Latest news with #Orange-OsceolaStateAttorney'sOffice
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Attorneys for suspended Orlando commissioner want trial witness barred for ‘contradictory and false answers'
Attorneys for suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill want a key prosecution witness in her elder exploitation case removed from the proceedings, saying her 'contradictory and false answers' in pretrial depositions make her unreliable. The 17-page motion filed Friday by Hill's defense team seeks to remove Sandra Lewis from the case against Hill, who was indicted last year. Hill is accused of exploiting a 96-year-old woman by draining her savings of more than $100,000 after getting control of her finances. Prosecutors say Hill used a document notarized by Lewis to purchase a west Orlando home in her own name, with the elderly woman as a co-signer. Lewis is expected to testify against Hill in the trial, which is for now slated for the fall, though could be delayed further. Hill's attorney Fritz Scheller said in the Friday filing that his team had a difficult time interviewing Lewis over the course of two depositions, finding her answers evasive and at times dishonest. The defense attorneys asked Lewis about her political activity and her work for the City of Orlando in the past year. Central to the motion's claims are questions about Lewis' time as a canvasser for former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain, who held the post when Hill was indicted. Bain's political committee paid Lewis more than $41,000 for 'outreach services' in his failed campaign last year to keep the job. She also evaded questions about working for Hill's replacement, interim City Commissioner Shan Rose. Lewis worked for Rose as a temporary employee following her special election win. The filing further targets Lewis' work with Eboni Beauty Academy, a nonprofit that apparently doubles as a political strategy firm. 'In her depositions, Lewis demonstrated both a willful and blatant disregard for her obligations as a state witness – a witness who was under subpoena and oath,' Scheller wrote. 'She intentionally avoided questions and provided contradictory and false answers throughout her depositions. The notion that the State would proceed with this witness is disturbing.' The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office led by Monique Worrell, which is prosecuting Hill along with the Office of Statewide Prosecution, did not immediately respond to questions about the motion. Lewis declined to comment. The charges against Hill go beyond what Lewis is expected to have relevant testimony about, so it is not clear how much damage Lewis' removal would do if a judge agrees with the defense attorneys. The case against Hill is expansive, charging she used the older woman's money on expenses like rental cars, hotel rooms and vitamin injections, none of which benefited the woman. At the time Hill was indicted in 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis had removed Worrell from office and had appointed Bain as state attorney. Worrell, a Democrat, returned to the job in January after defeating Bain, running as an independent. Rose didn't respond to a request for comment. Records obtained and reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel appear to lend credence to some of the arguments made in the filing regarding the activities involving Eboni Beauty Academy. First formed as a for-profit business in 1989, it was later reorganized as a nonprofit in 1992 only to fold and restart on-and-off in the ensuing years, state business filings show. The school's most recent reinstatement was in 2017, based out of a house on Lenox Boulevard near Lake Mann. Despite its existence as an active nonprofit in both state and federal records, Eboni Beauty Academy is not licensed to operate as a cosmetology school — and it never was, according to a database from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Records confirm Lewis had a cosmetology license that expired in October 2017. In her depositions described in the filing, she testified that Eboni is a 'mobile beauty school' that hosts students at her residence while also traveling to clients' homes and sometimes operating out of beauty salons. Lewis refused to answer which salons were used, stating: 'That's not your business.' The filing also claims Lewis couldn't recall 'the name of any student that graduated from Eboni,' nor the names of the company's board members. Additionally, in her application to work for the City of Orlando, which was obtained by the Sentinel, 'Eboni' is listed as part of her job experience without reference to it being a beauty school. That business — based out of the same Lenox Boulevard residence as the alleged school — is instead described as a political strategy firm where she worked from 2010 to 2021 advising elected officials and candidates as a field coordinator. Among the candidates she consulted, according to the depositions described by Hill's legal team, are Bain and Rose. Neither the beauty school nor the firm appear to have a website nor any other online presence, nor does the latter appear to exist in state or federal databases. Furthermore, campaign finance reports don't show Rose having paid Eboni or Lewis for canvassing, though Bain's campaign paid Lewis $41,095 for 'outreach services' between August and November. No payments were made to Eboni, an entity through which she said she paid other canvassers. Those payments came months after Hill's indictment. Hill's lawyers characterized her testimony regarding Eboni as 'suffused with falsehoods.' 'First, it was a beauty school with students she could not remember, then it was a canvassing company for Bain and Rose, and then it was both,' according to their filing. The questions of Eboni Beauty Academy's legitimacy didn't stop it from receiving a $3,200 donation from Insomniac Cares on Feb. 10, the result of a years-old agreement between the city and the nonprofit tied to the organizers of the Electric Daisy Carnival. Every year, Insomniac Cares donates tens of thousands of dollars to organizations in District 5 as a way to help the community following the annual rave, which often draws complaints of booming noise and other disruptions. The donations, disbursed by city-run nonprofit Strengthen Orlando, primarily go to surrounding neighborhood associations, which this year received $45,000. The rest, totaling $30,000, went to local community organizations with the stipulation that the money be used 'to benefit the entire neighborhood in the form of building improvements, landscaping projects and other community needs.' The address for Eboni Beauty Academy falls outside of the city limits, according to city property records. In response to questions about the protocols for distributing the donations, city spokesperson Andrea Otero said that is determined by the district commissioner, which is now Rose. 'The intent of the monies are to those neighborhoods directly affected by the EDC event. However, there are no requirements,' she added. That detail, Hill's attorneys said, is one Lewis claimed she didn't know despite the donation appearing to have been granted while working for Rose's office, where Otero said she remains employed 'in a temporary status.' Lewis denied knowing where the $3,200 came from in her sworn testimony, even though a document confirming the donation appears to contain her signature. Hill's legal team called her denial 'ludicrous.' 'It is likely Lewis' answer was designed to evade the inconvenient fact that Eboni improperly received money that was intended for entities in District Five where the EDC was held,' their filing argued. _____
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Regina Hill's attorneys want trial witness barred for ‘contradictory and false answers'
Attorneys for suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill want a key prosecution witness in her elder exploitation case removed from the proceedings, saying her 'contradictory and false answers' in pre-trial depositions make her unreliable. The 17-page motion filed Friday by Hill's defense team seeks to remove Sandra Lewis from the case against Hill, who was indicted last year. Hill is accused of exploiting a 96-year-old woman by draining her savings of more than $100,000 after getting control of her finances. Prosecutors say Hill used a document notarized by Lewis to purchase a west Orlando home in her own name, with the elderly woman as a co-signer. Lewis is expected to testify against Hill in the trial, which is for now slated for the fall, though could be delayed further. Hill's attorney Fritz Scheller said in the Friday filing that his team had a difficult time interviewing Lewis over the course of two depositions, finding her answers evasive and at times dishonest. The defense attorneys asked Lewis about her political activity and her work for the City of Orlando in the past year. Central to the motion's claims are questions about Lewis' time as a canvasser for former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain, who held the post when Hill was indicted. Bain's political committee paid Lewis more than $41,000 for 'outreach services' in his failed campaign last year to keep the job. She also evaded questions about working for Hill's replacement, interim City Commissioner Shan Rose. Lewis worked for Rose as a temporary employee following her special election win. The filing further targets Lewis' work with Eboni Beauty Academy, a nonprofit that apparently doubles as a political strategy firm. 'In her depositions, Lewis demonstrated both a willful and blatant disregard for her obligations as a state witness – a witness who was under subpoena and oath,' Scheller wrote. 'She intentionally avoided questions and provided contradictory and false answers throughout her depositions. The notion that the State would proceed with this witness is disturbing.' The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office led by Monique Worrell, which is prosecuting Hill along with the Office of Statewide Prosecution, did not immediately respond to questions about the motion. Lewis declined to comment. The charges against Hill go beyond what Lewis is expected to have relevant testimony about, so it is not clear how much damage Lewis' removal would do if a judge agrees with the defense attorneys. The case against Hill is expansive, charging she used the older woman's money on expenses like rental cars, hotel rooms and vitamin injections, none of which benefited the woman. At the time Hill was indicted in 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis had removed Worrell from office and had appointed Bain as state attorney. Worrell, a Democrat, returned to the job in January after defeating Bain, running as an independent. Rose didn't respond to a request for comment. Records obtained and reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel appear to lend credence to some of the arguments made in the filing regarding the activities involving Eboni Beauty Academy. First formed as a for-profit business in 1989, it was later reorganized as a nonprofit in 1992 only to fold and restart on-and-off in the ensuing years, state business filings show. The school's most recent reinstatement was in 2017, based out of a house on Lenox Boulevard near Lake Mann. Despite its existence as an active nonprofit in both state and federal records, Eboni Beauty Academy is not licensed to operate as a cosmetology school — and it never was, according to a database from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Records confirm Lewis had a cosmetology license that expired in October 2017. In her depositions described in the filing, she testified that Eboni is a 'mobile beauty school' that hosts students at her residence while also traveling to clients' homes and sometimes operating out of beauty salons. Lewis she refused to answer which salons were used, stating: 'That's not your business.' The filing also claims Lewis couldn't recall 'the name of any student that graduated from Eboni,' nor the names of the company's board members. Additionally, in her application to work for the City of Orlando, which was obtained by the Sentinel, 'Eboni' is listed as part of her job experience without reference to it being a beauty school. That business — based out of the same Lenox Boulevard residence as the alleged school — is instead described as a political strategy firm where she worked from 2010 to 2021 advising elected officials and candidates as a field coordinator. Among the candidates she consulted, according to the depositions described by Hill's legal team, are Bain and Rose. Neither the beauty school nor the firm appear to have a website nor any other online presence, nor does the latter appear to exist in state or federal databases. Furthermore, campaign finance reports don't show Rose having paid Eboni or Lewis for canvassing, though Bain's campaign paid Lewis $41,095 for 'outreach services' between August and November. No payments were made to Eboni, an entity through which she said she paid other canvassers. Those payments came months after Hill's indictment. Hill's lawyers characterized her testimony regarding Eboni as 'suffused with falsehoods.' 'First, it was a beauty school with students she could not remember, then it was a canvassing company for Bain and Rose, and then it was both,' according to their filing. The questions of Eboni Beauty Academy's legitimacy didn't stop it from receiving a $3,200 donation from Insomniac Cares on Feb. 10, the result of a years-old agreement between the city and the nonprofit tied to the organizers of the Electric Daisy Carnival. Every year, Insomniac Cares donates tens of thousands of dollars to organizations in District 5 as a way to help the community following the annual rave, which often draws complaints of booming noise and other disruptions. The donations, disbursed by city-run nonprofit Strengthen Orlando, primarily go to surrounding neighborhood associations, which this year received $45,000. The rest, totaling $30,000, went to local community organizations with the stipulation that the money be used 'to benefit the entire neighborhood in the form of building improvements, landscaping projects and other community needs.' The address for Eboni Beauty Academy falls outside of the city limits, according to city property records. In response to questions about the protocols for distributing the donations, city spokesperson Andrea Otero said that is determined by the district commissioner, which is now Rose. 'The intent of the monies are to those neighborhoods directly affected by the EDC event. However, there are no requirements,' she added. That detail, Hill's attorneys said, is one Lewis claimed she didn't know despite the donation appearing to have been granted while working for Rose's office, where Otero said she remains employed 'in a temporary status.' Lewis denied knowing where the $3,200 came from in her sworn testimony, even though a document confirming the donation appears to contain her signature. Hill's legal team called her denial 'ludicrous.' 'It is likely Lewis' answer was designed to evade the inconvenient fact that Eboni improperly received money that was intended for entities in District Five where the EDC was held,' their filing argued.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida pays $40K to settle civil rights suit by former top Worrell staffer fired amid 2023 suspension
The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office settled a lawsuit last month brought by Keisha Mulfort, State Attorney Monique Worrell's former chief of staff who was fired amid her boss's 2023 suspension. In exchange for Mulfort abandoning the lawsuit, the agency, represented by the Florida Office of the Attorney General, will pay her $40,000. Of that amount, she will get $15,107.40 for compensatory damages and $6,474.60 in back pay. The rest will go toward attorney fees, according to the agreement. Details of the April 21 settlement were first reported by WKMG, which published the full document online. A lawyer for Mulfort did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Mulfort was months into her maternity leave after the birth of her daughter when she was fired Aug. 10, 2023, by the State Attorney's Office a day after Andrew Bain was appointed top prosecutor by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis suspended Worrell Aug. 9, 2023, for what he said was neglect of duty. The settlement ties one of the remaining loose ends of Worrell's previous administration. Her ouster and subsequent return became one of the most-watched dramas in Central Florida politics — in which a progressive prosecutor in a majority-Democratic judicial circuit was pit against DeSantis as he looked to remove anyone he deemed too soft on crime. A spokesperson for Worrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mulfort was notified of her termination by Orange County deputies who came to her home demanding she return agency-issued devices, vehicles and access cards as well as relinquish access to the office's social media accounts. At the time, she was in contact with the office through her attorney, who sought to amicably resolve the matter of turning over access to the online profiles. 'I am on FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) and y'all are coming here like I'm a criminal,' Mulfort said at the time as shown on body-worn camera video. 'Regardless of what has happened at that office … regardless of what you have with Monique Worrell, I am on FMLA and y'all should have made arrangements. That would have been a respectful thing to do.' In June she filed a federal lawsuit against Bain — someone she once called a friend who had attended her child's baby shower — claiming he had violated her employment protections under FMLA. At the time, a spokesperson for Bain's office said they rejected the claims, adding they took 'compliance with state and federal employment laws very seriously.' 'I did so much for the community and to have everything just uprooted for political posturing,' Mulfort said when the lawsuit was filed. 'It wasn't just insulting, it was infuriating, and it was a slap in the face to everyone that voted for Monique Worrell.' According to the settlement agreement, the State Attorney's Office denied any wrongdoing. Mulfort, who managed Worrell's successful reelection campaign last year, now works for ACLU of Florida, but the agreement does not preclude her from returning to work for her former boss.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Worrell fingers predecessor's ‘misuse of funds' for Orange state attorney's budget shortfall
The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office is grappling with an $849,000 budget shortfall, and State Attorney Monique Worrell on Monday blamed part of the problem on a 'misuse of funds' by her predecessor. Most of the deficit, Worrell said, comes from the loss of a $500,000 federal grant for victim advocates under the federal Victims of Crimes Act, which had its funding cut by Congress last year. But Worrell also criticized what she called mismanagement by her predecessor Andrew Bain, ranging from hefty exit payouts for top officials to 'irresponsible financial decisions' regarding his own criminal justice initiatives. She said the office will undergo an audit to rectify how it was managed in the past and reveal ways to spend funds more efficiently in the future. 'Rather than functioning the way the office has functioned for the last 40 years, what are some efficiencies that we can use?' Worrell said. 'Are there things that we can do better so that we are using every dollar to its best and highest use? That's what I'm after at this point.' As the region's top prosecutor, Worrell has in recent weeks trumpeted the need to address her office's funding issues, which she says has led to prosecutors being stretched thin amid rising caseloads. But Monday's press conference was her most detailed description of the deficit she says she inherited following her election victory over Bain, forcing her to go without filling key administrative roles, including a chief of staff and a fulltime public information officer. It is also her clearest rebuke of Bain, who spent 17 months in office after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Worrell in 2023 and appointed him to replace her. 'The interim administration just compounded that problem and made it worse,' Worrell said. 'But it was it was always a problem and it will continue to be a problem until our circuit is funded at the level that it should be for the number of cases that we're processing on an annual basis.' Central to Worrell's claims was the nearly $93,000 payout of unused annual leave to outgoing officials ahead of her return. Two of Bain's top brass, Chief Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams and Deputy Chief Assistant State Attorney Jamie McManus, received a combined amount just over $70,000, according to figures released by Worrell's office. Williams and McManus served just 16 months as Bain's No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, but 9th circuit policy required them to work two years in the circuit before they qualified for the payout. As for Bain's supposed reckless spending, Worrell pointed to a $30,000 debt owed to the University of Central Florida for Bain's 'Turning Pages' program, a literacy initiative aimed at youth in the criminal justice system and taught by graduate students. Another $67,000 was said to have been given to The Levitt Group, a consulting firm Worrell said specializes in airport concessions that was paid to offer 'criminal justice advice.' Additionally, Worrell said Bain spent $9,800 on tablet computers from the Figgers Foundation, run by DeSantis donor Freddie Figgers, 'despite the office staff advising the administration' that cheaper tablets of good quality could be purchased on Amazon. It's not clear what the tablets were for. UCF did not respond to a message seeking comment. But Jeremy Levitt, president and CEO for The Levitt Group, called Worrell's criticism 'rubbish,' saying airport concessions is but one part of a company that has 'consulted all over the world.' Levitt said he served as Bain's senior criminal justice advisor at a 'heavily discounted rate,' consulting on topics like police deescalation training and hate crimes. He said he led a charge for the office to receive a $1 million federal grant to create a hate crimes task force, calling it 'a damn good return on your money.' An assistant for Bain, since picked by DeSantis for a judgeship in Orange County, did not immediately respond to Worrell's remarks about his handling of the office. Worrell, however, pledged she is 'not going to use the resources of this office to investigate my predecessor.' 'This office's primary function isn't investigating crime, it's prosecuting it,' she said. The State Attorney's Office's finances have been the subject of controversy in recent weeks, centered around a massive backlog of cases with too few prosecutors and support staff to clear them. Florida's attorney general has sent prosecutors to tackle the 13,000-case backlog since the issue was first acknowledged, but Worrell has said that's a temporary fix and implemented a policy limiting the review of so-called 'non-arrest' cases as a way to address it. As of Friday, the additional prosecutors have processed about 100 nonarrest cases since their arrival, though their work has been interrupted by the departure of their supervisor, Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox. Cox, who helped forge an assistance pact with Worrell, was recently hired to be chief assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County. 'For this budget year, there's no getting back on track — the damage is already done,' Worrell said. 'What we have done is we've gone to [Justice Administrative Commission] to ask for more authority to spend more money. That's going to help us get out of this hole, but part of the problem is that we were always underfunded.'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Yahoo
Florida police officer pleads guilty in excessive force case that ignited scandal
ORLANDO, Fla.— The Kissimmee police officer whose brutal beating of a man two years ago sparked a scandal in his department pleaded guilty Friday to felony battery, witness tampering and official misconduct. Officer Andrew Baseggio now faces up to two years behind bars and must surrender his law enforcement certification, according to the plea agreement read in Osceola County court. The beating, the false report he wrote about the incident and the 'culture of cover-up' grand jurors said led his superiors to hide his actions and give him only an eight-hour suspension eventually led to the resignation of the then-chief of the Kissimmee Police Department. Baseggio, hired as a patrol officer at KPD in 2007, was accompanied in the courtroom by his attorney Jay Rooth as Judge Keith Carsten read out his guilty plea. They hustled out of the courthouse once the hearing concluded and did not comment to reporters. In exchange for his plea, he can be sentenced to far less time in prison than the 40 years he initially faced. He will not be sentenced for another two months pending a court investigation. As part of his plea, two other charges he faced — solicitation of perjury and misdemeanor battery — will be dropped. The plea also requires that he testify 'regarding any criminal activity as requested by the state,' though it is not clear for what investigation prosecutors might want his testimony. Representatives of Kissimmee Police Department and the Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case began with an April 2023 call about a disturbance at a home on Brack Street. Body-worn camera video showed Baseggio illegally entered without a warrant and then brutally beat 44-year-old Sean Kastner by kneeing him in the face and stunning him with a Taser seven times. He was then taken to a hospital with lacerations on his face and a nasal bone fracture. Baseggio later wrote an incident report that did not accurately describe what happened and then, following an internal investigation, was given an eight-hour suspension for the beating. The incident went unaddressed until prosecutors learned what happened from a TV news report. They then took the case before the grand jury, which returned an indictment against Baseggio. The grand jury's 34-page report questioned the credibility of 11 officers at KPD along with its top brass, including Chief Betty Holland. She resigned days ahead of the report's public release. The report accused Holland of not being truthful with prosecutors investigating the beating and found she had blocked attempts at a criminal investigation into Baseggio's actions. Officers who conducted the internal investigation sought to downplay the incident by falsely accusing Kastner of kicking at Baseggio, an effort to call the beating 'objectively reasonable,' the grand jury found. Holland had also kept Baseggio informed about the progress of outside investigations, which the report said allowed him to seek to influence the testimony of fellow officers. Then-State Attorney Andrew Bain presented the grand jury's report in October, telling reporters on the steps of the Osceola County Courthouse that the investigation into the officer 'was compromised from the beginning.' 'So we went back and re-interviewed a lot of those witnesses who were inside of that investigation, and it turned out that many of the things they said were falsified,' he said at the time. Prosecutors also determined KPD ran afoul of Florida law by not reporting to state authorities 15 excessive force cases involving other officers or Baseggio, a lapse stretching back a decade. The reporting of those cases was later rectified but yielded no charges against the accused officers. After Holland's resignation, city officials quickly replaced her with Orange County Sheriff's Office Maj. Robert Anzueto, who served as interim chief while OCSO conducted its own investigation into the Kissimmee department. Anzueto recused himself from that probe but moved to reform agency policies regarding internal investigations and other matters highlighted by the grand jury. Where the Sheriff's Office investigation stands is unclear. On April 1, Charles Broadway, the former Clermont police chief, was sworn in as Holland's permanent replacement and tasked with rebuilding the department's reputation. _____
