Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 18, 2001
Dunnellon High coach has equine encephalitis
TALLAHASSEE -- A 39-year-old high school baseball coach is the second human to be diagnosed this year in Florida with eastern equine encephalitis.
Dunnellon High School baseball coach Mike Payne was hospitalized at North Florida Regional Hospital in Gainesville Aug. 5.
"He has equine encephalitis, and is still in a coma and in critical condition," Dunnellon High principal Bobby James said.
Acting state epidemiologist Dr. Steven Wiersma said the victim was infected in Levy County, adjacent to Citrus County on the north.
A 9-year-old boy, James "Cody" Landsverk, died of Eastern equine encephalitis in a Pensacola hospital last month.
The Department of Health has issued an alert for the disease and the West Nile virus in 30 North Florida counties, urging residents to take precautions against being bitten by mosquitoes, which can pass both diseases to horses and humans.
Georgia health officials said Friday an Atlanta woman died Aug. 11 of the West Nile virus.
In Pasco County, the horse whose suspicious death last week raised concerns about the West Nile virus did not have the illness, state authorities said Friday.
Final test results from a federal lab in Iowa showed that Vanity -- a horse from Trilby -- did not have West Nile or eastern equine encephalitis. State epidemiologists have said it is not unusual for horses to be tested if they exhibit symptoms of a mosquito-borne illness.
Currently, 29 north Florida counties are under a medical alert to be aware that West Nile could be in the area.
TAMPA -- A sheriff's deputy was cleared Friday in the June shooting of a 14-year-old male who reached for a gun after being caught in a stolen car.
State Attorney Mark Ober ruled that Deputy Jason Joyner was justified in using deadly force.
Joyner had stopped three teens in a 1998 Dodge Stratus stolen from AmeriSuites on 30th Street. He saw the car at about 11 p.m. near the University of South Florida and stopped it at Fowler Avenue and Spectrum Boulevard.
When Joyner ordered the driver, Orlando Jones, to put up his hands, Jones tried to grab a handgun, sheriff's officials said.
Joyner fired once and struck Jones in the left arm. Jones sped off with his two passengers. They tossed two handguns out of the car as they fled and crashed the car into a fence.
Jones faces several charges related to the incident.
The murder trial for Kristina Gaime has been postponed after her lawyers asked a judge for more time to prepare.
Circuit Judge Maynard Swanson agreed Friday to delay the trial, scheduled to start Monday, until Dec. 10. Gaime's lawyer, Bob Nutter, said she is being treated for severe endometriosis, and he needs time to question the more than 125 witnesses.
Gaime, 37, is charged with the murder of her son Mathew Rotell, 6, and the attempted murder of her son, Adam Rotell 8, at their Land O'Lakes home in April 1999.
An area of western Pasco County was without electrical power for about an hour Friday night.
The outage, from about 8:30 p.m. to about 9:30 p.m., affected areas in Port Richey, Bayonet Point and Hudson. Neighborhoods along U.S. 19, State Road 52 and Little Road were without power.
Pasco County Fire Rescue and the New Port Richey Police Department reported getting numerous calls from residents who were left in the dark.
The outage occurred in an area that receives power from the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative. Utility officials were not available Friday night to comment on what had caused the outage.
Another utility, Florida Power, reported that it had a few isolated power outages around Pasco County on Friday night due to equipment failures.