St. Lucie County's top stories of 2023: sheriff's appointment, Trump trial, Brightline and more

ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A controversial political appointment, a former president on trial, region-redefining development projects and a long-awaited train to Orlando were major stories reported by TCPalm this year.

These stories, and many others, were among the biggest of 2023 that shaped the lives of St. Lucie County residents.

Here are some of the top local stories that dominated TCPalm coverage of St. Lucie County this year:

Sheriff transition was controversial, others were not

On Dec. 1 St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara abruptly retired.

The news came from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' office, which announced DeSantis had appointed Lt. Keith Pearson sheriff. Mascara, a Democrat, had already announced he would not seek reelection. Following DeSantis' statement, Mascara released a letter which attributed his retirement to "health issues."

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Pearson said he had been given a heads up of "about 30 minutes" before the announcement, and did not know why he was chosen. Yet within three days, he had announced he would run in 2024 to keep his new job. Prior to his appointment, he had said he had no plans to run for the job. He filed as a Republican.

Prominent St. Lucie County Republicans were quick to criticize the appointment and Pearson directly. While there are a number of candidates from both major parties planning to run in 2024, the St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee endorsed Richard Del Toro — currently Acting Port St. Lucie police chief — in April 2022, more than two years before Election Day.

"I am very much in opposition of Keith Pearson,” said County Commission Chair Cathy Townsend, a Republican. “He is the worst choice the governor could have made.”

Concerns were also voiced about transparency and ethics. On Dec. 6 the Republican Executive Committee of St. Lucie County called on DeSantis to reconsider his appointment and open an ethics investigation into Pearson.

Kenny Nail, chairman of the St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee, cited a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into Mascara that Nail claimed “called for the prosecution of Keith Pearson, stemming from criminal activity.”

An attorney representing Pearson demanded Nail cease and desist his "derogatory or defamatory" statements about Pearson. Pearson has denied any wrongdoing.

Other transitions in 2023 transpired with hardly a notice from the public.

The Port St. Lucie City Council selected Jesus Merejo to succeed Russ Blackburn as city manager. Blackburn retired Feb. 17 after a 47-year public career, and Merejo had been his chief assistant.

Just weeks later, the County Commission chose George Landry as its new county administrator, following in the footsteps of Howard Tipton, who resigned to become town manager of Longboat Key on Florida's west coast. Landry had been the county public-utilities director.

Trump on trial in Fort Pierce

Former President Donald Trump’s federal criminal trial began to unfold in Fort Pierce earlier this summer, with the first pretrial hearing taking place July 18. Other hearings took place throughout the summer at the Alto Lee Adams Sr. U.S. Courthouse in the case of United States v. Donald Trump and Waltine “Walt” Nauta.

Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, who worked for Trump, are codefendants.

Trump and his codefendants are charged with mishandling federal documents uncovered on Aug. 8, 2022, at Trump’s Palm Beach County Mar-a-Lago property.

Trump hasn't yet attended a hearing here, but he is expected to appear in Fort Pierce once the trial kicks off in 2024. It's slated to begin May 20, although Trump has asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to delay it until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Brightline becomes a reality

Many thought it never would happen. St. Lucie’s neighboring counties to the north and south spent millions of dollars trying to keep it from happening.

But 11 years and $6 billion later, Brightline began running its higher-speed passenger railroad through the Treasure Coast on Sept. 22.

After beginning service in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in 2018, Brightline’s colorful trains quickly became a staple along the corridor between downtown Miami and Orlando International Airport, running 32 times a day through rural and residential neighborhoods and downtowns such as Fort Pierce.

And just as critics had warned, it didn’t take long for the railroad to experience its first fatality on the Treasure Coast. On its seventh day of full operation, Sept. 28, a northbound Brightline train hit and killed a 25-year-old homeless man just north of Midway Road, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Sheriff Ken Mascara cited “strong evidence to suggest that he may potentially have committed suicide.”

There was good news from Brightline as well in 2023. In October, officials announced they had begun a site-selection process for a Treasure Coast station in either St. Lucie or Martin county. The new station is to be open by early 2028, Brightline said.

Growth across the county

While major projects continued to move forward, other new developments made news in 2023.

At a Sept. 28 community meeting, local car dealer and real estate investor Sandy Woods shared his plans for a property he and his family own along the Fort Pierce Inlet between Manatee Island Bar and Grill and Square Grouper Tiki Bar.

The proposal, dubbed Boardwalk on the Inlet, was one of the most ambitious the Treasure Coast has seen. It includes hotels, condominiums, restaurants, a nearly 19,000-square-foot event center complex — with a 7,000-square-foot main ballroom — shopping and about 1,000 parking spaces on prime waterfront property on South Hutchinson Island.

Woods and his supporters have pitched the development as a possible extra incentive for Brightline to select Fort Pierce. They have also said it Boardwalk on the Inlet would create 400-500 jobs during construction, to be followed by 300-400 permanent jobs, according to backers.

The project would cost "in the hundreds of millions of dollars," Woods said.

Years in the making, the massive Kings Landing development officially broke ground this fall.

King's Landing is slated to include more than 100 hotel rooms, restaurants and shops and more than 100 condos. It also could end up home to the much-sought-after Brightline station.

Work is being done on ground-level infrastructure, which is expected to take about 18 months. Vertical construction is then expected to take about three years.

On July 17, St. Lucie County hosted a pre-application meeting for a “travel center/fueling station,” and a conceptual plan obtained by TCPalm was submitted that referenced “Buc-ee’s — Fort Pierce, FL” and “Buc-ee’s, Ltd.”

The mega-gas station chain with a cult following apparently is considering a site near Fort Pierce for a future location.

A Treasure Coast Buc-ee's would bring relatively high-paying jobs and new shopping options to the area, according to an interview with Barbara Stewart, chair of the Department of Human Development and Consumer Sciences at the University of Houston.

However, the pre-application meeting is just the first step in a long process. Next in that process would be to submit an actual application. According to county spokesman Erick Gill, nothing has been formally submitted as of Dec. 13.

St. Lucie County schools responded to the explosive growth by accelerating plans for new schools this year to keep up with the rapid development in the Tradition area of Port St. Lucie.

Construction began in June on an $80 million, 2,000 student high school at 14505 SW Crosstown Parkway, expected to open in 2025. The district plans to build a $50 million K-8 school in Tradition to open in 2026.

This year, the school district added 2,104 students — a 4.5% jump. Between the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, the district grew by 1,774 students — a 3.9% increase, district records show. Enrollment as of October was 47,164.

Construction began in May on the $111.5 million new North Causeway Bridge in Fort Pierce, which is expected to become to tallest bridge on the Treasure Coast.

The new bridge will likely not have many of the same restrictions during high winds as the current bridge does, according Florida Department of Transportation officials, because the old bridge was limited by the fact that it was a moving drawbridge. The new bridge will be a fixed structure.

St. Lucie County commissioners granted initial approval in October to an 8,600-unit housing development known as Oak Ridge Ranches. On the same day, Port St. Lucie officials announced they had reached a mitigation agreement with the developer of the project over roadway impacts.

The development had caused some tension to rise at public meetings between city and county officials. City officials were concerned about the impact tens of thousands of new residents would have on city roads, especially since those residents would not pay city taxes. However, once the agreement was reached, Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin called it a "win-win for the entire community."

Mass shooting on MLK Day

The 72 MLK Car Show & Family Fun Day at Ilous Ellis Park turned to tragedy as one woman was killed and seven others injured by gunfire on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Killed was Nikkitia Bryant, 29, of Fort Pierce, who was at the park near Fort Pierce with about 1,000 other people when shots rang out at about 5:20 p.m., officials said. Two months later, on March 17, the U.S. Marshal Service arrested Kemmye Riccardo Parson, 28, of Fort Pierce, at a Tampa hotel, charging him with attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, second-degree murder and possession of firearm or ammunition by a felon.

Officials said the charge of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm was related to allegations Parson opened fire in an effort to kill a person identified as “John Doe.” That unknown person didn’t die, officials said.

Books were on the hot seat

Hundreds of books were removed from Treasure Coast school libraries after they were challenged by parents and other community members. And St. Lucie County schools were no different.

James Patterson, Jodi Picoult and even Anne Frank were among the authors and subjects removed from libraries as districts waded through hundreds of challenges.

The St. Lucie County School Board was no exception opting in April to keep most of the 16 books challenged by community member Dale Galiano, despite her objections and concerns about pornography and inappropriate language in the books.

Some of the challenged books were moved out of elementary and middle schools to upper grade levels. The board, in a 4-1 vote, agreed with the recommendation of a 34-member review committee to keep the books in the public schools. At least eight of the books — "The Kite Runner," "Drama," "Thirteen Reasons Why," "The Hate U Give," "More Happy Than Not," "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," "Beloved" and "The Truth About Alice" — had been removed the previous month from Martin County school libraries.

Staff writers Will Greenlee, Gianna Montesano, Arnie Rosenberg and Colleen Wixon contributed to this report.

Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com and 504-331-0516.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: TC Palm's top 2023 stories in St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce and PSL