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  • $100,000 short of 'Victory'
  • Twist of fate led teacher into class
  • 6 suspended for posing in nude photos
  • Penny list not quite so pinched
  • The sky's a lie from certain viewpoints
  • New chief judge won post by more than 2-to-1 vote
  • Lawyer surrenders in child sex case
  • Lone robber gets away with Lealman bank's cash
  • Driver in crash that left girl in coma is charged with DUI
  • Oil spill in Pinellas contained

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    Lone robber gets away with Lealman bank's cash

    By Times staff writers

    © St. Petersburg Times, published February 9, 2001


    A bank in the Lealman area between St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park was robbed Thursday morning by a man who handed a teller a threatening note.

    The United Bank at 5801 49th St. N was robbed about 10:45 a.m., according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

    The robber got away with an undisclosed amount of cash, and neither a police dog nor a police helicopter could find him. He was white, in his mid-40s, about 5 feet 10, clean-shaven, and wearing a gray sweat shirt, black baseball cap and blue jeans.

    New chief judge won post by more than 2-to-1 vote

    Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge David A. Demers won election as the circuit's chief judge by a more than a 2-to-1 ratio over Circuit Judge Ray Ulmer on Tuesday.

    Demers takes over as chief judge on July 1, replacing Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer, who is stepping down after six years as chief judge. Schaeffer will work in the court's civil division until her scheduled 2004 retirement.

    Demers, 54, received 39 votes to Ulmer's 16 among the 55 ballots cast by every county and circuit judge in the Pinellas-Pasco circuit. There were no other candidates.

    Schaeffer, 58, had declined on Wednesday to release the vote total. But her office released the tally late Thursday after a written demand for public records by the St. Petersburg Times.

    After the vote, Ulmer asked his colleagues to make it unanimous, which they did.

    The chief judge's term is two years. Schaeffer is the longest-serving chief judge in the circuit's history and will step down, she said, to spend more time in court.

    Parents appeal ruling in right-to-die case

    The parents of a woman whose right-to-die case has drawn national publicity is asking the 2nd District Court of Appeal to reconsider its decision last month to allow the removal of their daughter's feeding tube.

    Bob and Mary Schindler also filed motions Thursday with the court in Lakeland, requesting that all the judges review the case -- not just the three-judge panel that ruled last month. If the court declines, the St. Petersburg couple will appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

    In last month's ruling, the appeals court upheld a Pinellas judge who agreed with Terri Schiavo's husband, Michael, that she would not want her life prolonged by a feeding tube.

    Mrs. Schiavo, now 37, collapsed at her St. Petersburg home on Feb. 25, 1990. Her heart stopped beating, and she was deprived of oxygen for five minutes.

    Though she can breathe, her doctors say she is in a persistent vegetative state. They say she is unaware of what is happening around her and that her motions and sounds are based on reflex only -- and will never improve.

    Her parents dispute that, saying she responds to sounds, sights, even jokes, and might get better one day.

    Lawyer turns up to face charges of sex with teen

    TAMPA -- A lawyer wanted by sheriff's investigators on charges he had sex with a 13-year-old girl turned himself in Thursday afternoon, officials said.

    David Russell Stahl, 58, of 10203 Tarpon Springs Road in Odessa agreed to meet deputies outside the Hillsborough County courthouse annex at 1:30 p.m., said sheriff's Lt. Rod Reder.

    Stahl then appeared before Judge Walter Heinrich on the charge of committing a lewd and lascivious act with a child.

    Investigators said that sometime between November and December, Stahl had sex with a 13-year-old runaway being harbored by Shawn Robert Martin, a paralegal in his firm.

    The incident happened at Martin's apartment at 6627 Marina Point Village Court, which Stahl leased.

    Martin was advertising the girl for prostitution on the Internet, deputies said.

    Warrants were issued for both Stahl and Martin, who officials said fled together. Martin's whereabouts are still unknown.

    Stahl was being held Thursday afternoon on $100,000 bail.

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