Case against former Sen. Jack Latvala returns to Florida ethics commission. (Tampa Bay Times)

Experts agree: Senator JACK LATVALA was a pig, a libidinous lout.  

But untouchable under Florida's weak ethics law?

As the late Nahum Litt, retired USDOL Chief ALJ told me years ago, Florida's ethics law "leaves much to be desired."  

Is this now well-established, beyond cavil or quibble or peradventure, by the case of former Florida State Senate Appropriations Committee JACK LATVALA, who allegedly extorted sex for legislation?  

Senator JACK LATVALA would allegedly insist on Tallahassee's louche lobbyists providing sex. 

Then Senator JACK LATVALA would legislate, quid pro quo? 

You tell me.  

That makes Senator JACK LATVALA a political prostitute, correct?

Two (2) of State Senator JACK LATVALA's victims won't testify.  

Under the maldministrattion of Dull Republicans, Florida has not reformed its putative "ethics" laws.

Meanwhile, our foul, fetid, feculent, fascist State of Florida has still never prosecuted State Senator JACK LATVALA, this disgraced QCP political prostitute, for any crimes. 

Our Republican-dominated dopey State Senate resisted producing documents on our lost, lousy State Senate's million dollar plus spending on lawyers defending JACK LATVALA.

Wonder why? 

Do GQP pompous pachyderm prostitutes have immunity and impunity from the State of Florida?  

Fun fact: Self-aggrandizing former state Senator and hospice and health care grifter multi-millionaire Republican DON GAETZ, Vice Chair of Florida's putative Ethics Commission has among its members the father of insurrectionist-adjacent, Trump-loving libidinous lout U.S. Rep. MATTHEW LOUIS GAETZ, II (R-Koch Industries)!  

"It's a a small world, after all." -- Walt Disney. 

"Nothing great was ever accomplished by being small." -- President William Jefferson Clinton.

"How do you convict a million dollars?" -- Progressive New Deal U.S. Senator George Norris (R-Nebraska), father of TVA.

What do y'all reckon?

From Tampa Bay Times: 

Case against former Sen. Jack Latvala returns to Florida ethics commission

A judge took the action after two witnesses declined to testify regarding sexual harassment allegations. 

Jack Latvala, then a Republican state senator from Clearwater, talks with reporters in May 2017, the year he resigned.

By 

• News Service of Florida

Published Yesterday

A case about alleged misconduct by former state Sen. Jack Latvala is headed back to the Florida Commission on Ethics, after a lawyer for the commission said she could not proceed at the state Division of Administrative Hearings because two witnesses would not testify.

Latvala, R-Clearwater, resigned from the Senate in 2017 after the release of a special master’s report about allegations he had sexually harassed Rachel Perrin Rogers, a former Senate aide. Latvala denied wrongdoing but admitted he had an extramarital affair with former lobbyist Laura McLeod.

RELATED: Jack and Chris Latvala: a money trail and continued influence in Pinellas politics

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement conducted an investigation, but Latvala was not charged with any crimes. The ethics commission received a complaint in December 2017.

The case went to the Division of Administrative Hearings last year after the ethics commission rejected a proposed settlement reached by Latvala and Elizabeth Miller, an attorney who serves as an “advocate” for the commission. Latvala’s lawyer, Ryan Andrews, sought to take the depositions of Perrin Rogers and McLeod.

But in a motion filed last week, Miller indicated that the women did not want to participate.

“It has become evident that the two key witnesses (i.e., alleged victims) do not wish to participate in the proceedings, even while under subpoena. Without the testimony of the two witnesses, the advocate would have to rely exclusively on hearsay evidence and, thus, be unable to prove the allegations by clear and convincing evidence. Accordingly, the advocate cannot proceed without the witnesses’ testimony,” Miller wrote.

Latvala took “no position” on Miller’s request to close the file, transfer the case to the ethics commission and cancel a hearing set for December, the motion said. Administrative Law Judge Hetal Desai sent the case back to the ethics commission.

The proposed settlement that the commission rejected last year would have included Latvala admitting “poor judgment” in having a two-decade consensual sexual relationship with a lobbyist, which “may have constituted a technical violation” of state law.

The proposed agreement said there was “no evidence that this affected his official actions in any way” and would have led to dismissal of other allegations. The proposal could have led to a public censure and reprimand.