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Copyright 2009
BONITA $1.00SUNDAY, MARCH 8, 2009| PUBLISHED SINCE 1884
news-press.com Search calendar of events, view photos and submit your own.
News Digest
Daylightsaving
timeishere
If you didn’t do it
Saturday night, set all
the clocks in your
house, and car, one
hour ahead this morn-
ing.
Online
news-
press.com
news-press.com/
webcams
See what condi-
tions are like on Fort
Myers Beach and
Marco Island.
news-press.com/
crime
Read the latest
crime stories and view
arrests photo gal-
leries.
RiversideBank
customerswait
Hundreds of home-
owners and business-
es who saw their
funds frozen following
the takeover of the
bank have to wait at
least one more week
before they know the
fate of their money.
LOCAL, B1
Fansseefirst
glimpseoface
Tampa Bay Rays
pitcher James Shields
makes his first start of
spring training.
Shields knows the
Red Sox lineup he
faced will be much
different on opening
day.
SPORTS, C1
Healthcare
debateheatsup
Congressional
Republicans lay down
a challenge to
Democrats over what
may be a hot debate
in Washington.
NATION, A4
Berne Davis, 93, to be honored as one
of Lee County’s Grande Dames.
A 4-1 win over Mississippi
clinches a playoff berth.
EVERBLADES | C1
BONITANEWS-PRESS
BY MARY WOZNIAK
mwozniak@news-press.com
E-mails — exchanged over 31
⁄2
monthsbystateandcountyhealth
officials and the EPA — about
possible dangers of Chinese dry-
wall indicate the parties waited to
coordinate with a homebuilder
and its consultant on how and
when to alert the public.
One Environmental Protec-
tion Agency official even suggest-
ed television “Sweeps Week” in
November might be the time to
tell the public, rather than acting
independently from special
interests and getting word to the
public as soon as possible.
A press release and talking
points were crafted.
The public didn’t hear of the
controversy untilThe News-Press
published a story Dec. 20 indicat-
ing Chinese drywall installed in
houses in Lee County and else-
where could be causing noxious
odors, air conditioning failures
and health problems.
“It certainly does raise con-
cerns,” David Krause, the lead
state toxicologist, said in that
story.
The 207 e-mails cover more
than 400 pages and range from
Oct. 2, 2008 to Jan. 13, 2009.
The News-Press made a pub-
lic-records request to the state
Department of Health for the e-
mails Jan. 9. They show:
• No central Web site for infor-
mation to be recorded and
exchanged on the multiplying
reports coming in from across
the state was established until
Dec. 12.TheWeb site address was
redacted from the e-mails.
• The state Department of
Health relied on Lennar Homes
and its consultant, Environ Inter-
national, for information on the
cause of the drywall problem
until the state began its own
investigation in late January.
• Lennar discovered the dry-
wall in dozens of its homes in
August and began investigating.
The verdict reported in an Oct. 2
briefing to state and county
health officials and the EPA: The
drywall was not a health threat.
Officialswithhelddrywallalert
E-mails show county, state, EPA coordinated release with builder
BY PAT GILLESPIE
pgillespie@news-press.com
Fred Cooper’s guilt was so obvi-
ous to his second set of jurors
they couldn’t believe his first trial
ended 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 been
tried once, but were only told the
case had to be retried because of
legal reasons. After the trial, the
jurors were told the first jury hung
after 32 hours of deliberations.
“We could not believe anyone
could not find him guilty,” Flood
said. “I was certain all the way —
no doubt in my mind.”
In only six hours Tuesday, the
jurors decided Cooper killed
Steven and Michelle Andrews
inside their Gateway home Dec.
26, 2005, because his girlfriend
was having an affair with Steven
Andrews. Cooper’s first trial
ended in Fort Myers last October;
his second ended this week in St.
Petersburg.
“We took everything into con-
sideration until we felt confident
with our decision,” said juror
Ingrid Monroy-Akin.
Monroy-Akin said when she
got her jury summons she never
thought she’d be spending so
many days listening to such
intense details. She hopes others
learn from the facts of the case.
“The mistakes that a person
can make in a split-moment —
hopefully, someone else will
understand from Fred’s case that
he had a whole life ahead of him,”
she said. “He threw his whole life
away. It’s just very painful and will
change everybody for life.”
Thistime,
Cooperhad
nochance
withjurors
St. Pete panel members
say 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 for
grouper.
BY BYRON STOUT
bstout@news-press.com
LoversoffreshFloridagrouper
may soon need grouper therapy.
The existence of the longline
fishing industry that supplies
most of the state’s fresh grouper
to restaurants and seafood mar-
kets is hanging by a thread.
If federal fishery managers
don’t find a way to stop longlines
— which can stretch 10 or more
miles across the Gulf floor —
from accidentally killing sea tur-
tles protected by the Endangered
Species Act, longlining may be
banished from Gulf waters out to
300 feet deep, where the majority
of commercial grouper are
caught.
Sea turtles — mainly threat-
ened loggerheads — sometimes
take bait intended for grouper,
and drown before the miles-long
lines are pulled from the bottom.
Studies indicate they can survive
as much as an hour once
hooked. But longline gear aver-
aging more than 1,200 hooks per
linearesoakedformanyhoursat
a time.
Inefforttoprotectturtles,
grouperfishingistargeted
Longline boats face ban
in fertile waters of Gulf
BY DICK HOGAN
dhogan@news-press.com
The billionaire developer of the
luxury high-rise Oasis condominium
in downtown Fort Myers is besieged
by lawsuits and liens from owners
whowanttheirdownpaymentsback
andcontractorswhowanttogetpaid
for their work.
The Related Group, based in
Miami, last year finished two of five
towers conceived as the biggest and
best of the skyscrapers that have
sprung upalongtheCaloosahatchee
River waterfront over the past five
years.
But now rags-to-riches Related
president Jorge Perez finds his
empire teetering. The 59-year-old,
who last year was listed as the 377th
richestAmericaninForbesmagazine
Developer’shigh-riseenterprisesintatters
Caloosahatchee project, like others, faces owner lawsuits Developer
Jorge Perez,
inside his
office at
Related
Group, ranks
among the
biggest high-
rise residen-
tial builders
in the coun-
try.
AL DIAZ/
MIAMI HERALD
Roster checks some of his longline hooks as he prepares to go
longline fishing for grouper. Because of recent legislation that will
soon outlaw longline fishing, Roster and other fishermen are
becoming a dying breed.
news-press.com
Video: Watch a replay of Fred Coop-
er’s retrial, including the guilty verdict
and sentencing.
Photo galleries: View images from
the courtroom.
Read more: Previous coverage of
the Gateway murders.
See JURY A11
news-press.com
Documents: Read the e-mails to
state and federal officials concerning
Chinese drywall and what to do
about it.
See DRYWALL A10
Also see fixing drywall D1
See CONDOS A2
news-press.com Download: Documents on the turtle protection
amendment and summary of public hearings.
Photo galleries: View photos of
remaining longline fishermen.
See GROUPER A10
Also 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 of
Health pressed Environ
for copies of all research
and lab results but
Lennar’s consultant
refused to comply, saying
it hadn’t asked for the
department’s opinion.
The backup data was
finally turned over on or
just after Dec. 23.
• The Lee County
Health Department first
became aware of the dry-
wall problem Aug. 25,
when a resident of Bella
Terra in Estero wrote to
Jim Love, county environ-
mental health director.
“I’ll keep you in the
loop on this one,” Love e-
mailed Dr. Judith Hartner,
head of the county
department, Aug. 26.
But Hartner told The
News-Press in a Dec. 19
interview she had not
heard of reported prob-
lems.
“The reason I didn’t tell
you was because I frankly
forgot about it,” Hartner
said when questioned
earlier this week.
The defective drywall
smells like rotten eggs and
emits sulfur compounds
that corrode air condi-
tioning coils and damages
other metals inside the
home, including pitting
faucets, blackening silver
jewelry and eating away at
copper wires inside elec-
trical outlets.
Residents in homes
with the drywall have
complained of a variety of
health symptoms, includ-
ing nosebleeds, respirato-
ry problems, headaches,
nausea and skin itching
that disappears when res-
idents leave their homes
and come back when they
return.
The first complaints
started filtering in to the
county and state health
departments in late July
and August.
Those earliest com-
plaints were mainly from
Lee and Collier counties,
said Bob Kallotte of the
Sarasota County Health
Department, the point
man who deals with com-
plaints coming from
Southwest Florida.
But no information was
given to the public over
the subsequent weeks and
months, as more reports
came from Miami-Dade,
Palm Beach, Sarasota,
Martin, Pinellas, St. Lucie,
Manatee, until most
counties in Florida were
affected.
Krause said this week
the state didn’t release
information because there
were no conclusions.
“It is important for us to
confirm and not rely on
speculation,” Krause said.
“Our first step was to
determine whether this
was a public health issue
or not, or was this an indi-
vidual builder.”
The department’s con-
cern is whether the dry-
wall poses a health threat
to residents, said Krause,
who began working on his
own investigation in late
January.
“As yet we haven’t seen
sufficient data to issue a
health advisory or a health
warning,” he said.
Henry Slack, manager
of the indoor air program
at the EPA’s Atlanta office,
also said there was noth-
ing to tell the public.
“I had no data,” he said.
“There was nothing I
could do. This is not the
sort of thing the EPA
would publicize when our
information was second-
hand.”
That “secondhand”
information came from
Lennar and the Florida
state health department,
he said. The EPA only was
kept apprised as to what
was going on. The state
health department, not
the EPA, has jurisdiction
over the issue, he said.
The EPA might be able
to act if the drywall were a
national issue that proved
to be an environmental
hazard or threatened
humans, Slack said.
“We don’t have anything
that says this is a nation-
wide problem yet,” he said.
Only one other case has
been found, in Virginia
Beach, Va., he said.
Cases elsewhere
Meanwhile, various
attorneys who have filed
six separate class action
suits on the drywall issue
claim otherwise: They say
the drywall can be found
throughout Virginia,
Alabama and the Caroli-
nas. One lawsuit claims
the drywall may be in
30,000 homes in Florida
and 60,000 throughout
the Southeast.
Americas Watchdog, a
private national con-
sumer group, claims the
defective product is in 41
states and could affect
250,000 homes.
But Slack maintains no
other EPA offices across
the country have reported
any more drywall cases —
so in effect, there are
none.
He proposed to Krause
and other state depart-
ment officials Nov. 6 the
release of information on
the drywall controversy be
targeted to television rat-
ings “Sweeps Week.”
Slack also suggested
Nov. 6 any publicity be
coordinated with Lennar
Homes, which had mil-
lions to lose if the product
should prove toxic.
The Slack e-mail reads:
‘“Sweeps Week’ is com-
ing this month. It might
allow the TV news to be
more sensational, but I
think we will want to put
the word out through the
media this month — so
that we (and the responsi-
ble home builder) can
control the message,
instead of it being
‘exposed’ (People poi-
soned! DOH does noth-
ing!) by some TV station
and breaking nationally.”
Slack’s second Nov. 6 e-
mail reinforces the EPA
was more than a mere
bystander and in fact
sought to be involved in
decision-making.
“Gentlemen, I’d like to
suggest that we offer to
coordinate publicity with
the Lab and this builder,”
Slack said, referring to
Lennar and its consultant.
“I am getting calls from
homeowners about other
builders, and predict that
this story will break soon.”
Slack continued: “But
since this could be a BIG
story in Florida, so when-
ever Lennar wants to
announce, or the story
breaks otherwise, that
FDOH have a press
release prepared that hits
on the important issues —
how Bob (Kallotte) is a
hero, how the state DOH
is involved, what the State
Toxicologist has to say,
and that this does not
seem to be an immediate
health issue, so we have
been waiting to learn
more.”
When asked about the
e-mails, Slack reiterated
the EPA didn’t have infor-
mation to provide, but
Lennar did.
When Krause was asked
for comment, he said “we
don’t control Mr. Slack.”
While Slack sought to
coordinate with Lennar,
Krause told health depart-
ment staff Nov. 3 to press
Lennar for its data back-
ing up its conclusion the
drywall is not a health
threat.
Krause, who was not at
the Oct. 2 Environ/Lennar
briefing because he joined
the state health depart-
ment later in October,
objected to Environ’s
memo on the briefing,
received a month later.
Krause and others in
the department believed
Environ characterized the
state and county health
officials at the meeting as
agreeing with Environ’s
assessment there was no
health threat.
“This appears to be a
misunderstanding,” Clark
Eldredge, environmental
administrator for he
state’s radon and indoor
air program, wrote to
Robert DeMott, toxicolo-
gist and Environ manag-
ing principal, Nov. 6.
“Any comments made
by DOH personnel during
the conference call should
not have been interpreted
that there is no health risk
from the reduced sulfur
gases you detected in your
study,” he wrote.
In fact, there isn’t suffi-
cient data for the depart-
ment to offer an opinion,
Eldredge wrote: “Should
you provide us an appro-
priate set of research data,
we would be able to evalu-
ate it for health risks.”
No thanks, DeMott
wrote back Dec. 17.
Environ is not saying
the state agreed there is
no health threat, DeMott
wrote. His summary of the
Oct. 2 meeting simply
reflected everyone there
acknowledged the low lev-
els of sulfur gases emitting
from the drywall were
below any established risk
exposure levels, DeMott
said.
Furthermore, Environ
recognizes its interpreta-
tion of the data is theirs
alone “and that the
department has not been
asked for, nor provided its
interpretations,” DeMott
wrote.
Environ finally sent
some of its backup
research on or shortly
after Dec. 23 but the total
amount of data has still
not been sent, Krause said
last week.
“The confidence in the
data right now is much
higher,” Krause said. “So
far I haven’t seen anything
that overly concerns me
that the data is false or
inappropriate.”
The department is now
much more involved, hav-
ing seen many of the
affected homes and mov-
ing into another, more
detailed phase of its inves-
tigation, Krause said.
The health department
has limited funds to pur-
sue the issue, he said.
“We have to choose
carefully the types of analy-
sis we are doing,” he said.
But the department is
working with the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety
Commission, the Agency
for Toxic Substances and
Disease Registry and all
are trying to figure out
what resources they have
and expertise they can
lend to the issue, Krause
said.
“We’re not sitting on
our hands.” he said.
DRYWALL
Continued from A1
Afive-monthemergencyclo-
sure of the longline fishery was
recommended in January by
the Gulf of Mexico Fishery
Management Council, but has
yet to be carried out by the
National Marine Fisheries Ser-
vice, which has final OK over
council recommendations.
Roy Crabtree, director of
NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast
Regional Office, is looking for
ways to increase turtle protec-
tion without closing longline
boats out of the fishery.
Crabtree suggested a level of
longline fishing activity could
be continued if a reduction in
the number of longline boats
brought down accidental turtle
captures to a level considered
acceptable under Endangered
Species Act standards for “inci-
dental take.” Take includes
catching and releasing, as well
as killing turtles.
NOAA Fisheries estimates
974 loggerheads were caught
on Gulf longlines over 18
months during a 2006-2007
study, with 44 percent released
alive, one-third released dead
or unresponsive, and the
remainder released in
unknown condition. Those fig-
ures are extrapolated from 18
turtle catches observed during
the longlining study, which
included some shark longlining
boats. That means longline
boats are taking turtles at a rate
more than 20 times greater
than the authorized level of 85,
every three years.
“Addedtothatistheverywell
documented decline of logger-
head nesting in Florida,” said
David Godfrey, director of the
Sea Turtle Survival League. “It
just makes for a very serious sit-
uation — not something we
can wait around on.”
Loggerhead sea turtles are
classified as threatened, the
level below endangered under
Endangered Species Act guide-
lines. Leatherback, green,
Kemp’s Ridley and hawksbill
sea turtles are endangered, and
also may be vulnerable to long-
lines,butwerenotdocumented
in the study.
Southwest Florida grouper
lovers won’t be entirely out of
luck if longlining is halted in the
shallow water grouper fishery,
where red, gag, black, yellowfin,
scamp, yellowmouth, rock hind
andredhindgrouperscombine
for 85 percent of commercial
grouper catches. While more
than half of commercially land-
ed grouper are taken with long-
lines, grouper boats still would
beallowedtofishwithlinesthat
have short soak times.
Longline-caught deep-water
groupers — misty, snowy, war-
saw, speckled hind and particu-
larly yellowedge — should be
available until June, when that
quota typically is filled. Those
groupers represent an average
of 15 percent, and sometimes
as high as 20 percent of total
grouper landings.
After June, Fort Myers Beach
longliner Ron Roster said he
and his two crew members will
be out of business. He could try
longlining for sharks, but
depressed prices for shark meat
and fins, and catch limits
imposed by regulations have
made shark fishing unprof-
itable. “If you go sharkin’, you
lose,” Roster said.
Even after shallow-water
grouper fishery closes, fresh
grouper from Mexico should be
no problem to get, said Grant
Erickson, partner in Beach
Seafood Market at Fort Myers
Beach. Even now, Beach
Seafood’s grouper are mostly
imported because of a lack of
boats operating from local
ports. Two fish from Fort Myers
Beach, of about 100 statewide.
“I don’t know the percent-
age,” Erickson said of his
imports. “We try to use the best
local stuff, and usually the clos-
er to home you get it, the better
it is.”
On a recent visit Erickson
pointed out rows of fresh Mexi-
can grouper of many species,
laid out on ice with eyes as clear
as glass, a sign of quality. Fresh-
ly frozen grouper also is avail-
able.
MattAsen,owneroffivelocal
restaurants that specialize in
never-frozen fish, including the
Timbers and Prawnbroker, said
the lack of fresh Florida grouper
would hurt his business. One of
hisbest-sellingitemsiscrunchy
grouper.
“Crunchy tilefish or tilapia
just doesn’t sell as well,” Asen
said. He noted another fishery
closure is a sign of the times.
“As much as people don’t like
to buy farm-raised fish, for
political or ecological reasons
or whatever, that seems to be
what 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 inside
300 feet of water in the eastern
Gulf, including shark longlin-
ing, is unknown. The Gulf
Council request for a 180-day
emergency closure will be
acted on by NOAA Fisheries
sometime this month or in
April, according to Crabtree.
But emergency closure must
be analyzed with respect to the
National Environmental Policy
Act, the (Magnuson-Stevens)
Sustainable Fisheries Act, and
“all sorts of laws we have to
comply with before we can
publish a regulation,” he said.
The Gulf Council’s goal is to
finish a permanent rule to pro-
tect sea turtles, called Amend-
ment 31. Earliest such protec-
tions could be put into effect is
the end of 2009, or next spring,
depending on how fast the
council moves over its next two
meetings in April and June.
“The turtles should be OK
until we get Amendment 31
regulations in place,” Crabtree
said. He noted an initial emer-
gency closure could be extend-
ed for 186 days, if necessary.
In any case, the Caribbean
Conservation Corporation and
Sea Turtle Survival League will
be watching, along with a con-
sortiumofotherenvironmental
groups that have filed their
intent to sue NOAA Fisheries.
“This is one we have to take a
stand on,” said Godfrey. “If the
agency doesn’t respond, if they
don’t take this issue seriously
and stop the illegal take, we will
get legally involved.”
GROUPER
Continued from A1
BY BYRON STOUT
bstout@news-press.com
Ron Roster, 46, has been longline
fishing from Fort Myers Beach since
he was 18. Then, a boat still could
work within sight of land. Years ago,
longlining was moved out to waters
120 feet or deeper, to protect juvenile
fish and reduce conflicts with recre-
ational anglers.
Now, he’s facing the possibility of
being pushed out to 300 feet, and
right out of the most profitable
grouper 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 five
turtles, and every single turtle I ever
caughtcameup100percent[ticked]off.
They all were released alive,” he said.
Bob Spaeth is owner of Madeira
Beach Seafood and president of the
Southern Offshore Fishing Association.
Spaeth questions both the size of
the sample of observed turtle takes,
and the number of longline boats
used for the study’s extrapolation.
Spaeth predicts a closure of the shal-
low-water grouper fishery to longline
boats will lead to “total devastation” of
the commercial fishing industry, start-
ing with boat owners and crew.
“Then it will trickle down to fish
houses,” Spaeth said.
“If this goes through, we’re looking
at the collapse of fish houses and hun-
dreds of jobs.”
Fishermen
saystudy
isflawed