Florida
85-year-old Florida woman killed by alligator was 'forced' to walk dog near 'dangerous' pond, attorneys say
Woman walking dog near water when alligator attacked
Trappers in a St. Lucie County neighborhood pinned down an nearly 11-foot alligator, taped its mouth shut and hauled it away. The reptile is believed to be responsible for the death of an 85-year-old woman.
FORT PIERCE, Fla. – The family of the 85-year-old woman who was killed by a more-than-10-foot alligator while walking her dog is suing the retirement community, claiming they knew about the “dangerous” gators in the pond but didn’t do anything about it, according to a lawsuit.
Gloria Serge was walking her dog named Trooper along the retention pond behind her home in Spanish Lakes Fairways, a retirement community in Fort Pierce, on Feb. 20, 2023, according to the Serge family’s lawyers and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). An alligator, measuring over 10 feet long, grabbed onto her leg and dragged her into the water, drowning her.
According to the lawsuit, Serge shouldn’t have been walking her dog near this retention pond. Lawyers allege that Spanish Lakes Fairways sent Serge a letter limiting her dog-walking to two areas – a dog park about a mile from her home or her backyard, which was on the border of a community-run pond. Because the dog park was so far and not practical for her to visit several times a day, she was walking in the area behind her home the day she was killed by a gator, the lawsuit said.
“(Spanish Lakes Fairways) encouraged, if not forced, (Serge) to walk her dog near a retention pond that it knew, or should have known, contained large, dangerous alligators,” the lawsuit said.
This retention pond, along with others around the community, are “actively managed and regulated” by Spanish Lakes Fairways, the lawsuit said.
“(Spanish Lakes Fairways) knew, or should have known, that the retention pond located directly behind Ms. Serge’s residence contained multiple large, dangerous alligators that meet the definition of a nuisance under Florida law,” the lawsuit said. Additionally, the community allegedly “failed to take reasonable steps to remove this dangerous condition and instead actually made the condition more dangerous by permitting residents and employees to have regular contact with the alligators.”
According to the FWC, an alligator is deemed a nuisance if it’s over 4 feet long and the person who reports it believes it poses a threat to people, pets or property. The FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program is in place to remove these nuisance alligators when someone is concerned.
Spanish Lakes Fairways failed to “make an arrangement for the trapping and removal of alligators from this retention pond despite the fact that they met the definition of a nuisance, and were therefore eligible for removal” under the FWC’s program, the lawsuit continued.
Instead of removing the alligator, Spanish Lakes Fairways maintenance workers “routinely fed this alligator chicken scraps and even named the dangerous reptile ‘Henry,’” attorneys from Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith said in a press release, adding that they have evidence to support this claim in court.
ALLIGATORS: Hungry alligator wolfs down python in thrilling video captured at Florida park: ‘Score one for the home team!’
“There were no signs posted around the lake warning residents of the presence of an alligator, and the property managers encouraged people to sit near the lake by placing a bench along the shoreline,” managing partner Gary S. Lesser said in a news release. “This flies in the face of common sense and warnings from wildlife experts.”
The lawsuit said that Serge’s survivors – her five children, 15 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, have suffered and continue to suffer “lost companionship and protection as well as mental pain and suffering from the date of the loss.”
MORE ALLIGATORS: Freakishly long 12-foot, 600-pound gator found casually hanging outside, near a Florida mall
Photo: Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith, PLLC
“Property owners in Florida, and particularly those managing residential communities catering to elderly residents, have a legal and non-delegable duty to identify dangerous conditions on the property, warn those in the vicinity of the danger and take immediate steps to remove the threat,” firm partner Joshua D. Ferraro said in a press release. “Unfortunately, the managers at Spanish Lakes Fairways failed to live up to their obligations, and as a direct result, Gloria died a horrible and terrifying death.”
Serge’s family is seeking damages and a trial by jury.
Spanish Lakes Fairways did not reply to FOX 35’s request for comment at the time of publication.
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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