Ship's crew going home to Lithuania at last

Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 12, 2000

TAMPA -- Five crew members left the Tampa airport for home after more than a year stranded in the city's port aboard a squalid cargo ship. The ship's agent paid the five seamen their back pay and gave them plane tickets to Lithuania on Friday.

The Panamanian cargo freighter Golden Star was towed into Tampa on Oct. 3, 1998, damaged by Hurricane Georges. The Coast Guard ordered the ship held until repairs made it seaworthy.

Last month, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials stepped in and ordered some of the 11 crew members be sent back home. A week ago, the INS expanded that order and demanded that all the crew members be repatriated by March 13.

Man accused of ramming car, threatening victim

WESLEY CHAPEL -- An unemployed truck driver was charged Friday with aggravated assault after he rammed his car nine times into the rear bumper of another vehicle on Interstate 75, authorities said.

Michael Lamar Prewett, 42, of 1622 Gunsmith Drive in Lutz, followed the victim to a rest area at 5 p.m., then got out of his vehicle and shouted at the victim, threatening to injure the person, according to an affidavit written by the Pasco County Sheriff's office.

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