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The News-Press,A GannettNewspaperCopyright 2009

BONITA $1.00SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2009| PUBLISHED SINCE 1884

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News Digest

Daylight savingtime is here

If you didn’t do itSaturday night, set allthe clocks in yourhouse, and car, onehour ahead this morn-ing.

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See what condi-tions are like on FortMyers Beach andMarco Island.

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Read the latestcrime stories and viewarrests photo gal-leries.

RiversideBankcustomerswait

Hundreds of home-owners and business-es who saw theirfunds frozen followingthe takeover of thebank have to wait atleast one more weekbefore they know thefate of their money.

LOCAL, B1

Fans see firstglimpse of ace

Tampa Bay Rayspitcher James Shieldsmakes his first start ofspring training.Shields knows theRed Sox lineup hefaced will be muchdifferent on openingday.

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Health caredebate heats up

CongressionalRepublicans lay downa challenge toDemocrats over whatmay be a hot debatein Washington.

NATION, A4

Berne Davis, 93, to be honored as oneof Lee County’s Grande Dames.

A 4-1 win over Mississippiclinches a playoff berth.

EVERBLADES | C1

BONITANEWS-PRESS

BY MARY [email protected]

E-mails — exchanged over 31⁄2months by state and county healthofficials and the EPA — aboutpossible dangers of Chinese dry-wall indicate the parties waited tocoordinate with a homebuilderand its consultant on how andwhen to alert the public.

One Environmental Protec-tion Agency official even suggest-

ed television “Sweeps Week” inNovember might be the time totell the public, rather than actingindependently from specialinterests and getting word to thepublic as soon as possible.

A press release and talkingpoints were crafted.

The public didn’t hear of thecontroversy until The News-Presspublished a story Dec. 20 indicat-ing Chinese drywall installed inhouses in Lee County and else-

where could be causing noxiousodors, air conditioning failuresand health problems.

“It certainly does raise con-cerns,” David Krause, the leadstate toxicologist, said in thatstory.

The 207 e-mails cover morethan 400 pages and range fromOct. 2, 2008 to Jan. 13, 2009.

The News-Press made a pub-lic-records request to the stateDepartment of Health for the e-

mails Jan. 9. They show:• No central Web site for infor-

mation to be recorded andexchanged on the multiplyingreports coming in from acrossthe state was established untilDec. 12. TheWeb site address wasredacted from the e-mails.

• The state Department ofHealth relied on Lennar Homesand its consultant, Environ Inter-national, for information on thecause of the drywall problemuntil the state began its owninvestigation in late January.

• Lennar discovered the dry-

wall in dozens of its homes inAugust and began investigating.The verdict reported in an Oct. 2briefing to state and countyhealth officials and the EPA: Thedrywall was not a health threat.

Officials withheld drywall alertE-mails show county, state, EPA coordinated release with builder

BY PAT [email protected]

Fred Cooper’s guilt was so obvi-ous to his second set of jurorsthey couldn’t believe his first trialended without a verdict.

Juror Jayne Flood said she did-n’t think the case was very diffi-cult to decide. During the retrial,the jury knew Cooper had beentried once, but were only told thecase had to be retried because oflegal reasons. After the trial, thejurors were told the first jury hungafter 32 hours of deliberations.

“We could not believe anyonecould not find him guilty,” Floodsaid. “I was certain all the way —no doubt in my mind.”

In only six hours Tuesday, thejurors decided Cooper killedSteven and Michelle Andrewsinside their Gateway home Dec.26, 2005, because his girlfriendwas having an affair with StevenAndrews. Cooper’s first trialended in Fort Myers last October;his second ended this week in St.Petersburg.

“We took everything into con-sideration until we felt confidentwith our decision,” said jurorIngrid Monroy-Akin.

Monroy-Akin said when shegot her jury summons she neverthought she’d be spending somany days listening to suchintense details. She hopes otherslearn from the facts of the case.

“The mistakes that a personcan make in a split-moment —hopefully, someone else willunderstand from Fred’s case thathe had a whole life ahead of him,”she said. “He threw his whole lifeaway. It’s just very painful and willchange everybody for life.”

Thistime,CooperhadnochancewithjurorsSt. Pete panel memberssay verdict was ‘certain’

PROFESSION IN PERIL: COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN FIGHT FOR LIFE

PHOTOS BY TERRY ALLEN WILLIAMS/THE NEWS-PRESS

Captain Ron Roster guides his fishing boat, Miz Evelyn, out of Hurricane Pass toward the Gulf of Mex-ico. Roster and his crew were leaving for a 12-day trip to 1,000 feet of water to go longline fishing forgrouper.

BY BYRON [email protected]

Lovers of fresh Florida groupermay soon need grouper therapy.

The existence of the longlinefishing industry that suppliesmost of the state’s fresh grouperto restaurants and seafood mar-kets is hanging by a thread.

If federal fishery managersdon’t find a way to stop longlines— which can stretch 10 or moremiles across the Gulf floor —from accidentally killing sea tur-tles protected by the EndangeredSpecies Act, longlining may bebanished from Gulf waters out to300 feet deep, where the majorityof commercial grouper arecaught.

Sea turtles — mainly threat-ened loggerheads — sometimestake bait intended for grouper,and drown before the miles-long

lines are pulled from the bottom.Studies indicate they can surviveas much as an hour oncehooked. But longline gear aver-aging more than 1,200 hooks per

line are soaked for many hours ata time.

In effort to protect turtles,grouper fishing is targetedLongline boats face banin fertile waters of Gulf

BY DICK [email protected]

The billionaire developer of theluxury high-rise Oasis condominiumin downtown Fort Myers is besiegedby lawsuits and liens from ownerswho want their down payments backand contractors who want to get paidfor their work.

The Related Group, based inMiami, last year finished two of five

towers conceived as the biggest andbest of the skyscrapers that havesprung up along the CaloosahatcheeRiver waterfront over the past fiveyears.

But now rags-to-riches Relatedpresident Jorge Perez finds hisempire teetering. The 59-year-old,who last year was listed as the 377thrichest American in Forbes magazine

Developer’shigh-riseenterprises in tattersCaloosahatchee project, like others, faces owner lawsuits Developer

Jorge Perez,inside hisoffice atRelatedGroup, ranksamong thebiggest high-rise residen-tial buildersin the coun-try.

AL DIAZ/

MIAMI HERALD

Roster checks some of his longline hooks as he prepares to golongline fishing for grouper. Because of recent legislation that willsoon outlaw longline fishing, Roster and other fishermen arebecoming a dying breed.

news-press.comVideo: Watch a replay of Fred Coop-er’s retrial, including the guilty verdictand sentencing.Photo galleries: View images fromthe courtroom.Read more: Previous coverage ofthe Gateway murders.

See JURY A11

news-press.comDocuments: Read the e-mails tostate and federal officials concerningChinese drywall and what to doabout it.

See DRYWALL A10Also see fixing drywall D1

See CONDOS A2

news-press.com Download: Documents on the turtle protectionamendment and summary of public hearings.

Photo galleries: View photos ofremaining longline fishermen.

See GROUPER A10Also see fishermen A10

A STROLL WITH THE QUEEN | TROPICALIA

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A10 | THE NEWS-PRESS, NATION & WORLD, SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2009 ***

• The Department ofHealth pressed Environfor copies of all researchand lab results butLennar’s consultantrefused to comply, sayingit hadn’t asked for thedepartment’s opinion.The backup data wasfinally turned over on orjust after Dec. 23.

• The Lee CountyHealth Department firstbecame aware of the dry-wall problem Aug. 25,when a resident of BellaTerra in Estero wrote toJim Love, county environ-mental health director.

“I’ll keep you in theloop on this one,” Love e-mailed Dr. Judith Hartner,head of the countydepartment, Aug. 26.

But Hartner told TheNews-Press in a Dec. 19interview she had notheard of reported prob-lems.

“The reason I didn’t tellyou was because I franklyforgot about it,” Hartnersaid when questionedearlier this week.

The defective drywallsmells like rotten eggs andemits sulfur compoundsthat corrode air condi-tioning coils and damagesother metals inside thehome, including pittingfaucets, blackening silverjewelry and eating away atcopper wires inside elec-trical outlets.

Residents in homeswith the drywall havecomplained of a variety ofhealth symptoms, includ-ing nosebleeds, respirato-ry problems, headaches,nausea and skin itchingthat disappears when res-idents leave their homesand come back when theyreturn.

The first complaintsstarted filtering in to thecounty and state healthdepartments in late Julyand August.

Those earliest com-plaints were mainly fromLee and Collier counties,said Bob Kallotte of theSarasota County HealthDepartment, the pointman who deals with com-plaints coming fromSouthwest Florida.

But no information wasgiven to the public overthe subsequent weeks andmonths, as more reportscame from Miami-Dade,Palm Beach, Sarasota,Martin, Pinellas, St. Lucie,Manatee, until mostcounties in Florida wereaffected.

Krause said this weekthe state didn’t releaseinformation because therewere no conclusions.

“It is important for us toconfirm and not rely onspeculation,” Krause said.“Our first step was todetermine whether thiswas a public health issueor not, or was this an indi-vidual builder.”

The department’s con-

cern is whether the dry-wall poses a health threatto residents, said Krause,who began working on hisown investigation in lateJanuary.

“As yet we haven’t seensufficient data to issue ahealth advisory or a healthwarning,” he said.

Henry Slack, managerof the indoor air programat the EPA’s Atlanta office,also said there was noth-ing to tell the public.

“I had no data,” he said.“There was nothing Icould do. This is not thesort of thing the EPAwould publicize when ourinformation was second-hand.”

That “secondhand”information came fromLennar and the Floridastate health department,he said. The EPA only waskept apprised as to whatwas going on. The statehealth department, notthe EPA, has jurisdictionover the issue, he said.

The EPA might be ableto act if the drywall were anational issue that provedto be an environmentalhazard or threatenedhumans, Slack said.

“We don’t have anythingthat says this is a nation-wide problem yet,” he said.Only one other case hasbeen found, in VirginiaBeach, Va., he said.

Cases elsewhereMeanwhile, various

attorneys who have filedsix separate class actionsuits on the drywall issueclaim otherwise: They saythe drywall can be foundthroughout Virginia,Alabama and the Caroli-nas. One lawsuit claimsthe drywall may be in30,000 homes in Floridaand 60,000 throughoutthe Southeast.

Americas Watchdog, aprivate national con-sumer group, claims thedefective product is in 41states and could affect250,000 homes.

But Slack maintains noother EPA offices acrossthe country have reportedany more drywall cases —so in effect, there arenone.

He proposed to Krauseand other state depart-ment officials Nov. 6 therelease of information onthe drywall controversy betargeted to television rat-ings “Sweeps Week.”

Slack also suggestedNov. 6 any publicity becoordinated with LennarHomes, which had mil-lions to lose if the productshould prove toxic.

The Slack e-mail reads:‘“Sweeps Week’ is com-

ing this month. It mightallow the TV news to bemore sensational, but Ithink we will want to putthe word out through themedia this month — sothat we (and the responsi-ble home builder) cancontrol the message,instead of it being

‘exposed’ (People poi-soned! DOH does noth-ing!) by some TV stationand breaking nationally.”

Slack’s second Nov. 6 e-mail reinforces the EPAwas more than a merebystander and in factsought to be involved indecision-making.

“Gentlemen, I’d like tosuggest that we offer tocoordinate publicity withthe Lab and this builder,”Slack said, referring toLennar and its consultant.“I am getting calls fromhomeowners about otherbuilders, and predict thatthis story will break soon.”

Slack continued: “Butsince this could be a BIGstory in Florida, so when-ever Lennar wants toannounce, or the storybreaks otherwise, thatFDOH have a pressrelease prepared that hitson the important issues —how Bob (Kallotte) is ahero, how the state DOHis involved, what the StateToxicologist has to say,and that this does notseem to be an immediatehealth issue, so we havebeen waiting to learnmore.”

When asked about thee-mails, Slack reiteratedthe EPA didn’t have infor-mation to provide, butLennar did.

When Krause was askedfor comment, he said “wedon’t control Mr. Slack.”

While Slack sought tocoordinate with Lennar,Krause told health depart-ment staff Nov. 3 to pressLennar for its data back-ing up its conclusion thedrywall is not a healththreat.

Krause, who was not atthe Oct. 2 Environ/Lennarbriefing because he joinedthe state health depart-ment later in October,objected to Environ’smemo on the briefing,received a month later.

Krause and others inthe department believedEnviron characterized thestate and county healthofficials at the meeting asagreeing with Environ’sassessment there was nohealth threat.

“This appears to be amisunderstanding,” ClarkEldredge, environmentaladministrator for hestate’s radon and indoorair program, wrote toRobert DeMott, toxicolo-gist and Environ manag-ing principal, Nov. 6.

“Any comments madeby DOH personnel duringthe conference call shouldnot have been interpretedthat there is no health riskfrom the reduced sulfurgases you detected in yourstudy,” he wrote.

In fact, there isn’t suffi-cient data for the depart-ment to offer an opinion,Eldredge wrote: “Shouldyou provide us an appro-priate set of research data,we would be able to evalu-ate it for health risks.”

No thanks, DeMottwrote back Dec. 17.

Environ is not sayingthe state agreed there isno health threat, DeMottwrote. His summary of theOct. 2 meeting simplyreflected everyone thereacknowledged the low lev-els of sulfur gases emittingfrom the drywall werebelow any established riskexposure levels, DeMottsaid.

Furthermore, Environrecognizes its interpreta-tion of the data is theirsalone “and that thedepartment has not beenasked for, nor provided itsinterpretations,” DeMottwrote.

Environ finally sentsome of its backupresearch on or shortlyafter Dec. 23 but the totalamount of data has stillnot been sent, Krause saidlast week.

“The confidence in thedata right now is muchhigher,” Krause said. “Sofar I haven’t seen anythingthat overly concerns methat the data is false orinappropriate.”

The department is nowmuch more involved, hav-ing seen many of theaffected homes and mov-ing into another, moredetailed phase of its inves-

tigation, Krause said.The health department

has limited funds to pur-sue the issue, he said.

“We have to choosecarefully the types of analy-sis we are doing,” he said.

But the department isworking with the U.S.Consumer Product SafetyCommission, the Agencyfor Toxic Substances andDisease Registry and allare trying to figure outwhat resources they haveand expertise they canlend to the issue, Krausesaid.

“We’re not sitting onour hands.” he said.

DRYWALLContinued from A1

A five-month emergency clo-sure of the longline fishery wasrecommended in January bythe Gulf of Mexico FisheryManagement Council, but hasyet to be carried out by theNational Marine Fisheries Ser-vice, which has final OK overcouncil recommendations.

Roy Crabtree, director ofNOAA Fisheries’ SoutheastRegional Office, is looking forways to increase turtle protec-tion without closing longlineboats out of the fishery.

Crabtree suggested a level oflongline fishing activity couldbe continued if a reduction inthe number of longline boatsbrought down accidental turtlecaptures to a level consideredacceptable under EndangeredSpecies Act standards for “inci-dental take.” Take includescatching and releasing, as wellas killing turtles.

NOAA Fisheries estimates974 loggerheads were caughton Gulf longlines over 18months during a 2006-2007study, with 44 percent releasedalive, one-third released deador unresponsive, and theremainder released inunknown condition. Those fig-ures are extrapolated from 18turtle catches observed duringthe longlining study, whichincluded some shark longliningboats. That means longlineboats are taking turtles at a ratemore than 20 times greaterthan the authorized level of 85,every three years.

“Added to that is the very welldocumented decline of logger-head nesting in Florida,” saidDavid Godfrey, director of theSea Turtle Survival League. “Itjust makes for a very serious sit-uation — not something wecan wait around on.”

Loggerhead sea turtles areclassified as threatened, thelevel below endangered underEndangered Species Act guide-lines. Leatherback, green,Kemp’s Ridley and hawksbillsea turtles are endangered, andalso may be vulnerable to long-lines, but were not documentedin the study.

Southwest Florida grouperlovers won’t be entirely out ofluck if longlining is halted in theshallow water grouper fishery,where red, gag, black, yellowfin,scamp, yellowmouth, rock hindand red hind groupers combinefor 85 percent of commercialgrouper catches. While morethan half of commercially land-ed grouper are taken with long-lines, grouper boats still wouldbe allowed to fish with lines thathave short soak times.

Longline-caught deep-watergroupers — misty, snowy, war-saw, speckled hind and particu-larly yellowedge — should beavailable until June, when thatquota typically is filled. Thosegroupers represent an averageof 15 percent, and sometimesas high as 20 percent of totalgrouper landings.

After June, Fort Myers Beachlongliner Ron Roster said heand his two crew members willbe out of business. He could trylonglining for sharks, butdepressed prices for shark meat

and fins, and catch limitsimposed by regulations havemade shark fishing unprof-itable. “If you go sharkin’, youlose,” Roster said.

Even after shallow-watergrouper fishery closes, freshgrouper from Mexico should beno problem to get, said GrantErickson, partner in BeachSeafood Market at Fort MyersBeach. Even now, BeachSeafood’s grouper are mostlyimported because of a lack ofboats operating from localports. Two fish from Fort MyersBeach, of about 100 statewide.

“I don’t know the percent-age,” Erickson said of hisimports. “We try to use the bestlocal stuff, and usually the clos-er to home you get it, the betterit is.”

On a recent visit Ericksonpointed out rows of fresh Mexi-can grouper of many species,laid out on ice with eyes as clearas glass, a sign of quality. Fresh-ly frozen grouper also is avail-able.

Matt Asen, owner of five localrestaurants that specialize innever-frozen fish, including theTimbers and Prawnbroker, saidthe lack of fresh Florida grouperwould hurt his business. One ofhis best-selling items is crunchygrouper.

“Crunchy tilefish or tilapiajust doesn’t sell as well,” Asensaid. He noted another fisheryclosure is a sign of the times.

“As much as people don’t liketo buy farm-raised fish, forpolitical or ecological reasonsor whatever, that seems to bewhat the world is coming to.You can’t have your fish and eat

it too,” he said.An exact timeline for any

emergency closure of the bot-tom longline fisheries inside300 feet of water in the easternGulf, including shark longlin-ing, is unknown. The GulfCouncil request for a 180-dayemergency closure will beacted on by NOAA Fisheriessometime this month or inApril, according to Crabtree.

But emergency closure mustbe analyzed with respect to theNational Environmental PolicyAct, the (Magnuson-Stevens)Sustainable Fisheries Act, and“all sorts of laws we have tocomply with before we canpublish a regulation,” he said.

The Gulf Council’s goal is tofinish a permanent rule to pro-tect sea turtles, called Amend-ment 31. Earliest such protec-tions could be put into effect isthe end of 2009, or next spring,depending on how fast thecouncil moves over its next twomeetings in April and June.

“The turtles should be OKuntil we get Amendment 31regulations in place,” Crabtreesaid. He noted an initial emer-gency closure could be extend-ed for 186 days, if necessary.

In any case, the CaribbeanConservation Corporation andSea Turtle Survival League willbe watching, along with a con-sortium of other environmentalgroups that have filed theirintent to sue NOAA Fisheries.

“This is one we have to take astand on,” said Godfrey. “If theagency doesn’t respond, if theydon’t take this issue seriouslyand stop the illegal take, we willget legally involved.”

GROUPERContinued from A1

BY BYRON [email protected]

Ron Roster, 46, has been longlinefishing from Fort Myers Beach sincehe was 18. Then, a boat still couldwork within sight of land. Years ago,longlining was moved out to waters120 feet or deeper, to protect juvenilefish and reduce conflicts with recre-ational anglers.

Now, he’s facing the possibility ofbeing pushed out to 300 feet, andright out of the most profitablegrouper grounds in the Gulf of Mexi-co, in order to protect sea turtles.

“To be absolutely honest, from the’80s up to date, I think I’ve caught fiveturtles, and every single turtle I evercaught came up 100 percent [ticked] off.They all were released alive,” he said.

Bob Spaeth is owner of MadeiraBeach Seafood and president of theSouthern Offshore Fishing Association.

Spaeth questions both the size ofthe sample of observed turtle takes,and the number of longline boatsused for the study’s extrapolation.

Spaeth predicts a closure of the shal-low-water grouper fishery to longlineboats will lead to “total devastation” ofthe commercial fishing industry, start-ing with boat owners and crew.

“Then it will trickle down to fishhouses,” Spaeth said.

“If this goes through, we’re lookingat the collapse of fish houses and hun-dreds of jobs.”

Fishermensay studyis flawed