Scary Bad Cops in Hernando County Florida

This was previously posted with the title, "Overzealous Scary Cops in Hernando County Florida" and is being reposted due to several requests. I removed it in my big post purge in August 2012. It was originally an early (March) 2011 post, so this did not actually happen last night. Back by popular demand: (UPDATE at the end on January 8, 2014)

Last night my son and a friend had a frightening encounter with several (4) Hernando County Sheriff's Office deputies out in the rural area referred to as Ridge Manor, Florida. Either three or four patrol cars arrived at the scene with a total of 4 deputies. My son was driving a Toyota Prius and had the vehicle papers and his valid driver's license to hand the deputy and was puzzled as to the reason for the stop as he is ever so careful not to commit any sort of traffic infraction whatsoever.

Alex has learned to just stay a smart distance from cops and has been taught to understand that a police officer is more powerful than the POTUS. One must fear that a cop could plant drugs or shoot them dead as the result of a simple traffic stop in Florida.

The only time I shake is if I am being pulled-over by a cop as there is no telling what will happen next. No one wants to die at the hands of a whacko cop that later claims to have seen a weapon and trust me, it happens too often in Florida. And we aren't even Black. I fear for the Black motorist in this lousy state – refer to my posts on former officer Frank Carter of the Melbourne Police Department.

Alex was driving at a speed of 52 mph and the speed limit before the stop was 60 mph, so he knew the pull-over had nothing to do with speeding. The car is almost new and sure didn't have any light out or faulty equipment issue. Knowing that he had done nothing illegal or even incorrect, he had his friend dial me the minute that he heard the siren and had the brights in his face as the cop turned around to come after him. The second that police vehicle #1 got behind my son, vehicle #2 and vehicle #3 (and possibly a #4) appeared from nowhere and were also behind him with flashing lights on.

Alex pulled to the grassy area on the side of the road right next to the intersection of Croom Rital Rd. and Kettering Rd. in Hernando County, Florida. I was on the phone with his friend at that point. This is exactly what happened next and Deputy #3 and Deputy #4 remained in the background throughout never saying anything to them. [my thoughts and Alex's descriptions are in brackets]:


Unknown Deputy #1: License and registration

Alex: Yes sir. May I ask why we were pulled over?

Deputy #1: We received a complaint of objects being thrown out this window at the vehicle behind you.

Alex: I don't know what you're talking about. We didn't throw anything.

Deputy #1: I'm going to be real with you. I'm a dickhead who doesn't give a fuck about anything. I don't have time for fucking games. If I find out one of you is lying I'm going to seize this vehicle and everything in it and you're both going to jail. The vehicle behind you has a witness, the vehicle behind them, that is willing to write statements. [took driver's license and car paperwork and walked back to his vehicle] [I heard the entire conversation - the deputy was loud, but not screaming like an angry Marine as some do]

[within a couple (3) minutes]

Deputy #1: Passenger out of the vehicle. [brought my son's friend to side of deputy's car]. [I heard this].

Friend described: [The deputy asked what happened here and friend told him the story]

What really happened: We were behind a car driving about 15 mph under the speed limit. There was no lane to pass him, but two other vehicles went around both of us. I waited until there was a second lane to pass and went around the slow driver. The driver attempted to run me off the road by speeding-up as soon as he saw I was trying to pass him. I passed him anyway by speeding-up. He was right on my rear and turned on his brights and this went on for about five minutes. He pulled-off and about 10 minutes later I am being pulled-over, but have no idea why.

The friend thought the cop asked him to empty out his pockets and was starting to do this when 3 deputies went for their weapons and 1 grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him against the car. The deputy told him to place his hands on the car and then patted him down, placing his hands in friend's pockets, and searched him. Scared him to death.

Deputy #1: Mr. -------

Alex [got out of car and walked towards deputy #1]

Deputy #2: GET OFF THE PHONE! [I heard this]

Alex: It's my mother. What...

Deputy #2: GET OFF THE PHONE NOW! You're 18. Hang it up.[I heard this]
[I had instructed my son to ask the deputy's name and where/what police department he was with as my son had no idea where they were specifically at that time]

Alex: Yes sir. [he hung-up on me]

Deputy #1: Your buddy over here admitted everything so you want to be smart as well and go ahead and confess to what happened.

Alex: [repeated story of what actually happened]

Deputy #1: Do you have any weapons, guns, drugs, hand grenades [?] paraphernalia?

Alex: No sir.

Deputy #1: PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE CAR! [deputy starts going through Alex's pockets and searching him and looked through his wallet]

Deputy #1: Do you have any drugs, weapons, guns, paraphernalia, hand grenades, or dead bodies [?] in the vehicle? So then I have permission to search, right? [exact quote]

Alex: Yes sir.

Deputy #1: Turn around and face my partner. [Alex no longer had any visual of vehicle] [deputy searched for about 4 minutes]

Deputy #2: [starts asking both Alex and friend questions]. [He pointed at a vehicle and asked both at the same time if they recognized it and both responded “no it doesn't look familiar”.

Deputy #2: What are you doing way out here?

Alex: Visiting a friend.

Deputy #1: [pulls out posters and flyers from back seat]

Deputy #2: Why do you have all of those?

Alex: I do some promoting for Club Firestone.

Deputy #1: [walks to his vehicle] You might want to stay in Merritt Island boys and don't come around here again. We are a bunch of fucking pricks who don't give a shit and will cause you some fucking problems. [Deputy threw Alex's driver's license in the grass]

Alex: [we got back in our vehicle and noted Deputy #1 walked to the vehicle that we couldn't identify].


So what in the hell is going on in Hernando County? Apparently they sure do not want anyone that doesn't live there entering the area. My son has had many traffic stops for no reason whatsoever, but none as scary as this one because they really do not know the area at all and even though he has met cops that were screaming like Marines throughout the encounter, they do not normally threaten to seize a vehicle and take the driver and passenger to jail – this is the unique issue here. Of course the search demand was because they expected to find drugs.

I have since dialed the non-emergency number for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and the operator was helpful. She stated that the deputy that made the stop (deputy #1) is Deputy Genovese. She was unable to locate any information for the other deputies or did not offer the information if she did.

To Deputy Genovese with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office:

I have taught my son to always fear cops as truly you are more powerful than the POTUS and capable of absolutely anything. You prove my point. I also taught him to never give a police officer permission to search, no matter that there is nothing illegal or even incorrect in the vehicle. However, when I heard your threat of seizing the vehicle and taking them both to jail, I knew (from your own words) that you are indeed a total prick capable of anything and since we all knew there was nothing illegal in the vehicle, I told my son to agree to any search prior to him hanging-up the phone.

This is the United States and no one should be coerced into a search and threatened as you did to these two late last night (1am). Do you think you own Hernando County? Do you believe that you actually have the authority to tell any motorist to never return to Hernando County? Guess what prick – you don't own shit and I'll drive through Hernando County any fucking time I want to.

My son really feared that you would plant something in the vehicle (drugs). Why did you instruct him to turn around and face your partner so that the vehicle was no longer in his line of vision? That is something I have never run into and it shouldn't be considered legal.

I will offer a short scenario of the events to follow if you had taken them to jail last night:

Of course I would attempt to bond them out immediately, but not knowing anything about how it all works in Hernando County, well, I may or may not have been successful. No matter what, I would have them out on Monday before the morning was over. Each of them would then be filing a false arrest suit against you, the unknown deputies that joined you, and the Sheriff of Hernando County.

This is not a lawsuit worthy encounter and this is the last you'll hear of us Deputy Genovese, but someone needs to take some of your power away. Cops like you are why I have instilled it in my son's mind that he should never trust any cop anywhere for any reason. You really are a fucking prick – you said it.


Added on 26 December 2012:

I must wonder if Deputy Genovese is stil employed by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. If he is, I also blame the sheriff and the county - they have had almost 2 years to get rid of his bad cop ass.


UPDATE on 8 January 2014:

Apparently the Hernando County Sheriff's Office do not discipline or fire Deputy Louis Genovese as him and his gang of thug cops attacked this poor man in his own home long before the traffic stop discussed in this post. I hope the Hernando Sheriff and these pigs (literally) pay this man every $ he's filed suit for!

I had such a sinking, uneasy feeling that night. Glad my son said "yes" to his coerced demand to search. This article is about a gang of criminals and here's to hoping their police toys are taken away forever. Where's the DOJ criminal civil rights division? Get these thugs off the street and cage them like the rabid animals they are:

Brooksville man sues Hernando deputies for $10 million

You can't even imagine the sinking feeling I had when I heard this freak accusing my son and threatening both him and his friend out in the middle of nowhere Hernando County, Florida. You just can't imagine. Where is the DOJ??? Read this poor man's Complaint against the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and 4 thugs that parade as cops:

Michael Pratt Civil Rights Complaint

Every single one of these deputies must face criminal charges!

Orlando MBI: The Long War on Adults

The War on anything adult and all publishers of ads for anything adult in the Orlando metro area started over 3 decades ago for Orlando's Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) and continues today. The Orlando MBI's overzealous agents have left a trail of thousands of victims, many still in state and federal prisons. I was one of the lucky victims (lucky I'm not spending life in prison anyway) and Memoirs of an Accused Madam is my story.

The most vehement critic of the Orlando MBI was always the Orlando Weekly and the agency managed to silence the newspaper's investigative reporting with the October 2007 arrests of several advertising sales employees for selling ads to escorts and unlicensed massage therapists that offered more than the law allows.

Many around back in 1996 could testify to the fact that this was not a new strategy for the MBI, myself included. The War on publishers of ads for adult business began with the Yellow Pages Fiasco, discussed in Memoirs, in 1996, when Sprint Publishing was threatened with a RICO case over a refusal to remove the “escort services” category in the Central Florida yellow pages. Sprint did remove the category, stopping the presses (literally) on the 1997 directories printed and distributed by November of 1996.

Someone stated to me back in 1993-94 that Orlando was a testing ground of some sort in relation to the eradication of anything involving adult business or vice, from gambling and bingo to escort services and X-rated movies. I believe it. The MBI's War on Adults has spread throughout the US these days with the attacks on Craigslist (an MBI priority before anyone else ever touched it) and now on Backpage.

Enjoy Bingo?

The MBI would have liked to make sure that you would never enjoy bingo in Orlando; however, Philip Furtney of Ontario fought the agency from 1995, until he died in late 2007, while in-process of a civil suit against members of the MBI Governing Board to retrieve his stolen property. Furtney's brother Bruce, on behalf of the estate, carried-on with the suit and won a judgment. As far as I am aware, Furtney's estate finally collected from the State of Florida.

I would like to keep Philip Leroy Furtney's criminal and civil cases alive in our memories forever and do so with the inclusion of links to posts on this blog. Never forget what the MBI is capable of:

The Bingo Racketeering Case

The Great Bingo Fiasco

Most Bizarre Racketeering Case Ever

True Investigative Reporting of a Renegade Agency

Over the years, the Orlando Weekly and its investigative reporters were often nipping at the heels of the dogs at the MBI. Retaliation is hell and the Weekly and its employees paid dearly for placing the agency in the public eye. One day last week I did a search for MBI articles written by Weekly reporters and each link was dead. A fear of sorts gripped me at the discovery, a fear that all the solid online information concerning the vicious pursuits of the MBI was being deleted and removed. Whew! It didn't happen and a few days later the links were all working. One other thought I had was that perhaps the Weekly had commissioned a book – that would have been wonderful; it would become a bestseller overnight. (Idea for the Weekly to help make-up for lost revenue!)

To keep the information out there I have compiled a list of important Orlando Weekly stories about the MBI over the last 10 years. Whatever the Weekly did last week with the links has made it so that the articles are on a dark red background with dark blue text – if you highlight the text it is much easier to read. They are in no particular order and searching the Orlando Weekly for stories on the MBI revealed 135 results so these are my picks:

29 Embarrassing Years: An MBI timeline

The Morality Police (scroll to view 2 images, 1 of the MBI director in 1989 and the other of Hitler's SA and both concerned over morality – scary stuff)

Operation MBI Shame: A close look at how Orlando's vice cops really operate

Cops in Cocoa stamp out sin

The MBI busts heads and Rich Crotty attempts to smile (smoke shop raids)

Our little Gestapo (MBI = "Central Florida's Church Lady with a Badge") (love this story!)

Score one for the MBI (about my federal civil suit being tossed with a twist at the end)

Something's Fishy (bad behavior of agents at a strip club)

Dirty Politics (on the Video Exposé takedown)

Operation Overexposed

Breasts out

Run 'Em Out of Town

The Booby Trap

Legal Haze (smoke shop raids)

The links I have included reveal what the MBI really is, but there are many cases that even the Weekly was not aware of and many defendants that have suffered at the hands of the overzealous agents of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation. Few appreciate this agency in Orlando – the citizens did not ask for this whacked task force to eliminate all that is adult in Orlando. I will leave it to you to figure out what monster enterprise did.

I have written about a variety of cases in Memoirs that are not in any Weekly articles. In the past couple of months I've discussed the Orlando federal conspiracy trial of the 11 defendants from Eastern Europe on this blog – this is indeed an MBI case. MBI is not a local agency. I am not clear on how the agency has changed since former Director William Lutz retired, though at the conclusion of Memoirs I did believe there had been a significant change. Well, I have changed my mind.

I consider it important to keep the information out there and perhaps if I had given away free copies of Memoirs a couple of years ago after it was published, the most recent case involving the Eastern European defendants would never have happened; maybe, just maybe, they would have passed on Orlando. If not for the arrests of the Weekly employees in late 2007, there would be many more articles of cases that are now buried by the MBI.

If you are an adult that likes to gamble, play bingo, visit smoke shops, rent X-rated movies, read X-rated books, get a massage with a happy ending, patronize strip clubs, or call escorts... well, Orlando is not the place to be. We live in a fantasy land for children here - think about it - Disney shut down Pleasure Island (the nightclub theme park) in late 2008, after 20 years, because of demands by visiting families. The MBI has not been dissolved yet, with emphasis on yet, and we can only hope that one day...

If you do not like me, realize that it is the MBI that made me the person that I am today. I like who I am, but if you don't, well, you should know that I used to be a nice, mild-mannered woman. More than a decade of continuous harassment, interference in my life, and a show trial that rivaled many in the Stalin era did it. Change can be a good thing. I learned to kick back.

Jason Itzler of NY Confidential Fame: Clown or Killer?

I have never mentioned Jason Itzler on this blog for a couple of reasons. The main reason that I ignore him is that he sought fame as a result of mismanaging the escort business known as New York Confidential for two years (2003-04) and his mismanagement resulted in a plea bargain and prison sentence in 2005. It is so easy to open and operate an escort service the wrong way and end-up in prison so why did he get all of the attention that he demanded?

The secondary reasoning for never discussing him is that I have always considered him a clown. What moron calls himself the “king of pimps” publicly and to news reporters in interviews? Itzler does, or rather did. I find the entire concept absurd and would have renamed him the king of clowns. Beyond that, I have felt for some time that it is entirely possible that Jason Itzler is a confidential informant, though if he is, he sure didn't get a very good deal for whatever information he gave. Hell, this idiot is even the clown of CIs, if he is one.

I am only writing about Itzler now as something that I read yesterday was really disturbing. So that we are on the same level of understanding here, the articles that I found disturbing are:

'King of Pimps' linked to UW-L student's death

Private investigators have evidence to charge “King of Pimps” with student death

Date Rape Drug OD Death of Aspiring Model Julia Sumnicht Linked to “King of All Pimps” Jason Itzler

Jason Itzler was arrested on various charges in relation to a new business in New York, a companion service as he referred to it in court, just a couple of weeks ago (September 9^th I believe). There were drug charges included this round and he has been arrested on drug charges in past; smuggling ecstacy to be specific. This time the charges include selling cocaine to this alleged client of his new business. I must imagine that the “client” was a set-up to begin with.

According to the articles noted, Julia Sumnicht's family hired a private investigator that discovered Julia's last hours before she returned to sleep in her own bed were spent with Itzler and his Miami roommate Zoltan Prepszent, a photographer. Dumb as he is, Itzler has already been running his mouth to reporters in NY from jail in relation to this girl's death and the GHB he also ingested, but of course he didn't die, and there was no mention of whether Prepszent took the crap also, or not.

You'd think that after all of his previous arrests and his time in prison, Itzler would have learned to shut the hell up by now. He's so stupid that he apparently doesn't realize he's probably going to be facing a murder or wrongful death arrest in the near future.

So is he a clown or a killer? In my opinion he is a clown and as clueless as Julia Sumnicht was. So who drugged both of them or did they drug themselves? If this girl took the drugs of her own free will and Itzler did not provide them, can Itzler still be charged in her death? After all, we are all responsible for our own lives and behavior.

Beyond that, if the feds intended to use Itzler as a witness in Paul Bergrin's trial, well, he has indeed worn-out his usefulness and tanked his credibility forever.

On Trial in Orlando: The Defense Rests

I haven't tuned-in to the Casey Anthony trial more than a few times this month, but I did today as the news reporters have been debating whether Casey would testify in her defense, or not. The debate itself was laughable to me; she has far to many lies going to testify. I don't pretend to have any clue what the truth is; however, spotted the lies long ago as most people did, including the agents.

When a defendant testifies in their defense in a trial they do have the right to plead the Fifth to questions asked by prosecutors and not answer, but of course it makes them look like they have something to hide as they do. Pleading the Fifth means that according to the Fifth Amendment, a defendant can refuse to answer a question that could incriminate and convict them. Anyone with anything to hide is better off not testifying in their defense to begin with. A witness in a trial also has the right to plead the Fifth during trial; however, this results in the end of the witness's testimony.

In my own trial in Orange County, Florida (Orlando), I did testify in my defense. Though seriously provoked by the prosecutor, I did not plead the Fifth in response to any question. The State of Florida's main witness, Theresa Isaacs, did plead the Fifth in testimony though. The judge ordered a long lunch break so that she could talk to her attorney and make sure that pleading the Fifth was a good move. She returned from that break smirking and stated to the judge that she would be happy to testify. After the next few questions from my attorney, Theresa pled the Fifth once again. The judge ordered her dismissed as a witness. Prosecutors sure did not look happy and she exited the courtroom with fake tears rolling down her ugly face.

Shortly after Theresa's exit she went into a private room with main case agent Brant Rose. They were in there for quite some time, according to my friend sitting in the hallway. Immediately after leaving the private room, Theresa cried to a woman juror in the ladies room. The juror was compelled to tell a court deputy who in turn informed the judge. The jury was led out of the courtroom with the exception of the one juror. She informed all of us (minus the rest of the jury) exactly what Theresa stated to her as she cried in the bathroom. It was damaging to me, of course. I always believed that Theresa did what she did at the direction of Agent Brant Rose – the state was not doing good in the courtroom and he had to throw a monkey wrench in the trial at that point. Tampering with a jury was certainly not beyond Rose's arsenal of tools.

As soon as the lady juror finished telling her story of what happened in the bathroom, she was excused from the courtroom and instructed to not discuss anything with the other jurors. Prosecutors whispered something to the judge (the audio did not pick it up as I later listened to the trial CDs, trying to figure out what the conversation was), and the next thing I knew, the judge was explaining to me that I had every right to a mistrial. He repeated this several times and explained it all thoroughly, at the urging of prosecutors. They all wanted a mistrial. I refused the mistrial and stated that I would rather continue.

No way in hell they were going to get a second chance to fine-tune the witness acts. Theresa Isaacs was an actress, if nothing else. The State of Florida brought me to that point and I'll be damned – we were going to finish the show trial. No second show trial for me!

After all of that happened it really went downhill for the state. We were all waiting to hear Rocky's testimony. Unbeknown to me at that moment, Rocky would be told to leave the courthouse for his refusal to lie on the stand. In a private room he told both prosecutors that there was no need to go over his testimony and that he knew what really happened and intended to tell the truth on the stand. Prosecutors would refer to this as a “refusal to testify” at Rocky's sentencing hearing a month later and he was sentenced to 36 months in a Florida prison and 10 years of felony probation.

Someone with the MBI or the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor (OSP) judge shopped when they arrested me. Judge Anthony Johnson was best known as a hanging judge that always sided with prosecutors. He was the icing on the railroad cake for me. On a few occasions during trial he attempted to appear impartial, but was barely successful. Judge Johnson clearly ran a kangaroo court. Casey Anthony has no such problem – Orange County Circuit Court Chief Judge Belvin Perry, Jr. has no such biases and has conducted an actual fair trial.

I have read through most of the evidence in the Casey Anthony case and have come to several conclusions: She is guilty of something, though I am not so sure that it is first degree murder. The evidence does not prove murder in the first degree, no matter how you want to view it. Perhaps the evidence proves murder in the second degree or manslaughter, but that is not how she was charged. She was charged in the way that she was as prosecutors dangled the death penalty, figuring she would plead to a lesser charge (like second degree murder or manslaughter) to have the death penalty removed. She called their bluff.

Really I am hearing many theories from prosecutors in this case, but only a fool goes to trial on theory. In my opinion, even if this jury convicts Casey, the conviction would be overturned on appeal, if Judge Perry lets it fly, which I doubt that he would. And that is this former defendant's perspective on the Casey Anthony trial in Orlando.

My Blueprint Books: Expounding on the Issues

This discussion is about Blueprint for an Escort Service and it is not a book ad. Our world has many people that despise adult business for one reason or another. Sometimes the reasoning involves religion and other times it is the result of a bad experience or media hype. On occasion there is an agenda-based hatred for adult businesses of various types. I will address all of the stated reasoning here.


Why did I write and publish Blueprint for an Escort Service?

In all honesty my main reason was that Memoirs of an Accused Madam has never been a seller – the original or the second edition. Writing Blueprint was an idea that popped in my mind when I asked myself what type of books do sell these days. I wrote it in 3 weeks and by the end of week 4, I was looking at a paperback. The subsequent Blueprint books – Blueprint 2 and Complete Blueprint – were an answer to thoughts and questions concerning the original book. Blueprint 2 is mainly about doing it all on a budget and Complete Blueprint combines the two with some updates. They haven't hit the mainstream at this point, but they do sell decently for self-published books.

My secondary reasoning was to bring a level of professionalism to the escort business that often does not exist because of the lack of information out there. It was a closed club of sorts, but it isn't anymore. The few people that have information to sell in a how-to form charge a high price and do not necessarily offer the best information. Look at it this way: Someone in the business has nothing to gain and everything to lose by helping others enter the business. Someone convicted on charges involving an escort service has information with little appeal as obviously they seriously screwed-up.

Finally, the information is now at your fingertips if you want it. I managed to make opening an escort service something that anyone can do. I made it all accessible and took the mystery out of the equation. For $9.99 (ebook) or whatever amount Amazon is currently charging for the paperback, anyone can enter the escort business.

Why would anyone want to open an escort service?

There are many possible reasons, but most involve a need to survive and cover more than just the basic bills in life. The great thing that I have watched happen since Blueprint was published is that professionals are giving it a second look and getting into the business.

I have had the pleasure of corresponding with plenty of professionals or professional types that are the best thing that could ever happen to the entire industry. I cannot be too specific here, but I'll give you an idea: 

• A really great guy in the NE US that could barely survive after alimony and child support were paid every month
• An unemployed white collar professional in a major SW US city
• An advertising and marketing professional in Los Angeles
• A website designer in NYC
• A professional consultant in Las Vegas
• A security guard in Houston that couldn't pay the basic bills
• An unemployed couple in NYC that was on the verge of foreclosure
• A restaurant owner in the Midwest US

The list goes on and on, but the one trait that each person has in common is that they're entrepreneurial. They enter the business with enough knowledge to do it all correctly and earn a great living, but also know they'll never make $millions as bullshit ads claim or many in the general population seem to believe. If one operates correctly there are not $millions to be made – it is that simple.

Joe Scam the pimp has little interest in my book and if he does purchase it, it is highly unlikely that he'll follow through anyway. Why? Because doing it all correctly is far from easy and Joe would make much less money.

So what are cops saying?

The general consensus among police agencies is that I offer information that is about “legally circumventing the law” as it pertains to the escort business. The first question that I must respond with is: Why? Don't you want escort agencies to operate professionally and legally? Of course the answer is already evident – they do not want escort agencies at all.

The failure of that entire idea is that escort businesses will be around whether they want them or not. According to these people all escort services are fronts for prostitution and shouldn't exist at all. My response to that is that they should be attacking state and local authorities and getting that definition on the books legally, or just shut the hell up. Many are religious zealots like Sheriff Grady Judd and his troop of followers.

I have heard from Judd himself before. I would be lying if I said the call had zero effects on me – no one in their right mind wants to be booked into Polk County jail and put through hell for the next couple of years. I quickly overcame the effects though, so no issue. I know that they couldn't get much of a bond because I have proved that I show-up in court whether anyone wants me to or not. And a bond is all about making sure the defendant appears, right?

If ever arrested over my Blueprint book I would make the arresting agency the laughing stock and prevail in the end, so not much to lose there. Memoirs would sell then for sure, which is what none of them want.

End Results

Plenty of old school agency owners in that previously closed club have lost their grip on the business. As it turns out, me and my Blueprint books are more effective than any law enforcement agency in history as their escorts desert in droves. The stranglehold that many had on the business for so long is finished. Yes, I am aware of specific incidents and transformations in US cities, but do not have the liberty of expounding on the topic.

I think I will take all of the attacks on my books and my person with a cup of salt. I do thank my few defenders.

Most Bizarre Racketeering Case Ever

In my last post – Looking Forward in 2011 – I requested than anyone ever hearing of a more malicious racketeering / RICO prosecution with so little evidence that there was no search warrant or court order to wiretap involved to state the case and the court. I invited you to prove me incorrect in my statement that there is no case as ridiculous as the one I endured, and a relative of Philip Furtney came through.

He made no mention of my challenge, but the topic of the email was Philip Leroy Furtney of Ontario from The Bingo Racketeering Case. This man endured more than anyone in any of the Orlando Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation's (MBI) absurd prosecutions abusing the racketeering statutes. Of course it is an MBI case in Orlando!

To read all about the long plight of Philip Leroy Furtney of Ontario, click on the links below. Mr. Furtney passed in September of 2007. He was described as a passionate man that never gave up.

The Bingo Racketeering Case

The Great Bingo Fiasco

Bingo Case Hearing

The Cost of MBI


May Philip Leroy Furtney of Ontario rest in peace and know that he won the 15-year fight! May agents and prosecutors with the MBI and the State of Florida rot in hell where they all belong.


Update on 27 November 2012 @3:20pm

I received an update in email from an interested party today. The statement:

"State of Florida finally paid up five years after Phil’s death, FYI"

The Orlando MBI, their crap attorney Joe Cocchiarella, and former Orange County State Attorney Lawson Lamar have ruined far too many lives. They all deserve to be exposed in the sunshine.

RIP Philip Furtney

Pleading Guilty when you are Not Guilty

This is something that happens in courtrooms across the U.S. every hour of the day. Pleading guilty when you're not guilty is all about weighing the options. Going to trial, whether you're guilty, innocent, or something in-between, is always a gamble and in many cases it is your life at stake.

I've always been a gambler of sorts – not in an addicted way, but more involving a lack of fear and a refusal to back down when I know I'm correct and the other side is worse than most could imagine. Of course I never claimed actual innocence in the case and always stated that I was not guilty as charged. The charges were serious overkill and that's on them: they lost.

My co-defendant, Rocky, did not exactly have the same opportunity for a trial as I did, but I have already told that story on this blog. Read The State of Florida Drugs Its Witnesses for part of the story. The rest of the story is stated in various articles here, but the shortened story is that Rocky had a $900,000 bond. When he had a hearing to reduce the bond, the judge gave him a $0 bond – as in no amount of money or property could secure his release. Rocky pled guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering (RICO) and agreed to testify against me to get a $20,000 bond and be released from the Orange County jail. Yes, I know that this is a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution, but trust me; it doesn't matter. Prosecutors screwed him in the end anyway. This often happens here.

It should matter, but those in power in this country do whatever the hell they want, disregarding law. This is, of course, something that I learned during the course of the case, before we ever made it to trial. I'm sure that it happens often in U.S. courts.

I will never forget the case of Lev Trakhtenberg. Lev sure wasn't guilty as charged, but similar to me he wasn't completely innocent. He may have been guilty of visa fraud (stating a lie on visa applications for dancers), but he sure wasn't a sex trafficker. If you know Lev at all you know that calling him a sex trafficker is laughable. He's a nice guy that wouldn't harm a soul. If you're interested in Lev's story, read The US System of Injustice.

Today Omar Khadr pleaded guilty to five charges. If you're interested in my background on the Khadr case, read The Show Trial of Omar Khadr. I later stated that his attorney had a serious health problem and the trial was postponed. Apparently he was talked into a plea deal in the interim.

I think that we could all understand why Omar Khadr took the deal, right? He weighed his options which were life in a U.S. Supermax prison vs. pleading and actually being free some day and serving the remainder of his eight year sentence in Canada within a year or so. What would you choose regardless of guilt or innocence or something in-between? Before you answer consider that he was being judged by a jury consisting of hardline military members in a War on Terror case.

Prosecutors intend to have the widow of the soldier that died testify at Khadr's sentencing. She will be pleading with the judge for a more severe sentence. I sure hope she isn't successful as prosecutors made a DEAL to get that plea and they should, by law, be required to stick to the deal. Prosecutors do lie and say or do anything to get a plea though, so only time will tell in this case.

I read an article somewhere early this morning – sorry that I cannot recall where – that stated Omar Khadr's head was down and as he answered the judge's questions relating to his so-called guilt in each of the counts. As he answered the questions he held his head in his hands. As with many victims of the US system of injustice, he had no choice except to lie or the plea would not have been accepted. I am sure that it is a lesson that he will never forget care of the land of the free.

Operation Plastic Empire Update

I posted State as a Con Artist in January 2010, and that con game lives on at this point. The case that I am referring to is Orange County, Florida case # 1996-CF-011913-B – the "B" means that Trevor is defendant B out of A through I. Trevor Campbell's Motion to Vacate and Set Aside Judgment of Conviction and Sentence was denied on March 10, 2010 by Circuit Court Judge Richard F. Conrad.

How could I even imagine the State of Florida doing the right thing for a change? Really; I should've known better. Judge Bob Wattles died and the state found a judge that would rule in their favor. Go figure. The State of Florida rarely represents the people and is not concerned with justice. Prosecutors in Florida are only concerned with convictions, and whether those convictions are correct is totally immaterial. Don't let them kid you.

When looking at the Bingo Racketeering Fiasco and the state's avoidance of complying with court orders to pay the $millions, this is made obvious. In that case the prevailing parties have now filed a motion seeking enforcement. The Florida Attorney General's Office is dead-set on costing the state an additional $million by prolonging the payout and forcing the parties to return to court again and again, so of course I should have expected the state to fight in Trevor's case.

Even when the Court of Appeals reverses the judge's order the state isn't going to give-up. Instead prosecutors with the Office of Statewide Prosecution will push it to the Florida Supreme Court. Poor Trevor will be fighting for the next decade to get this conviction reversed. Eventually it will be resolved in his favor, but eventually we will all be dead too.

I have a copy of the original Motion to Vacate, the state's response to the motion, and Judge Conrad's order denying the motion. The state speaks with forked tongue and uses the straw man approach in every responding paragraph. They include the reasoning that Trevor's motion should be denied because "it could pose an intolerable fiscal and intellectual burden to the judicial machinery of the state...." No shit, right? What about Trevor and the list of other defendants that were incorrectly prosecuted for commercial, and not criminal, behavior. What about the defendants' lives and financial burden?

The worst part of the state's response is the statement that places all blame on Trevor for making the guilty plea to begin with, and for not filing this Motion to Vacate in a timely manner, as after all – Trevor should have known better than to plead guilty to this trash case, right? What the State of Florida is saying is – hey Trevor – we don't give a flying fuck! You were dumb enough to plead to this crap and now you're stuck with it; right or wrong. Never mind that we held you in the rotten Orange County jail for an entire year before you made this plea and received "time served" plus probation. Never mind that you had an attorney that we intimidated into compliance. They are saying that Trevor should have known better.

They actually have the audacity to blame Trevor for not filing this same motion to vacate in 2000, and state that "Padilla wasn't a secret." According to the state, the "Motion to Vacate became time-barred as of March 9, 2002. Wasn't a secret to who I wonder? Regardless, the Michael J. Peter citation eliminates the issue of time in Trevor's case, but then the OSP has no stupid prosecutors and the state is well-aware of this fact.

Each defendant in the original case had at least one attorney, and most went through 2, 3, or more. No attorney was willing to take on the OSP and the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI). As stated in Memoirs, I spoke with Trevor's second attorney, from the Public Defender's Office, and this guy had no intention of going to trial; none whatsoever.

I think I'll make a list of all attorneys involved in the far-reaching mess so that you know where not to go for legal advice if you ever have the need.

The one attorney here that fights for the defendant and doesn't know the MBI well enough to fear them is Nick Sinardi. He is a Tampa area attorney and he handled the original case from Hillsborough County wherein defendant Padilla appealed his conviction in the Tampa court over the very same credit card sting operation by a Tampa area law enforcement agency. That case went on till 2000, when a Florida Appeals court reversed the judge's conviction and sentence. Trevor was smart and hired Sinardi to get the conviction vacated. Thanks to Sinardi, Padilla prevailed. That case is Padilla v. State, 753 So.2d 659 (2DCA 2000).

It's obvious to me that the law is a mere game to prosecutors in this state, and the many defendants in this case are proverbial notches on a belt of convictions. Shame on them!

Read the article entitled "The Screw-ball Scheme" in New York Magazine (pg. 30 also called "The Love Float") if you're interested in the IRS Operation Out Call that spawned the ridiculous MBI Operation Plastic Empire.

The Great Bingo Fiasco

It floors me that no article concerning the bingo racketeering case or the civil forfeiture filed at the same time so much as mentions the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) or the agency attorney, Joseph Cocchiarella. The MBI pursued the defendants like a pack of vicious wolves back in 1995, stealing their property under the guise of forfeiture laws, and Cocchiarella engineered the entire fiasco.


When I attempted to make a complaint about MBI agent Brant Rose back in 2000, it was Cocchiarella that threatened me with the power of the state in the form of a racketeering arrest if I didn't close my business immediately, and of course refused to accept my complaint by screaming at me for 20 minutes until I slammed the phone. This prosecutor later, with the help of the Office of Statewide Prosecution, made good on the threats.

It may interest some to know that Cocchiarella is still serving the people of the State of Florida. I know that he was with the State Attorney's Office (Florida's Ninth Circuit) as recently as late 2008, and may still be, though finding any information on him today is far from easy. He was also the Director of the MBI from the late 1980s until 1991. The Florida Bar Association lists his current employer as the State Attorney's Office in Orlando, Florida so I will venture a guess that he is still employed as an ASA. I believe he had one of those fake Florida retirements wherein the state employee retires to collect a large sum of money and then returns to work at a higher rate of pay; in Florida this is referred to as the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP).

With the understanding that Cocchiarella is still with the State Attorney's Office and working directly under the State Attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit of Orange and Osceola counties in Florida, why would the Orlando Sentinel omit his name and all references to the MBI in articles relating to the bingo case? It was, after all, Cocchiarella that prosecuted the bingo defendants and filed the paperwork to forfeit the defendants' property. Cocchiarella has been involved in every far-fetched MBI prosecution since the beginning of his lengthy career. The great majority of those prosecutions have been clusters involving serious police and prosecutorial misconduct, though none are ever charged as such; this includes drug cases and vice/organized crime cases.

I can think of many instances that officers should have been charged in a variety of cases over the years, but apparently having a pal like Cocchiarella in the SAO gives agents a free pass to do whatever they want to do. Now this inept moralistic jackass is costing State of Florida taxpayers in the $7 million range, but no mention of him anywhere? What gives? Is he planning to run for political office?

Our State Attorney General was also of substantial assistance to the MBI in past, before he became our AG. Bill McCollum has been subpoenaed in a March 22, 2010 hearing on the bingo racketeering mess. If he doesn't come out with a solid answer as to why his office is disobeying the court order to pay, he could be charged with contempt. The Florida Supreme Court ordered the state to pay the remaining defendants for the forfeited property with interest several years ago, but instead of paying as ordered the state has spent additional money to prolong the situation.

The case in Orange County court is #1995-CA-006890-O. According to the case docket, the Motion to Enforce Judgments is scheduled for 9AM on March 22nd and it is in Division 40 with Judge Robert M. Evans presiding. AG McCollum did file an emergency motion to quash the subpoena on March 9th, though there is no response or order recorded as of this writing. The case is Florida State Attorney General's Office vs. Bradenton Group Inc, et al. Court records searches are through the Orange County Clerk of Courts.

The legal opinion can be read here:

http://www.5dca.org/Opinions/Opin2007/110507/5D05-3338.op.pdf


Hopefully full restitution will be made soon in the 15 year-long bingo racketeering fiasco.

The Bingo Racketeering Case

Bingo parlors used to be another target of the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI), but it looks like the agents of the State of Florida had their fill, and bit off more than they could chew, in the biggest of the bingo cases. I referred to the case briefly in my book, and had one important part incorrect: The two defendants and several corporations that took the criminal case to trial were acquitted on all counts by the jury. It is the civil case that they originally lost, was overturned on appeal, won, and is now once again in appeal status, according to the file. The bingo case began in 1995 and continues today.

Back in 1995 when the criminal case was filed there were 17 defendants, and 8 of those defendants were corporations. One of the acquitted defendants was Pondella Hall for Hire, Inc. – Pondella was in Orange County (Orlando), but this was a large-scale commercial bingo operation comprising 15 bingo halls in 12 Florida counties. Leave it to the overzealous MBI to be the investigators to pursue a racketeering (RICO) case. The criminal case is Case Number 95-CF-0012838, and it is an Orange County case. I have never seen so many filings on a case as this one, except in the civil case that continues. The civil case was also filed in 1995, as the state sought to forfeit all of the property of the bingo halls and the defendants. Today the victims also seek damages and losses from the State of Florida. The civil Case Number is 1995-CA-006890-0 and it is also in Orange County.

The two defendants that didn't plead guilty to the lengthy list of felony counts are Roy Killingsworth Jr. and Philip Leroy Furtney. I recall Furtney being in the news in leg-irons well over a decade ago, and must believe that it was during the criminal trial when he was being taken to court, but it may have been right after his arrest. Furtney was the one connected to Pondella, and the man is a legend – he fought these abusive overzealous whacks until he died in September of 2007. His brother Bruce, on behalf of his estate, carries on in the civil case today. The last filing on the case was on May 28, 2009. Can you imagine a 13 year fight over a bingo hall case and then to die before it's resolved? Well, it is resolved in that the state lost and has pay for all the forfeited property – today it's about how much they have to pay for property value changes and specifically what state office is paying.

It should be the end of the MBI for twisting the Florida racketeering statutes to the point of obscurity in a case that has cost Florida taxpayers an unknown sum of money that has yet to be revealed. But hey, it gave all the attorneys and agents something to do, right? I still have the MBI Governing Board minutes from meetings in 1994, and forward, wherein Pondella is discussed, so the board was well-aware of this abuse of the statutes. May Philip Leroy Furtney of Ontario rest in peace – eventually they will pay for all that they did.

Operation Plastic Empire (MBI)

Operation Plastic Empire was the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) strategy to file state charges at the heels of the IRS Operation Out Call. The operational strategy was a failure, at least at the state level and in respect to the credit card processing. It wasn't a failure in relation to its accompanying toolbox – obtaining the client names from the credit card transactions and intimidating and coercing every defendant to the point that each accepted a plea deal. And then it certainly succeeded in scaring every escort service owner in Orlando that wasn't involved, with the exception of yours truly and two other operators. By the middle of 1996, this place was almost abandoned, in part due to the Amnesty Program, and by January 1997, no escort services remained in the area yellow page books, due to the Yellow Pages Fiasco, as I refer to the MBI setup of advertising representatives.

The many cases involved in this operation were separated for reasons unknown to me. One case had five defendants, several cases had one lone defendant, and another case had nine defendants. There may be additional cases that I'm not aware of with any number of defendants. As my example here I'll use Case Number 96-CF-0011913-0. This is the case with nine defendants, A through I, and it's an Orange County, Florida case that can be found at the Orange County Clerk's Office or the basic filings can be viewed online. The last time that I viewed these files in person there were six volumes, each close to 12 inches thick, and that was without all of the depositions.

The defendants in the case:

Maritza Cascante Bobber – 26 counts
Trevor Banks Campbell – 12 counts
Rhonda Liphart – 6 counts (Rhoda in my book)
Debra Watson – 2 counts (Diana in my book)
Elizabeth Helen Clifton – 12 counts
Christopher Batura – 12 counts
Robin Janeen Dickinson – 20 counts
Joseph Formosa – 14 counts
Steven Voss – 8 counts

Each defendant was charged with Racketeering, a 1st degree felony, and Conspiracy to Commit Racketeering (RICO), also a 1st degree felony. Each first degree felony is punishable by up to 30 years in a Florida prison – that's what these statutes accomplish. The MBI uses them in most prosecutions. Beyond this, every defendant except Debra Watson had at least one count, and most had many counts, of the following:

Unlawful Transport of Currency
Illegal Factoring of Credit Card Transaction
Money Laundering

Each charge, and every count, that these defendants faced, is a felony. There were no misdemeanors charged in this case. Maritza Cascante and Joseph Formosa still have a capias (warrant) for their arrests – neither showed for sentencing and both jumped bond. Debra Watson left town the minute that she heard the MBI was looking for her, and was therefore never arrested. Her charges were finally dropped in 2003. The defendants that remained made deals that included probation, jail time, years in prison – it varied, except in each case there was eventually probation. The Violation of Probation (VOP) charges began in 04/1998 and the last VOP was filed in 02/2002. I did know several of these defendants, but one that I did not know contacted me from jail while awaiting trial: Trevor Campbell related much of the information I know about the case that is not findable in the files. He was looking for help to fight the charges and had no intention of pleading guilty to anything. I felt sorry for him, and I did speak to his court-appointed public defender, but the attorney had no real clue how to fight the case and didn't sound like he intended to. At the time I was law-ignorant and there was nothing that I could do to help Trevor.

In the end, statements from the clients of the credit card transactions, including many from out-of-state that I read in the file, convinced these defendants to take the plea deal. As the appeals continued through the Florida court system, pleas to anything relating to signing-up for a merchant services account were tossed out. These files are mixed-up because of this – a judge stated that a defendant could not know that the merchant services operation handled offshore was not legal. This is a fact – I remember Debra Watson's story well. She signed-up and received a package that looked absolutely legal. I saw it. Several defendants had extremely high bonds because of the number of felonies charged and they couldn't get out of jail. Beyond this, it was the intimidation, threats of decades in prison, and court-appointed public defenders that had no clue. This was one of the biggest operations in escort service history, considering the many defendants in the list of cases and the extensive list of felonies charged to each, yet few people have any idea that it existed.

Next: The Amnesty Program