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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 11, 2002
Ship with sick passengers gives up scheduled visit
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten -- A cruise ship sailing out of Florida with 200 sick passengers onboard gave up a St. Maarten visit Tuesday after being held hours at docking, the cruise line said.
The incident came a day after four people working in St. Lucia's tourism industry reported stomach illness, after meeting visitors from British-based P&O Cruise's Oceana, when it docked there Sunday. The illness is similar to one that recently affected hundreds on other cruise ships in the region.
The government said any sick passengers would have been banned from debarking from the Oceana, which just began sailing in the P&O fleet Nov. 1 from Fort Lauderdale.
The ship arrived at this Dutch Caribbean island Tuesday morning, but port officials refused to give docking clearance.
The Oceana set sail from Fort Lauderdale Nov. 29 for the two-week Caribbean tour.
FORT MYERS -- A woman accused of killing her 6-year-old son and trying to kill two other sons was insane, two mental health experts said.
A judge gave permission to the State Attorney's Office Monday to hire a third mental health expert to analyze Leslie Wallace.
Wallace was charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 2, 2001, shooting of her son, James.
Police said Wallace shot James with a shotgun as he watched cartoons in the family's home. After fatally shooting James, Wallace went to the church where her 16-year-old son Kenny was attending services. She fired a shotgun at him, but the pellets hit the Bible he was holding and spared him, police said.
A third son, 19-year-old Gregory Wallace, was not injured although detectives said his armed mother tried to get him to come out of the local restaurant where he worked.
Wallace was shot five times when authorities tried to arrest her.
TALLAHASSEE -- A rookie state trooper who fatally shot a charging, but unarmed motorist during a traffic stop will be dismissed by the Highway Patrol.
Patrol Director Col. Chris Knight sent a letter Tuesday to Trooper Kreshawn Walker-Vergenz notifying her that she will be fired later this week for her actions in the May 9 shooting on Interstate 10 near Tallahassee.
Knight said in the letter that she failed to follow Highway Patrol policy when she shot Genie McMeans Jr. of Alpine, Ala.
McMeans, 23, was a passenger in a car that came to a sudden stop on I-10 near where Walker-Vergenz was already stopping another motorist.
Knight said Walker-Vergenz should have created distance between herself and the suspect as she was trained and didn't use any countermovements other than shooting him.