John Goodman, at a polo function with actress Hillary Duff (Click on the photo for more)

The family of fresh college graduate Scott Wilson, who was killed Feb. 12 when his car was broadsided in rural Wellington by International Polo Club Palm Beach boss John Goodman, is “very pleased” with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the accident.

This, despite the facts that no finding has been released a month after the incident, or that Goodman hasn’t been charged, according to one of the Wilsons’ attorneys.

Goodman survived with minor injuries, and authorities are considering criminal charges. Goodman, 46, was at two parties before the accident, and was accused by his ex-wife last year of being a cocaine abuser.

“Scott’s parents understand that this is a high-profile situation and that everyone involved is trying to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s,” said West Palm Beach attorney Scott Smith, who represents Wilson’s dad, William. “The family doesn’t want anyone to make a mistake on this.”

When asked about a recent Page2Live scoop about the fact that Palm Beach County Fire Rescue firefighters and paramedics failed to find Wilson, who drowned strapped in his seat in the upside down car submerged in a canal, Smith said the family wants to allow the agency to investigate its response to the crash.

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John Goodman with actress Hillary Duff last year at a polo club function (Click on the photo for more on Goodman)

International Polo Club Palm Beach founder and polo team owner John Goodman may have passed out at the wheel of his Bentley on Feb. 12 before crashing into a Hyundai at a speed that could have reached 70 mph, a source familiar with the hush-hush investigation into the crash told Page2Live.

That’s the theory that crash investigators with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are using as they piece together the events that led to the death of the Hyundai driver, 23-year-old fresh college graduate Scott Wilson, in rural Wellington.

The source asked to remain anonymous because authorities, who aren’t commenting, are trying to keep their work secret until they decide if they’ll bring charges against the 46-year-old multi-millionaire Goodman.

But I’m told PBSO sleuths believe Goodman passed out as the car traveled south on 120 Avenue South. The car gathered speed then overshot a right turn for a shortcut leading to his $4.5-million home. It blew through the stop sign at the corner of Lake Worth Road and crashed into Wilson’s Sonata, sending his car into a canal.

Even with the Bentley totaled, Goodman sustained only a broken wrist — indicating, the source said, that Goodman’s body was somewhat relaxed at the time of impact.

Goodman, who hired Miami attorney Roy Black, hasn’t been talking to investigators and has been living in Miami Beach hotels since the crash.

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Wilson's car, shortly after it was pulled out of a canal Feb. 12 (Click on the photo for more about the accident)

Shocking development in the aftermath of the car crash that killed 23-year-old Scott Wilson and injured International Polo Club Palm Beach founder John Goodman: As many as 10 Palm Beach County Fire Rescue responders have been notified that they are under internal investigation.

Their superiors want to know whether the crew from Wellington’s Station 27 followed procedures because Wilson’s body was not found until an hour after the Feb. 12 crash.

Page2Live has been told exclusively that two firefighters searched Wilson’s submerged car, which was upside down in a canal. But the rescuer could not find Wilson in the early morning darkness and gave up the search.In time, fire rescue left the scene when they thought their work was done.

But the jaws of sheriff’s deputies left behind dropped when Wilson’s Hyundai Sonata was hoisted back on the road, revealing his body on the seat.

Said a fire rescue source: “Our guys obviously didn’t look for a body hard enough.”

Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Don Delucia confirmed that existence of the investigation but declined comment. When asked about emergency procedures for cars in canals, Delucia said: “There are masks and snorkels on the emergency vehicles but the conditions in our canals are bad. It’s so opaque you can’t see your hand in front of you even in broad daylight. Diving on a vehicle is extremely dangerous and difficult.”

Delucia said responders also have the option to call in professional divers, but that wasn’t done, according to my source.

An autopsy showed that Wilson drowned after Goodman’s Bentley went through a stop sign and hit his car, sending it into the water off Lake Worth Road in Wellington’s horse country. Goodman left the scene and walked to a nearby home to call 911. Authorities are still trying to figure out whether alcohol or drugs were involved. Goodman suffered a broken wrist, hired star attorney Roy Black and has been hiding in Miami Beach hotels since the crash. Goodman, 46, has not been charged with a crime.

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Memo Gracida (left), congratulates Goodman after their team, Isla Carroll, won the 2004 U.S. Open in Wellington (click on the photo for more)

International Polo Club Palm Beach owner John Goodman’s bar tab moments before last week’s deadly car crash shows he ordered about $200 worth of booze during Ladies’ Night at a popular Wellington watering-hole.

According to a source close to the criminal investigation into the accident, Goodman used his credit card to pay for 16 shots of tequila, one of Grey Goose vodka and one of Johnny Walker red, then left a $60-tip for the bartender at the Players Club.

“It doesn’t mean he drank it all himself,” the informant told Page2Live. “As a matter of fact, we’re fairly sure he didn’t. But he bought the first round, and there were seven or eight people with him. There was definitely some kind of a partying going on.”

Fewer than 30 minutes after Goodman left, 23-year-old Scott Wilson was dead. Goodman, 46, at the wheel of his $250,000-Bentley convertible, plowed into Wilson’s Hyundai after allegedly ignoring a stop sign. Goodman suffered minor injuries. No charge has been filed, but the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and state attorneys are investigating whether Goodman was impaired.

Assistant State Attorney Ellen Roberts, who specializes in high-profile DUI cases, subpoenaed Goodman’s credit card receipt from the Players Club but also those of his friends.

The Players Club’s lawyer, Craig Galle, is traveling and couldn’t be reached.

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International Polo Club Palm Beach owner John Goodman, the multi-millionaire Texan who makes his home in Wellington in winter, talks about how much polo means to him in this rare video.

Goodman, 46, also owns and plays on the Isla Carroll team. Named after his wife, Carroll, the team is one of polo’s best.

Goodman drove his Bentley convertible into 23-year-old UCF grad Scott Wilson’s car early this morning, killing him. Goodman was treated for minor injuries at Wellington Regional Medical Center and released. PBSO is investigating if alcohol had a role in the deadly crash.

John Goodman (right) is doused with champagne by player Memo Gracida after winning the U.S. Open in 2004 (Click on the photo for shots of the crash)

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s report about the deadly car crash that took the life of a 23-year-old man in Wellington this morning says alcohol was likely involved. See the PBSO report here. (pdf)

The incident is sure to rock the polo community.

The accident, which shut down parts of Lake Worth Road for eight hours, involved Texas multi-millionaire John Goodman, the founder and owner of Wellington’s International Polo Club Palm Beach.

He suffered minor injuries.

But at the wheel of his $250,000 black Bentley Continental convertible shortly after 1 a.m., Goodman, 46, reportedly blew through a stop sign at the corner of Lake Worth Road and 120th Avenue, a block south of the club he founded.

He crashed into a westbound Hyundai — sending the crumpled Sonata into a canal across the street and its driver, Scott Patrick Wilson of Orlando, to his death. The shock was so violent that the Hyundai is believe to have gone airborne before landing on its roof and sinking in the canal.

Wilson recently graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Palm Beach Sheriff’s deputies tested Goodman for DUI, but the results are not available. No charges have been filed.

Several polo sources said Goodman spent the early part of Thursday night at the White Horse Tavern, a club on the grounds of Wellington’s equestrian stadium. The tavern featured a charity function dubbed Polo Bartending Challenge. He wasn’t spotted drinking heavily and ate a full dinner. He later visited the Players Club, another restaurant and bar in Wellington favored by the polo crowd.

The accident occurred about 10 minutes after he left the Players Club.

Goodman's Bentley was taken away Friday morning (Clickon the photo for more accident photos)

“We are checking if alcohol was a factor,” said PBSO spokeswoman Teri Barbera. “The driver (of the Bentley) is still at the hospital.”

Barbera said Goodman was taken to Wellington Regional Medical Center, where deputies got a blood sample. It could be weeks before the results are known. But Barbera added that road conditions and speed are also being looked at.

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Roberts, in a trial last year (Damon Higgins/The Palm Beach Post)

Longtime prosecutor Ellen Roberts, the Palm Beach County state attorney’s traffic homicide specialist, said allowing teenage DUI death suspect Beruch Zegeye to travel to Haiti wouldn’t have been much of a risk.

Roberts said she doesn’t believe Zegeye, 19, would have fled if he went to Port-au-Prince to help with the earthquake rescue efforts.

“If he was going to flee, he’d have done it a long time ago,” Roberts said. “He certainly has the resources.”

Besides, she said, she thought Zegeye could be “of help” in Haiti with his neurosurgeon dad, St. Marys Medical Center’s Yonas Zegeye.

“The earthquake there certainly was a part of my thinking,” she said.

Said Sarah Horak, the niece of the man killed in Beruch Zegeye’s accident: “Sure, Haiti needs help. But (Zegeye) murdered someone. And he’s living life like nothing happened.”

Zegeye is facing more than 20 years in a state prison for his alleged role in the September 2008 crash that killed a pizza delivery man and injured another motorist. Zegeye, then a student at the swanky Benjamin School, was returning from a day a partying, partly on a yacht owned by golfer Jack Nicklaus. Zegeye (photo to the right) may have been high on pills and booze at the time of the 80 mph crash.

Under house-arrest at first and freed on a $200,000-bond, Zegeye was eventually allowed to travel to New York City to attend Pace University. Hearings on his case have been postponed time and time again, and a plea conference is scheduled for April — a year and a half after 45-year-old pizzaman Paul Krommendyk was killed.

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DUI death suspect Beruch Zegeye, who allegedly killed a pizza deliveryman after partying with classmates from the exclusive Benjamin School in September 2008, received permission from the court system that has yet to decide his fate to travel to Haiti to join the earthquake recovery effort.

Criminal Court Judge Karen Miller rescinded her permission four days later without explanation, according to court documents.

Outraged Page2Live readers found out in September that Zegeye’s case, which includes allegations of booze and pills use on a yacht owned by golf legend Jack Nicklaus before Zegeye’s Porsche SUV slammed in the back of two cars, was practically at a standstill on its first anniversary.

What’s more, the 19-year-old’s house arrest had been quietly lifted, and he routinely traveled to New York City to attend Pace University while his legal team in Palm Beach County postponed court hearing after court hearing.

Now, with a plea conference scheduled for April, Zegeye — the son of a St. Marys Medical Center neurosurgeon — had the cojones to ask to travel to Haiti. With government buildings flattened in last week’s earthquake, it’s obvious that Haiti’s administration, police and judiciary would be incapable to extradite Zegeye back to the United States if he decided to remain there.

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Brooks, campaigning for town council in 2008

Former WPTV-Channel 5 general manager and Town of Palm Beach Councilman Bill Brooks, who died while on a trip to Curacao over the weekend, told me in one of his last interviews he was content and calm, even as he withered away.

At 76, Brooks went through round after round of chemo to fight off lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph nodes, propped up by the music of Beethoven and Mozart.

“The doctors are telling me . . . we can beat this thing,” Brooks told me from his Seabreeze Avenue home in July.

As the treatment wreaked havoc on his immune system, the gregarious people-person Brooks was stuck at home for months at a time.

Then, Brooks, who left the Catholic priesthood in the 60s then married a former nun, Muffy, spent his days bathed in classical music and buried in books on history and spirituality. There was the occasional brief chat across the fence with his neighbor, Conservative populist writer Ann Coulter. And although Brooks didn’t necessarily subscribe to Coulter’s blue-collar rhetoric, Brooks would say of her: “She’s a beautiful woman. And nice, too!”

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Tim Mahoney and Terry prepare to face the press in October 2008 (Meghan McCarty/Palm Beach Post) Click on the photo for more pictures of the scandal

Former U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat whose philandering cost him his re-election in 2008, now is legally free to take on as many girlfriends as he wants.

He was officially divorced last week in Palm Beach County — and quickly hooked with one of his mistresses, former Martin County Engineering Operations Manager Kim Roden.

According to the “Final Judgment of Dissolution of Marriage” filed in his hometown of Palm Beach Gardens last week, Mahoney will end up paying ex-wife, Terry Mahoney $6,250-a-month for the rest of her life. Once the couple’s barn and five acres in the western confines of the county are sold off, Terry, 58, could receive another $270,000. An equestrian, Terry also gets two horses, Toy and Pacman. And she’s allowed to take the marital bed, her grandpa’s chair, the sewing machine, three tables and her jewelry.

Tim is supposed to give her $14,000 to help her move.

Terry Mahoney, by the way, keeps the Mahoney family name.

In all, the former lovebirds split evenly about $2.8 million in assets.

Court papers indicated Terry’s moving out of the area. She couldn’t be reached for comment.

Tim? He won’t be poor. He keeps the former marital home in PGA National and a ski-slope condo in Canada.

And there are fringe benefits to his divorce. I’m told by a source at Martin County Hall that Tim and Roden, one of two paramours whose names surfaced, no longer need to sneak around.

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