Within a day xeroxed evidence materialized showing the Porsche was much older than he claimed. The information gracing every wall was from confidential law enforcement tag sources meant only for law enforcement purposes. For kicks someone added his NCIC criminal history which unhappily showed little of interest as well as his Florida Department of Motor Vehicles information establishing a litany of speeding tickets.
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| Former Prosecutor's Porsche 911 |
For fun in those long begone days we prosecutors often had mock prosecutions of each other when not faced with real trials taking turns in various roles. I was often chosen as Counsel for the Defense, but not for him. The evidence on the walls was deemed trustworthy. At trial in one of our offices, doors locked to prying supervisors, we convicted him of being not only a liar, but of something somehow worse and unspoken, of being less than a gentleman. To this day when I see him defending in Court, I cringe in disgust.
Yet after all these years could it be that my judgment was misplaced? Clearly, one of the lawyers in that State Attorney's Office took it upon himself to commit a felony just to put the Porsche Man down.
My thoughts turned to that long ago incident after seeing today's press reports concerning a Clearwater Police Department Officer who appears to have gained confidential car tag information for a friend going thru a divorce. If the information was delivered without being part of a law enforcement investigation, then there's no excuse for the failure to respect another citizen's privacy rights.
Yet, I can't help but think that it's some of my former colleagues, those same Prosecutors who may have taken that Porsche tag information so long ago, who are weighing whether to charge the Clearwater officer with a felony. I wonder if they remember. If so, they don't need a Clearwater Criminal Defense Attorney to tell them that the statute of limitations has passed and at least they're safe from prosecution.
