Guetzloe calls probe a witch hunt
Mark Schlueband David Damron | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted October 7, 2006
olitical consultant Doug Guetzloe went on the attack Friday, accusing the area's top prosecutor of leading a political witch hunt against him.
State Attorney Lawson Lamar -- whom Guetzloe called "Lawless Lamar" -- is using his office to help cement his next re-election, Guetzloe told listeners on his AM-radio talk show.
"This investigation is a witch hunt," the leader of Ax the Tax said. "This investigation has gone off the deep end."
Guetzloe's offensive came a day after the State Attorney's Office released documents related to its investigation of political fliers sent during the recent mayoral election in Winter Park. Guetzloe has been charged with a single misdemeanor count of violating state law by failing to designate the mailer as a paid political advertisement.
Among the documents released Thursday was an investigator's report showing that one of Orlando's top law firms, Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, paid Guetzloe's political-consulting firm $471,250 in a nine-month period beginning in July 2005.
The payments came at a time when one of the firm's attorneys, Hal Kantor, was representing land developers of two projects in Winter Park and Winter Garden. The projects -- The Carlisle in Winter Park and Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves -- had become key issues in each city's elections.
Roger Floyd, a lead state attorney's investigator, theorized that the payments were tied to Guetzloe's political work in those cities, according to the documents.
Nicholas Pope, the law firm's managing partner, did not return a call seeking comment.
Amber Overby, a spokeswoman for The Sembler Co., developer of the 1.15 million-square-foot shopping center in Winter Garden, said Friday that the St. Petersburg company had not backed anyone in Winter Garden's mayoral race.
But she would not say whether the company had paid Guetzloe through its attorney to get involved in the city's politics.
Spokeswoman Amber Overby cited attorney-client privilege, though Sembler Co. -- as the client -- could discuss it if it chose.
"We hire attorneys to get through the whole process. That question should go to Hal Kantor," she said.
Kantor, one of Central Florida's top land-use attorneys and whose clients include the Orlando Magic and Wal-Mart, could not be reached for comment.
Asked the same question, a spokesman for the developers of The Carlisle condo and retail project would not comment.
The revelation that an investigator's report sought to tie Guetzloe's political work to the divisive development projects stunned politicos across Central Florida.
Orange County Commissioner Bob Sindler said the financial link between Kantor's firm and Guetzloe "has the potential for being enormous" because it implies hidden influence in an election. "None of us had any idea that was going on."
"That's a lot of money," said Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty of the payments to Guetzloe.
"It makes one wonder, with the size of the payments," if other political campaigns were involved, he said.
Guetzloe reported spending $15,000 of his own money on the 5,500 political mailers sent to Winter Park voters before the March election.
But Sindler said the idea that Guetzloe would sink so much of his money into a local political race "defies credulity."
"There's something more to this," Sindler said.
On Friday, Guetzloe steadfastly refused to say what the law firm paid him to do.
"It's always been my policy not to discuss the work I do for specific clients. If I did that, I wouldn't have any clients at all," he said on the show.
Guetzloe was dismissive of the prosecutors' case, predicting that the charges against him will be dismissed.
He was confident for his radio listeners, at one point doing a joking impression of The Godfather's Vito Corleone.
He also described a Winter Park woman who wore a wire as part of the investigation as a "left-wing radical feminist."
Guetzloe, founder and leader of an anti-tax group, said the state attorney is trying to tarnish his reputation because Guetzloe said he plans to back an opposition candidate in Lamar's next election.
A spokeswoman for Lamar called that notion ridiculous.
"The absurd comment that he made is not deserving of a response," Danielle Tavernier said
