Spoliation
Attorney Andrea Mogensen has accused the city clerk and the head of the city's computer department of spoliation, this in a recently filed motion in the ongoing public records / Sunshine Law lawsuit filed against the City of Venice by Sarasota activist Anthony Lorenzo (COPY OF MOTION, courtesy Andrea Mogensen's office after request from Venice Florida! dot com).

Short definition of spoliation: the willful or negligent destruction of documentary evidence or the failure to lawfully maintain such documentation that would naturally be assumed to be of evidentiary value.

As any lawyer can tell you, if you can successfully argue that the opposing party in a lawsuit is guilty of spoliation, it's game over -- case closed, you win, slam dunk.

I was unable to publish the motions initially as the Sarasota Clerk of Court's office has recently cut off access to the public's ability to obtain electronic copies via thumb drives. The reason given for the sudden cutoff of access was given repeatedly by the Clerk of Court's office. to wit: to protect the network from viral attacks (a ludicrous and fictional statement given Microsoft Windows built-in abilities to prevent users from infecting computers in this manner via built-in stepped permissions -- a simple process many parents use to keep their children from infecting home computers in the very manner that the Clerk of Court is stating is a dire threat).

The irony that the Clerk of Court is giving me problems in obtaining public records about a public records lawsuit is not lost on me, but it is apparently lost on the Clerk of Court's office.

Shortly after initial publication of this temporary article, Andrea Mogensen sent a copy of the motion by email (see first paragraph).

The recent motions specifically note that in recent depositions of City Clerk Lori Stelzer and the city's I.T. director, Lance Heiss, it was discovered that the city had no way to back up emails on the city's network. Neither Heiss or Stelzer had ever implemented any system to comprehensively back up emails sent to or from the city, rather each user was responsible for maintaining their own archive without being given enough allocated disc space to archive a full three years' worth of emails as mandated by the state's guidelines on record retentions.

Mogensen is arguing that such sloppy maintenance of public records amounts to spoliation. If Judge Robert Bennett agrees, Mogensen is all but guaranteed a win in her lawsuit against the city.

Mogensen accused numerous public officials and board members of spoliation, including former airport board members Nick Carlucci and Susan Balsinger. Others named are former mayor Fred Hammett as well as Mayor Ed Martin and current council members Sue Lang, John Moore, and John Simmonds.

FDLE
Venice Florida! dot com has confirmed that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is involved in an ongoing investigation into charges of public records and Sunshine Law violations based on a complaint filed by an unknown citizen of Venice. This knowledge came to light when inquiries were made to the Venice Police Department as to why the law enforcement agency was seemingly ignoring a public accusation of public records law violations by Councilman John Simmonds. Venice Florida! dot com was referred to the FDLE, where it was learned that an investigation into some public officials has been ongoing for some time. The FDLE agent that I spoke with, who asked not to be named, stated that he could not say who was being investigated, how long the investigation has been ongoing, or when the agency expects to wrap up their investigation.

On Wednesday, City Attorney Bob Anderson stated that he has not been contacted by the FDLE and that he had no knowledge of an ongoing criminal investigation. Andrea Mogensen's office issued a similar denial of knowledge the same day and stated that the law firm has had no contact with the FDLE regarding the current lawsuit.

This story is developing...

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.