OCALA, Fla., September 19, 2013 — The Conservative Tree House, a political blog which detailedly reported on the Trayvon Martin shooting’s aftermath, is now due to receive documents specified in a Freedom of Information Act Request.
These documents pertain to how the office of Florida State Attorney Angela Corey and her team handled the prosecution of George Zimmerman. Last week, The Jacksonville Times-Union revealed that Corey is under state investigation for allegedly illegal actions in firing her office’s information technology director, Ben Kruidbos.
During one of Zimmerman’s pre-trial hearings, Kruidbos testified that his boss might have acted wrongly as data from Martin’s cellular phone was not turned over to defense lawyers. Florida law mandates that this be done.
Kruidbos is now suing Corey for roughly $5 million on the basis of wrongful termination.
Yesterday, Sundance, a writer for TCTH, shared part of a letter he received from Assistant State Attorney Lisa DiFranza. She said that Corey’s “office diligently works to respond to each request in the order it was received as quickly as possible. We anticipate having the requested documents to you by tomorrow.
“If there are additional costs above the deposit amount, we will let you know.”
In a post accompanying this letter, Sundance mentioned that “(o)ne of the things we have learned (over time) is that when you are requesting these ‘risk records’, the public officials ‘at risk’ will easily lie. So, unfortunately, the strategy to actually get the records means you have to anticipate being lied to. You must know the truth of the existence of what you are seeking, before you actually request it.”
He later added the following: “Make no mistake, by all appearances and given research into the Jacksonville history with Angela Corey at the helm, this is a very truth adverse State Attorney’s Office.”
Corey has had many incidences of serious work-related controversy. The year before she was elected Metro Jacksonville’s lead prosecutor, then-State Attorney Harry Shorstein terminated her employment.
“We have law school interns in the office,” Shorstein explained to The Washington Times Communities in July. “When they leave we critique them and when they return to law school, they are critiqued by the professor who oversees their end. One of the interns reported Corey was abusive, profane, unprofessional, etc. The school called us, I reprimanded Corey.
“Then, Corey called the school and told the Dean the professor should be disciplined for reporting her misconduct, the school called me, I told Corey that was unacceptable and she must apologize to the Dean and the professor.
“Corey refused my direct order. Then she was given another chance, she refused and was fired.”
Until recently, Kruidbos’s personal counsel, Wesley White, served under Corey as prosecutor for Nassau County, home to Jacksonville’s wealthier northern suburbs. He resigned in protest of her policies last December.
In spite of this, White told TWTC that his “focus is on Ben…My present concern is her posting of Ben’s termination letter on the SAO’s website which is a fairly definitive display of unbridled rage.
“Sadly and unfortunately her spite is merely racking up more damages. Not surprisingly, Corey’s family and friends have been blogging anonymously, attacking Ben, and trying to push her narrative without risking the probing questions of (journalists).”
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