, Sawyer Crawley, who suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of the accident.
In frustration, the judge told attorneys at a hearing he should have the bailiff shoot them
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
A panel at the Judicial Qualifications Commission issued its findings and recommendations that Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith violated judicial canons with some intemperate remarks he made in court to attorneys during a contentious hearing back in September, and recommended he face a public reprimand.
Read More …By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
After 35 years of operating the county transportation service, the Wakulla Senior Citizens Center appears to be about to hand it over to Big Bend Transit.
And it is not doing so willingly.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
While former county commissioner Mike Kemp had been on the trial docket for March when the case was under Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith, the case has been under review by Circuit Judge Ron Flury, who was assigned the case after Judge Smith removed himself.
At a hearing on March 12 via Zoom, Judge Flury got an update on the case from Crawfordville attorney David Kemp (no relation to Mike Kemp) that transcripts of depositions had been ordered and a likely Motion to Dismiss would be drafted.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Wakulla County Administrator David Edwards said the county would review the offer by the school board to give the county the Wakulla Education Center property in Shadeville.
Edwards told commissioners at their March 16 meeting that the county needs to do due diligence on the offer – determine what shape the old school buildings are in, what it would cost to maintain the facility, and other issues. Edwards said the county might need to re-negotiate the school board’s offer.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
The Wakulla County School Board voted to deny renewal of COAST Charter School’s contract.
School board members voted unamimously on Monday, March 9, to accept the recommendation of Superintendent of Schools Rick Myhre to reject the school’s “proposed charter renewal contract” as insufficient and non-compliant with requirements of current state law.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Co-defendants Dustin Cmehil and Eldon Hicks III separately entered no contest pleas to a laundry list of criminal charges, including burglary of a conveyance with person assaulted, and attempted carjacking, and were both sentenced to 10 years in state prison.
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By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
The Wakulla County Historical Society is a treasure.
And its monthly history programs on the second Tuesday of the month is not to be missed.
So far the programs have included Robert Seidler on the history of Sopchoppy held at the Sopchoppy Gym. Seidler went back 10,000 years in the area’s history and started from there.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Some of the actions taken in this month’s felony court cases in front of Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith:
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