Hillsborough CLERK OF COURT AND JANE CASTOR DESTROYING LIVES

hree top Hillsborough clerk of courts workers lose jobs in reorganization
By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
Posted: May 20, 2011 01:01 PM


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Three high-level employees left the Hillsborough County clerk of courts office Thursday in what its top official is calling a reorganization.

The departures had nothing to do with an ongoing investigation of ticket-handling irregularities in her office, Clerk of the Circuit Court Pat Frank said Friday.

"Absolutely not," Frank added. "There's no connection at all."

One of the employees resigned, while the other two departed after their positions were eliminated. Frank said it was all related to a legislatively mandated technology overhaul of her office, and addressed a need to get people in place who were able to implement it. In each case, Frank said she did not think the people she had in place could do that.

Frank said she accepted the resignation of Carla Snavely, deputy clerk for court operations, on Thursday. Darlene Leavines, director of quality assurance, and Associate Courts Director Janet Ritchie were told their jobs were being eliminated.

Frank said their duties are being turned over to other employees, some of whom have been elevated by a broader reorganization. The moves also will shave just more than $300,000 in spending that was necessitated by state spending cuts.

Frank said the moves had been contemplated for some time, noting that she had ongoing talks with Snavely about whether she could oversee the technology overhaul aimed at making the courthouse operations paperless while handling existing duties. Frank indicated that Snavely expressed doubt that she could.

"It's a massive undertaking," Frank, an 81-year-old Democrat who is elected to office, said of the technology overhaul.

Leavines and Ritchie had been working together to fulfill state reporting requirements that help determine how much money the legislature allocates to Frank's office. They were not able to perform the task, so their duties were turned over to information technology workers in her office, Frank said.

The ticket-fixing investigation began last year after the clerk's office discovered that three of its clerks colluded to help one skip a court appearance, according to records.

Internal investigative documents released this week show Frank's office pressured the clerks to quit and started looking at e-mails from Luis Salas-Farfan, a traffic department clerk who resigned in February.

As part of that review, eight other clerks were suspended. As of Tuesday, six of them had resigned and two others are appealing their termination recommendations.

Salas-Farfan took money from co-workers to pay lawyers to take care of traffic tickets, the documents show. But in many of the cases, it appears no lawyer ever showed up, though the citations were dismissed.

In at least one instance, a hearing officer wrote, Salas-Farfan manipulated the tracking system to get a ticket dismissed.

Salas-Farfan admitted he shouldn't have offered favors to co-workers on county time, notably by connecting them with lawyers he knew. But he denied receiving anything in return. Any money he received went straight to lawyers, he said.

It's not clear from the records what happened to the money paid to Salas-Farfan, which ranged from $100 to $200 per infraction. Frank said the sheriff's investigation would likely explain that.

Bill Varian can be reached at varian@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3387.



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If you see an objectionable comment, click Report Abuse.There is 1 comment

Classical May 20, 2011 1:14 PM About 1 minute ago Is the St. Pete Times camping out at the Clerk's office these days? Seems like they're in the news every day now.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:16 PM Less than a minute ago they need to be. They also need to investigate what a Tampa Mason named Brian with star tattoos and a full white beard and a big pot belly is doing intimidating other court clerks. How many lives has HE DESTROYED???? I have his tag numbers and am in the process of getting his home address and full background.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:17 PM Less than a minute ago How many lives were destroyed by hustling some things through the system but not others? HOW MANY LIVES???? my license has been suspended EIGHT TIMES IN "ERROR". WTF? A pristine license marred by this CORRUPTION. FIND OUT.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:20 PM Less than a minute ago Arrests. Make some arrests. They threatened to arrest me once for driving on a suspended license ... HAD NO IDEA. It was suspended for THREE DAYS when the corrupt cop did a u-turn on bayshore to get behind me and tell his lies. Had they been a little more patient with their corruption and filth I would not have caught on. As it happens he also lied about that. It must be suspended for 30 days but he/they could not wait to start intimidating and threatening. This is highly illegal. I have all his information, as well. He had THE NERVE to show up in court as I proved he was wrong and also stated my documents looked fraudulent. WHAT A PIG. He was the one WITH FRAUDULENT DOCUMENTS. MINE CAME FROM THE DMV NOT FROM A CROOKED COURT CLERK.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:22 PM Less than a minute ago This is the tip of the iceberg. Find out which ones are tampa masons and find out which one is brian the tampa mason. You can spot them by their weird facial hair and that is not a joke, it is the truth. Just look around downtown and spot them. They are behind the scenes controlling EVERYTHING that the latin king judges are not.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:24 PM Less than a minute ago he lives in port tampa. his other vehicle has a bumper sticker supporting fairtax.org. the very crookedest idea ever. When I went dt to vote he managed to drive right beside me with his dick greco sticker in the window of his iak (part of his tag) vehicle a white one ... it is now removed as the next week he was at publix stalking me again at which time I informed him I knew of his connection to the corruption in the clerk's office. He ran. RAN. RAN.
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JaneCastorLies May 20, 2011 1:27 PM Less than a minute ago And I'm putting it on youtube. Just wait, Brian. We'll see who is afraid of who. Keep your creeps and your corrupt clerks OFF OF MY FAMILY you disgust me