Herald Tribune: State examines Sunshine case

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State examines Sunshine case

By Kim Hackett

Published: Saturday, January 17, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.

Florida's top law law enforcement agency is investigating whether Venice officials may have criminally violated the Government-in-the-Sunshine Law.

Nine current and former city officials are defendants in a civil lawsuit alleging that they violated Florida's open-meetings laws.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is "monitoring" that suit and "in communication with the State Attorney's Office," spokeswoman Heather Smith said Friday.

"We've done some preliminary assessments" in the case, Smith said.

Calling it an "ongoing investigation," Smith would not release the complaint behind the review or confirm which city officials the FDLE had targeted. The Herald-Tribune submitted a public records request for the information but did not receive a response Friday.

It is not clear why the FDLE denied that there had been a complaint several times last year and as recently as December.

The FDLE complaint was filed about a month after Sarasota activist Anthony Lorenzo filed his civil lawsuit alleging that city officials routinely sent private e-mails on city business and destroyed public documents by not saving them.

The officials have denied wrongdoing and sought to have the case dismissed. A trial is scheduled for Feb. 23.

Dale Scott, who is defending the city officials in the civil case, said he was not aware of the criminal investigation and said that there was no basis for it.

"There is no evidence of purposeful violations," he said.

The difference between a civil and a criminal Sunshine Law violation is whether someone intentionally and knowingly broke the law.

In the civil case, Lorenzo is asking that any city action taken in violation of the Sunshine Law be set aside.

In a criminal case, penalties vary from fines to jail time. In rare cases, the governor can call for an official to be removed from office.

"It does not happen that often," said Adria Harper, director of the First Amendment Foundation. "Sometimes it is difficult to piece together" that the officials knew the law and violated it anyway.

Lorenzo's attorney said she was surprised by the FDLE investigation and has not had any contact with the agency.

"It has nothing to do" with our case, said Andrea Mogensen.

This story appeared in print on page BN1