Appeal court says dispute over island is Bahamian issue

The ownership of a private island in the Bahamas that was previously a retreat of the late, prominent South Florida designer James Wallace Tutt III — and which has been at the center of a five-year legal dispute — is now in the hands of the Bahamian court.

The Third District Court of Appeal in Miami on Wednesday affirmed three lower court judges’ decisions that the matter has to be decided in the Bahamas and not in Miami.

Tutt, an interior designer and developer whose elegant style attracted celebrity clients including Cher, Gianni Versace, Robert De Niro and Diane von Furstenberg, died in 2010 at age 53 on Harbour Island in the Bahamas. His death was apparently heart related, according to a statement from his family at the time.

Tutt moved to South Florida in the 1980s after working as a lawyer and builder in Washington, D.C.

Here, he gained notoriety for transforming the mansion of the late Italian designer Versace into Casa Casuarina, a South Beach icon.

Tutt and his life partner, Don Purdy, moved to Harbour Island in 2002, where they transformed a 1940s home into a luxury 10-room hotel, Rock House.

Tutt also bought Caribe Cay, a three-acre private island with a home, off Harbour Island, as a retreat.

In 2006, Tutt agreed to sell the island to Guy Mitchell, an investor with a home in Coral Gables, said Tutt’s longtime lawyer Stuart Sobel, a partner in Siegfried, Rivera, Lerner, De la Torre & Sobel in Coral Gables.

Over several months, Mitchell paid $2.9 million of the $2.925 million purchase price but never took title to the island for reasons that were never clear, Sobel said.

Mitchell, who had real estate investments in New York, ran into financial trouble, and two companies that had judgments totaling $57 million against him tried to seize his assets — including either the Caribe Cay property or the proceeds from its sale.

Lawsuits followed and have waged on for years, ultimately resulting in the appeal court’s decision.

“We’re looking forward to delivering the deed to whichever entity the Bahamian court decides is entitled,” said Sobel, who has represented Tutt’s estate in the litigation. “As the court wrote, while the facts were complex and convoluted, the issues were really simple and always have been.”

Calls to several attorneys representing the appellants were not returned.

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Woman dies during Key Biscayne scuba dive excursion

A “disturbing” accident Sunday left one scuba diver dead and others with many questions about how that could have happened.

Forty-year-old Hua Liu was part of an expedition off Key Biscayne, about three nautical miles off Bill Baggs Cape, on the vessel BigCom Ocean.

There were about 40 divers on board, and all were instructed to stay with their “diving buddy” during the length of the dive, and never to leave him or her alone.

Panic set in when the group realized it was one diver short during a “roll call” when it was time to head back ashore.

Immediately, they began to conduct a search and called the Coast Guard at about 3:30 p.m.

The Coast Guard “immediately took action,” said Commander Darren Caprara, who is the chief of response for Coast Guard sector Miami and was supervising the case. They put out a broadcast, diverted a 45-foot Coast Guard boat that was headed to another location, called air station Miami to get a helicopter, brought in an auxiliary special team that does routine patrols and a 110-foot Coast Guard cover.

Within about 30 minutes of searching, the team on the diving vessel found Liu’s buoyancy control device (BCD), which is used to help a diver float, and tank.

“That’s the point when we became very concerned and more serious,” said Jaclyn Hesse, an experienced diver who was aboard. “It’s difficult to stay afloat without that for a long time.”

In tandem with the Coast Guard, which Hesse estimated arrived about 20 minutes after being called, the divers continued to search for Liu. Two dive masters from the dive vessel were towed from the boat so they could search the ocean floor. (The Coast Guard in Miami does not have divers who perform underwater rescue missions, Caprara said).

When they had been searching for about 40 minutes, a dive master raised her hand to tell the boat to stop. She dived to the bottom and pulled up Liu, who was still wearing her weighted scuba diving belt. “She was blue when they pulled her up,” Hesse said.

The Coast Guard staff then verbally instructed the dive master to pull Liu’s body aboard the diving vessel. Caprara said that is because the diving vessel was lower to the water and closer.

“Whenever you have a person in the water, particularly one who might be injured or hurt, the priority is to get that person safely out of the water and onto a stable platform where you can give medical care,” he said. “The dive vessel had a spacious open back deck and a low-to-the-water platform.”

At that point, the dive masters aboard began to give Liu CPR.

But it was too late.

The whole experience was “terrible,” Hesse said. Besides Liu’s tragic death, “There were children on board the vessel, and they were fully aware of what was happening,” she said.

In the wake of the incident, few details have been released about the circumstances leading to Liu’s death.

The Miami-Dade police department, which handled the case, said it is awaiting autopsy results, and it is not “readily apparent” if there should be reason to suspect foul play.

“Dive rules state you need to go where your buddy goes,” Hesse said. “There was something really wrong happening.”

Caprara also said further investigation is necessary to determine more specifically what happened during Liu’s dive.

“I can’t speak to that,” he said. “Something unfortunate happened.”

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Stars Stay Peppy Through Wee Hours of Oscar Night

For those fortunate enough to be invited, Oscar Sunday is an all-day, non-stop event. ET caught up with the stars to get their tips on making it through the madness while maintaining their energy.

PICS: Awards Season Fashion

"This is just fun," said Academy Award winner Halle Berry. "I see all my friends and peers."

"You just gotta enjoy it and then have a good dinner at the Governor's Ball, because you probably haven't eaten today," said Oscar nominee Queen Latifah. "And then we hit the after parties."

John Leguizamo named caffeine as a primary source for his energy.

"It's a long night," the actor admitted. "But you get jacked up meeting all your heroes."

From the People's Choice Awards to the 85th Academy Awards, this awards season, ET's red carpet runs on Dunkin'.

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Fashionista admits to 'stupidly' stealing Dali painting, will be deported

His dalliance with art-thievery is over.

A European fashion publicist will serve the next two weeks in jail -- and then be deported back to Greece -- after admitting today that he "stupidly" stole a $150,000 Salvatore Dali watercolor off the wall of an Upper East Side gallery.

"It was a really stupid thing to do," Phivos Istavrioglou, 29, admitted in pleading guilty to yanking "Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio" off the wall of the Venus Over Manhattan gallery on Madison Avenue in June.

Istavrioglou brazenly shoved the 1949 painting in a bag and slipped out of the gallery -- but once back in Greece a few days later he got cold feet. He rolled the painting into a tube and mailed it back, undamaged.

Steven Hirsch

Phivos Istavrioglou in Manhattan Criminal Court today.

Detectives lured Istavrioglou into returning to New York with a bogus job offer from another art gallery -- and busted him Saturday as he walked off of an American Airlines flight from Milan.

Prosecutor Jordan Arnold had asked that the thief get four months jail. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon ordered instead that he remain in custody only until his March 12 sentencing -- after which he'll be transferred to the custody of immigration officials.

As part of today's deal, Istavrioglou agreed to have his family pay $9,100 restitution prior to the sentencing date. The money will to be split among the Manhattan DA's office, the NYPD, and the Chubbs insurance company to cover the cost of their investigations -- including the cost of art experts who assessed the value and authenticity of the returned painting.

"It was a moment of insanity in an otherwise sane life," his lawyer, David Cohen, explained after court.

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EEOC files discrimination suit against transportation firm

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit against Prestige Transportation Service for hiring discrimination.

According to the suit, Prestige refused to hire black applicants for employment, discriminated against a black employee and retaliated against three employees for opposing race discrimination and/or filing a discrimination charge with the EEOC.

The lawsuit also says that Prestige unlawfully destroyed or failed to keep records and documents related to employment applications, personnel records, and documents regarding rates of pay and other terms of compensation.

Prestige, based in Miami, primarily transports crew members of airlines between airports and their hotels. Executives could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

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Crist to speak at Hollywood Chamber luncheon

Former Gov. Charlie Crist will be the keynote speaker at the Greater Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s Business Leaders Awards Luncheon Friday.

The event recognizes business leaders and companies who raise the bar their support of the Hollywood Business Community.

The awards luncheon will also include the swearing of the 2013 board of directors.

Registration begins at 11:30 a.m. and the award program will start at noon at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa, ADDRESS.

Ticket prices are $75 for chamber members; $100 for others. For more information, call 954-923-4000 or visit www.hollywoodchamber.org.

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Check Out Vanity Fair Oscar Party

ET's Rocsi Diaz had her trusty Nokia Lumia 920 ready to capture all of the candid moments while the stars arrived for the elite Vanity Fair Oscar party.

PICS: Inside Vanity Fair's Oscar Party

Rocsi gained prime access to the event, as the celebs' first stop upon arrival and their last stop before they leave. Even in low light Rocsi was able to take snapshots with the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Richard Gere and Amy Poehler, who Rocsi saved from a potential wardrobe mishap.

"I just helped Amy Poehler get a mysterious mark off of her dress," Rosci said, explaining that "girls have to help each other out."

Watch the video for more.

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Swindler cops to stealing more than $300K from elderly dementia victim

A dapper but cruel swindler admitted today that he stole more than $300,000 as the "personal banker" of a dementia-plagued, 94-year-old Manhattan woman.

Edward Lewando, 52, of Holbrook, LI, spent his victim's money on himself at Bergdorf Goodman and Louis Vuitton, prosecutors with the Manhattan DA's Elder Abuse Unit said.

Lewando will serve a three to nine prison sentence and hasn't paid back a cent. The victim, Helen Korne, died ten months after his arrest -- fully aware, despite her other mental frailties, that her trusted banker had stolen her life savings.

"Financial abuse of senior citizens is the most common form of elder abuse," DA Cyrus Vance said after Lewando's plea and sentencing. Often, as in Korne's case, victims are preyed on by trusted caregivers, the DA said.

Lewando is the former employee of no fewer than six banks, met Korne when he worked at City National Bank. He talked the then-91-year-old's family into letting him consolidate her multiple bank accounts into one, and to letting him pay her bills.

Weeks later he lost his bank job -- but still made regular visits to Korne's home, setting check after check in front of her, often made out to cash, and telling her to sign them.

"He took advantage of his role as a private banker, and a trusted fiduciary -- to enrich himself and feed his lavish lifestyle," Elizabeth Loewy, who heads the DA's Elder Abuse Unit, told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Cassandra Mullen.

"He exploited a woman in her early 90s who was living a happy and somewhat modest life -- and stole over $300,000 from her over a period of two years," she said.

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Miami medicine goes digital

About 10 years ago, Dr. Fleur Sack quit her practice as a family physician to become a hospital department head. Spurring her decision was the need to switch from paper records to electronic ones to keep her private practice profitable. “At that time, it would have cost about $50,000,” Dr. Sack recalled. “It was too expensive and it was too overwhelming.”

But times and technologies changed, and last year, Dr. Sack left her hospital job to restart her medical practice with an affordable system for managing electronic patient records. She agreed to a $5,000 setup fee and a subscription fee of $500 per month for the system. Her investment also qualified her for subsidy money, which the federal government pays in installments, and to date, her subsidy income has paid for the setup fee and about two years of monthly fees. “So far, I’ve got my check for $18,000,” she said. “There’s a total of $44,000 that I can get.”

That kind of cash flow is one reason why so-called EHR software systems for electronic health records have been among the hottest-selling commercial products in the world of information technology. EHR system development is a growth industry in South Florida, too. Life sciences and biotechnology are among the high growth-potential sectors identified by the Beacon Council-led One Community One Goal economic development initiative unveiled in 2012; already, the University of Miami has opened a Health Science Technology Park while Florida International University has launched a healthcare informatics and management systems program in its graduate school of business.

For many young businesses in the area’s IT industry, government incentives are paving the way. The federal government is pushing doctors and hospitals to use electronic health records to cut wasteful spending and improve patient care while protecting patient privacy — sending digital information via encrypted systems, for example, rather than regular email.

Under a 2009 federal law known as the HITECH Act, maximum incentive payments for buying such systems range up to $44,000 for doctors with Medicare patients and up to $63,750 for doctors with Medicaid patients. Hospitals are eligible for larger incentive payments for becoming more paperless. The subsidy program isn’t permanent; eligible professionals must begin receiving payments by 2016. But by then, the federal government will be penalizing doctors and hospitals that take Medicare or Medicaid money without making meaningful use of electronic health records.

“What the government did is, they incentivized, and now they’re going to penalize,” said Andrew Carricarte, president and CEO of IOS Health Systems in Miami, one of the largest South Florida-based vendors of online software service for physician practices. He said insurance companies also may start penalizing physicians for failing to adopt electronic health records because “the commercial payers always follow Medicare and Medicaid.”

It’s all part of the growth story at IOS Health Systems, which has more than 2,000 physicians across the nation using its online EHR system. Carricarte said many of the company’s customers buy their second EHR system from IOS after their first one flopped. “Almost 40 percent of our sales come from customers who had systems and are now switching over to something else,” he said.

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Miami security guard wounded in stabbing

A security guard was stabbed Sunday afternoon after an altercation with an unnamed subject.

Miami-Dade Police says the stabbing occurred at 5185 NW 29th Ave.

The subject is currently in custody and the security guard was transported to Ryder Trauma Center.

His condition is unknown.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available.

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