Week in review

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 22, 2001

PARENTS GO PUBLIC WITH DROWNING SCARE IN TAMPA PALMS: Noble Charles saw his 5-year-old son nearly drown right before his eyes. Charles was sitting on the edge of the family pool in Tampa Palms while son Malcolm was doing little flips in the water. His wife Sandra was in a patio chair nearby. The two were talking when Charles told Malcolm it was time to get out of the water.

"He didn't respond," said Charles, who had Malcolm in his peripheral vision the whole time "It was the most horrible thing I ever saw. He was lifeless."

Two quick steps later, Charles was upon his child, pulling him from the water. He immediately began CPR while Mrs. Charles ran to call 911. Malcolm came through the ordeal fine, spending just a night of observation at University Community Hospital.

Despite their best efforts -- Malcolm was wearing a child's life vest and both parents were supervising his swimming -- the Charleses were stunned by the swiftness with which the near-tragedy struck. They talked publicly about the incident on Wednesday, urging parents to make sure they are trained in CPR.

Had they not known what to do, "I don't think Malcolm would be here," Mrs. Charles said. "I think what's scary was that we were here, right here. We didn't go inside for a minute. There is no question that it can happen, that it did happen."

ENGINEERING DEAN HIRED FOR USF: The University of South Florida has selected a top official at the National Science Foundation to run its College of Engineering.

Louis A. Martin-Vega, 53, will begin work as USF's engineering dean on Sept. 5. He is acting director of the NSF's Engineering Directorate, where he oversees a $414-million budget that funds research and instruction across a wide range of disciplines.

Before moving to the NSF, Martin-Vega was a department chairman at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and a tenured professor at the University of Florida and the Florida Institute of Technology. He will be paid $200,000 annually, and USF promises to hire 35 new tenured and tenure-earning professors over five years.

DANAHER GETS SCHOOL DISTRICT JOB: Five months after she lost a close race for a second term on the Hillsborough School Board, Sharon Danaher took her first full-time job in 20 years -- working for the school district.

On March 15, Danaher, of Carrollwood Village, began work in a new position as an administrative resource teacher in the special education department. She beat out 13 applicants, including two finalists with more school experience. Her $37,175 salary is about $2,000 more than School Board members earn. The School Board okayed her hiring Tuesday.

One of the three finalists, Jane Maher, said she was surprised and wondered if Danaher's hiring was a "cut and dried deal before I even got the application." The other finalist works as a special education specialist at Walker Middle School. Maher, 65, said she felt extremely qualified as a former elementary teacher and parent of two learning-disabled sons. Jack Lamb, the retired school administrator who defeated Danaher in September, said he wants to make sure Danaher's hiring was on the up-and-up.

Ed McDowell, director of the district's exceptional student education department and Danaher's supervisor, said that "Sharon was hired largely because of her knowledge and contacts in the community and her ability to network."

In 1996, Danaher, 52, a school volunteer and homemaker, was one of nine people to run for the open board seat in northern Hillsborough County.

MORE WATER RULES: The Hillsborough County Commission voted Wednesday to create a new class of residents with their own set of unique watering restrictions while, at the same time, loosening those restrictions. "I think this is going to be an enforcement nightmare," said Commissioner Jan Platt, who cast the lone vote in opposition to the changes.

Commissioners voted to adopt the city's residential lawn-watering days, but only in parts of unincorporated Hillsborough. The change affects those unincorporated residents who get their water from the city of Tampa, about 30,000 homes in communities such as Town 'N Country, New Tampa, Pebble Creek and Clairmont.

The change means that those residents now may only water their lawns on Tuesdays if they live in an even-numbered house and on Sundays if their address ends with an odd number.

At the same time, those residents still will have to adhere to other Hillsborough County water-related rules that are different than those in the city.

The most notable of those rules was changed Wednesday. Homeowners who plant or install new grass now get 30 days of unrestricted watering, then another 30 days in which they may water every other day. Other types of plants -- shrubs, flower beds -- may be watered continuously for the first 60 days.

Before Wednesday, Hillsborough homeowners got the first 30 days of unrestricted watering, but not the additional 30 days to water every other day. Tampa does not allow any additional watering for new yards or plantings.

BODY OF MISSING MAN FOUND IN POND: Since 45-year-old Joseph William Hart walked out of the VA hospital March 19, relatives feared the worst.

On Tuesday, those fears were realized.

Authorities found Hart's body floating in a Carrollwood retention pond, a few miles from his parents' home in Northdale, where he lived.

Hart, who suffered from hepatitis C and an addiction to prescription pain medication, was supposed to start treatment for his disease March 19 at James A. Haley VA Medical Center. Officials there told his parents that he checked in about 7:30 a.m. But by 1:30 p.m., he had walked out. He had no car, no money and no identification. When he didn't come home by March 22, relatives reported him missing.

Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman Lt. Rod Reder said a surveying crew working off Orange Grove Drive just south of Fletcher Avenue found Hart's body about 8 a.m. Reder said it did not appear Hart died a violent death. An autopsy will be done.

LAWYER FACES MORE CHARGES: An Odessa lawyer accused of participating in a prostitution ring involving teenage girls has been arrested a second time and charged with more counts of having sex with minors.

David Russell Stahl, 58, has been charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and three counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child, all felonies.

Detectives began investigating in January after a tip that a 13-year-old girl was living with a man. That man was Shawn Robert Martin, 24, a paralegal in Stahl's office who kept the 13-year-old runaway in his apartment, having sex with her and advertising her for prostitution on the Internet, police said.

Martin was charged with 32 sex-related crimes and remains in jail on $210,500 bail.

Detectives said Stahl paid to have sex with the girl, and was charged with one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child in February. Bail was set at $100,000, and he bonded out the same day.

Tuesday, Stahl was charged with paying a 14-year-old girl and a 16-year-old girl to have sex with him between September and November 1999.

Besides Martin and Stahl, five others have been arrested in the teen prostitution investigation.

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