KEY LARGO 305.451.5700 make. MARATHON 305.743.4397 home. KEY WEST comfortable. 305.295.6400 keysfurniture.com WWW.KEYSINFONET.COM SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014 VOLUME 61, NO. 26 G 25 CENTS UPPER KEYS NO MORE FISHING Agents wreck van during Obama’s visit yield the right of way. The It’s one in string accident report does not say of controversies whether the Secret Service agents identified themselves for Secret Service as such to the trooper. The wreck occurred about By CHARLES RABIN, 12 hours before Obama arrived GREG GORDON in South Florida for a speech at and GLENN GARVIN Miami’s Coral Reef Senior High School and a visit to the Miami Herald Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo, about 35 miles north of A burgeoning new scandal the accident site, where he had over drunkenness or tawdry a brief vacation. behavior among Secret News of the accident — Service officers traveling and the tension it triggered with President Obama is inside the Secret Service, partly rooted in a traffic crash which was still unsettled after in Islamorada earlier this a series of 2012 incidents with GOOGLE EARTH month involving two of the prostitutes and booze in agency’s men. Cartagena, Colombia, trig- The old bridge running along U.S. 1 is the Ohio-Bahia Honda Historic Bridge just south of the Sunshine Key RV Resort The Secret Service agents, gered the removal of 10 agents at mile marker 38.5. Friday, the state Department of Environmental Protection closed that span and three other both counter-sniper officers, — didn’t leak out at the time. fishing bridges in the Lower Keys, saying they pose immediate safety concerns. Story, 3A wrecked their rental car But it emerged Thursday while pulling out of a grocery in a Washington Post story in store parking lot into the path the wake of disclosures that IN THE COURTS of a fully loaded Publix gro- three Secret Service agents cery truck about 2 a.m. were yanked home from a March 7, according to the presidential trip to the Florida Highway Patrol. Netherlands last weekend A trooper detected “a after one of them was found slight odor of alcohol” on the passed out in a hotel hallway Jury convicts agent driving the car, accord- after a night of hard drinking. ing to the FHP report. But The new reports of Secret after “no detection of impair- Service misadventures have ment was observed” during a triggered growing concern sobriety test, the trooper among congressional over- decided not to give him a seers of the agency, particu- Hedvall of murder Breathalyzer or blood test, just a ticket for failure to See Secret, 2A Catherine March 17, assistant Monroe strangled Alvarado before Alvarado’s killer Vogel. County State Attorney Val bashing his head with a 25- MIDDLE KEYS faces up to life SheWinter said “Alvarado was pound coral rock. “I want to called it a “in the wrong place at the emphasize again two differ- By SEAN KINNEY “very good wrong time.” ent types of attacks: The [email protected] verdict.” Police say the night of the blow to Jonathan’s head Report: $300,000 The jury killing, witnesses at Don’s shattered his skull.” After deliberating Thurs - convicted Million Dollar Bar, close to Defense attorney Jason day night, a 12-person Hedvall of where Alvarado’s body was Smith had maintained gone from rentals Monroe County jury found HEDVALL murdering found, saw the victim wear- Hedvall’s innocence, saying Peter Erik Hedvall guilty of Alvarado, who was 32 and a ing angel wings and Hedvall if the jury convicted taken down — following second-degree murder in the former waiter, on Oct. 28, was seen in a light-colored Hedvall, it would “com- Broker says Hill, Hill’s death at her Marathon killing of Jonathan Alvarado 2011. Alvarado was found suit. Both were costumes for pound [Alvarado’s death] Nardone siphoned home on March 19. Nardone during Fantasy Fest in 2011. dead under a truck at 1019 the annual 10-day Fantasy with another tragedy of con- died in February 2013. Prosecutors were going Grinnell St. The Monroe Fest bacchanal. victing an innocent man.” off the money Gobel said he discovered for a conviction on first- County Medical Examiner’s Some of Alvarado’s blood He maintained the prosecu- the financial discrepancies degree premeditated murder, Office ruled the death came was found on Hedvall’s cloth- tion was built upon “sloppy, By RYAN McCARTHY after instructing Exit staff “to though not the death penalty. from blunt trauma to the ing through DNA testing, incomplete police work” and [email protected] prepare a quick inventory of Still, Hedvall, 28, faces up to head, likely with a rock which apparently is largely called the state’s case cir- how much money was in the life in prison and a minimum found nearby the body. what the jury convicted on. cumstantial. As many as 200 clients of accounts and who was enti- sentence of 16 years, accord- During the trial, which No motive was ever proffered. A sentencing date hasn’t the late Morgan Hill’s Florida tled to how much.” ing to State Attorney started with jury selection on Winter said Hedvall been set. Keys Rentals business will “The result of that inven- receive an unsettling letter in tory was shocking to say the NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY the coming days. least,” he wrote in the letter. Penned by interim broker Gobel said Friday that the Jorg Gobel, who offered his $300,000 estimate is a com- broker’s license to help agents bination of money vacation- Panel hears: No more closed areas transition out of Hill’s Exit ers paid as much as 60 days Realty franchises in Marathon in advance for upcoming Snapper Ledge and on Big Pine Key, the letter rentals, money that would and Davis Reef Key Largo mailed Friday morning have been paid the rental commercial alludes to an estimated owners at the conclusion of being considered fisherman Ernie $300,000 in money due prop- March rentals, and the com- Piton, a Florida erty owners and agents that pany’s management fees. By KEVIN WADLOW Keys National can’t be accounted for. In addition, Gobel said that Senior Staff Writer Marine Sanctuary Gobel wrote that Hill and Hill and Nardone were taking [email protected] adviser, makes a her longtime life and busi- long-term rental money in ness partner, Paula Nardone, escrow accounts, that being A push to create a new point on access to used money from rental busi- rent and security deposits for no-take zone at an Upper the protected area ness accounts “to finance 180-plus day rentals. Keys reef site called Snapper at Carysfort Reef their business endeavors and “Which is a 100 percent Ledge failed to find much during a sanctuary personal lives.” The figure is no-no for any broker,” Gobel traction with a Florida Keys meeting this week. around $300,000, Gobel said. said. “It goes into escrow and National Marine Sanctuary “They robbed Peter to pay can’t be touched by the own- working group Wednesday. Keynoter photo Paul,” said Gobel, a former ers, the tenants or the holders Volunteer members of the by KEVIN WADLOW Exit Realty executive direc- of the escrow accounts.” Ecosystem Protection panel tor and IT consultant. He has Gobel’s letter says the seemed to like the idea of ly special-use areas for Concerned divers first ary’s management plan a consulting company in amount of checks “that had eliminating a marginal Sanc - divers only,” said Ben proposed Snapper Ledge as undergoes its first major Broward County. gone out for February’s tuary Preservation Area more Daughtry, a commercial a new SPA in 2008, citing update since 1997. The plan- Both the rental business owner payments was not fully than creating a new one. tropical-fish collector on the the large schools of fish update process now is under and real estate offices closed Sanctuary Preservation panel. “I think there are there. Formal consideration — and their web pages were See Rentals, 3A Areas, or SPAs, “are basical- enough of those already.” was put off until the sanctu- See Sanctuary, 2A INDEX Printed on 100% Classifieds . .8B recycled newsprint Tradition Living . .2B In L’Attitudes CONTENTS © 2014 spans time Business . .5A KEYNOTER PUBLISHING CO. There’s seating for 200 The Seven Mile Bridge Run Obituaries . .2A (at one table) at a is next weekend and, for fundraising dinner for Opinion . .4A some, it’s become a the Morada Way Arts & Sports/Outdoors . .1B decades-long tradition. Cultural District. Story, 6B Story, 1B Crossword . .4B 7786790 22222 2A Saturday, March 29, 2014 KeysInfoNet.com Keynoter NEWS BRIEFS KEY WEST FKCC board might expand from 5 to 7 Marina might require boat pump-out The Florida Keys Com - anchored vessels in unincor- weeks or the more common “only one non-conforming the state Department of munity College Board of No proof, porated Monroe County not sticker Pump Out USA pro- day of dockage.” After that, Environmental Protection a Trustees on Monday will no use of to pump out.” vides regular customers. there would be a verbal “clean marina” based on consider increasing its ranks Key West waters are desig- Tait said the process warning followed by the state-outlined practices. from five to seven gover- city docks nated as a no-discharge zone. would start when dinghy dinghy being impounded. Liveaboard boaters nor-appointed members. The county contracts owners request dockage at The advisory Key West can set up service with The board meets at 2 p.m.