Lawyer: Hillsborough County attorney wanted to get stories straight on controversial lunch
By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, May 27, 2011
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Kevin White has made depositions all week. He and the county are suing each other.
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How do you trust your lawyer when she's lunching with the other side?
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TAMPA — Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White says County Attorney Renee Lee called him to get their stories straight about a controversial April luncheon they had.
And that conversation was overheard by a lawyer when White put the call on speakerphone, said his attorney, Michael Laurato.
Laurato said White made that and several other potentially inflammatory claims during a sworn deposition this week. The deposition was taken as part of a lawsuit in which White and the county are suing each other over who should pay legal bills for his 2009 sexual harassment case.
Commissioners are calling for an explanation from Lee for why she socialized with someone the county is suing. At least two of them believe she has changed her story, as they recall it — first telling them that the April 8 lunch at Roy's restaurant in West Tampa was a chance encounter.
Lee did not return a phone call Thursday seeking comment.
She was already on the hot seat for her role in a secret pay raise she and former County Administrator Pat Bean got. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also has said that she may have lied about how she came into possession of e-mail files of auditors who unearthed the raises.
Laurato said that during testimony Wednesday, White said Lee had called him when a reporter began asking questions about their get-together. At the time, White happened to be in the office of criminal defense lawyer Ronald Cacciatore.
"Mr. White testified at his deposition … that Ms. Lee called him and he answered the phone on speakerphone," Laurato said. "Ms. Lee said we need to get our story straight about this."
It's not clear why White was meeting with a criminal defense lawyer, and Cacciatore did not return phone calls for comment.
It's also not clear how that call jibes with text messages between the two that Laurato disseminated earlier this week. In one, April 18, sent by Lee after a television news story about the luncheon, Lee says she didn't tell anyone she had "bumped into" White as the broadcast indicated.
"I decided early on that there was no reason to lie," she wrote.
In any event, Laurato claims that the speakerphone call was one of "numerous" conversations between the two since February, or maybe January, that took place by phone or text message. In them, Lee made sympathetic statements about White's plight, Laurato said.
He claims that Lee told his client she didn't understand why the county was pressing its case against White since he has said a ruling against him will force him into bankruptcy, resulting in the county getting nothing. One one occasion, he said, Lee offered her assistance.
"There was a reference that she would try to help out however she could," Laurato said. "This is my paraphrasing of his deposition testimony."
A transcript of White's testimony has not been prepared yet, and it was not possible to verify Laurato's depiction.
White left office in November after getting trounced by two opponents in the Democratic primary when he sought re-election.
A year earlier, a federal civil jury found White sexually harassed former aide Alyssa Ogden by firing her for refusing his sexual advances. The county amassed nearly $500,000 in legal bills, including a $75,000 award to Ogden.
An insurance policy covered a small portion of the costs and commissioners are trying to get White to pay some of the roughly $425,000 balance. White, meanwhile, is suing the county and the insurer to cover about $155,000 in bills from his own attorneys.
The county has retained outside counsel to handle its side of the suit, with lawyer Richard Harrison taking the job for free. He declined to comment about Laurato's depiction of White's statements.
Laurato has blasted the luncheon and conversations, saying it was not proper for the county's top attorney to meet with his client without White's attorney present. That's particularly so since Lee broached the topic of a recent home purchase by White that could be seen as a financial asset relevant to the case.
He said Thursday that he may seek to have Harrison removed from the case because of the possibility that Lee was sharing information with him.
Harrison said he has not talked to Lee about the case, using another lawyer in her office as a point of contact. He said he has no indication that Lee is shaping the direction he has received.
"The feedback from the county has been, 'Go get him,' " Harrison said.
He noted that a transcript of the deposition will offer more relevant testimony, including White's assertion under oath that he didn't sexually harass his aide, despite the jury's ruling.
The story of the luncheon between Lee and White was first reported in a political insider column of the trilingual newsweekly La Gaceta. Owner and column author Patrick Manteiga told the St. Petersburg Times that White showed him text messages from Lee leading up to the luncheon asking about his home purchase and empathizing with him over stories scrutinizing the deal.
He said White asked him, and Manteiga agreed, to swing by the restaurant that day to witness the lunch, saying White didn't understand why the attorney wanted to meet with him.
In addition to running the newspaper, Manteiga is a political consultant and operative who has often defended White against critical stories in other news outlets.
Manteiga says the Times misquoted him acknowledging they had set Lee up.
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Viewing 1 - 14 of 14 comments Oldest First Newest First Top Rated
CLWPilot May 27, 2011 3:18 AM About 8 hours ago Ms. Lee needs to find new employment.
Reply
Report Abuse 0 2 Just The Facts May 27, 2011 9:49 AM About 2 hours ago Add one more SLEAZE BALL to the mix...PATRICK MANTEGIA!!! Patrick Mantegia is an "OPERATIVE" trying to yeild influence to LIARS like KEVIN WHITE and STACY FRANK! Reply
Report Abuse 0 0 Just The Facts May 27, 2011 9:55 AM About 2 hours ago Oh Yeah! Forgot to mention, Manteiga is a LIAR too! Just look at the quote above "Manteiga says the Times misquoted him acknowledging they had set Lee up." But it's OBVIOUS it was a set up! KEVIN WHITE, STACY FRANK AND PATRICK MANTEIGA ARE ALL LIARS!!! Don't believe a word any of these people have to say, they are all a DISGRACE to the DEMOCRATIC PARTY! Reply
Report Abuse 0 0 nocheapshots May 27, 2011 10:32 AM About 1 hour ago Mr. White is quite The Operator. And Mrs. Lee doesn't have much street sense. Mrs. Lee, time to update your resume and apply for a small, out of the way county like Glades County or Dixie County. Your face has a lovely glow, but your career in Hillsborough County is toast. Reply
Report Abuse 0 0 EddyJ May 27, 2011 3:36 AM About 8 hours ago zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Report Abuse 2 0 somethingtosay May 27, 2011 5:40 AM About 6 hours ago Really? This has gone beyond absurd. Kevin White and his lawyer are sleazy. This is the same lawyer who was arrested recently. If Kevin White has a friend in town after this, shame on them. He is creepy and still a liar. Who is the lawyer that heard this and what is the context of the statement? Another attempt to blame someone else for his problems.
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Report Abuse 1 4 Zanne May 27, 2011 5:47 AM About 6 hours ago The plot thickens. Shenanigans like this are what give politics a bad name. Seems like all of these people need new careers out of the realm of public service.
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Report Abuse 0 2 Rick J. May 27, 2011 6:03 AM About 5 hours ago As a Black native of Tampa, the White Family are known in the Black community as liars, cheats and petty crooks. Kevin White
is no different, he set-up Renee Lee by asking her to come to
innocent lunch, show the text messages to Patrick Mantegia,
informed Mantegia of the date and location of the lunch date
and asked him to come by to witness the lunch. Now, Kevin White
is lying in depositions stated that Ms. Lee continually gave
him legal advice regarding the BOCC suit against him. Kevin
White that lied about him using campaign money to buy tailor
made suits which he was fined by the Florida Elections office.
Kevin White lied on C.Btyle Andrews regarding White's harrassment of his BOCC aide which White was found guilty.
Before the Hillsborough BOCC SHOULD LOOK AT ALL THE FACTS
AND CHARACTER OF WHITE BEFORE PERSONNEL DECISION. CLASSIC SET-UP, BUT, LEE NEED TO STOP GETTING INTO BS, WHEN YOUR NAME KEEP
COMING UP IN BS, PEOPLE LOOK AT YOU IN A BAD LIGHT.
Reply
Report Abuse 0 3 WhereisJohnGalt May 27, 2011 7:38 AM About 4 hours ago She is at the very least, guilty of stupidity to the extreme. Reply
Report Abuse 0 0
JaneCastorLies May 27, 2011 11:45 AM Less than a minute ago rickj. luckily we white folks don't group all blacks together... grow up. and stop being such a racist hater .. everyone knows you are erikkk deggggans.
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Report Abuse gwm56 May 27, 2011 7:38 AM About 4 hours ago Kevin White will keep playing the HCC and the prosecutors office for the suckers they are, he knows they will not prosecute him because of his race and he will flaunt it in their face as his petty form of retaliation. He used Ms Lee on the basis of race (help a brother out) and he ●●●● all over her (serves her right). Come on Black community, is he getting over on the man, by the way, YOU are the man.
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Report Abuse 0 2 jezjames92 May 27, 2011 7:49 AM About 4 hours ago Lee is, at the very least, ethically challenged if not misusing her public office.
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Report Abuse 0 3 Censorshipsucks May 27, 2011 7:55 AM About 4 hours ago White is the biggest piece of s**t Tampa has ever seen.
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Report Abuse 0 0
JaneCastorLies May 27, 2011 11:44 AM Less than a minute ago kevin white is in on the action of drugs. Don't forget he's former and corrupt TPD AND ROOMS TO GO stuff a little in the furniture and drop it off where every other security person is in fedearal prison BUT kevin. And patrick's name shows up too many places where tampa citizens are f'd over.
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Report Abuse ididso May 27, 2011 8:44 AM About 3 hours ago An unethical lawyer?
I can't believe it.
What's next?
Will our elected GOP representatives who voted themselves "legal bribes", or our Governor who pled the fifth seventy five times
follow suit?
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Report Abuse 3 0 gwm56 May 27, 2011 9:07 AM About 2 hours ago ididso Hmmm, isn't Kevin White a Democrat? Hahahahahahahah!!!! Idiot.
Reply
Report Abuse 0 2 Mitch May 27, 2011 9:25 AM About 2 hours ago White may be a democrat in name, but he has the character, ethics and morals of a Republican. Idiot. Reply
Report Abuse 3 0 gwm56 May 27, 2011 10:41 AM About 1 hour ago Mitch, But he's a Democrat. Hahahahahahah!!!!! Reply
Report Abuse 1 0
JaneCastorLies May 27, 2011 11:44 AM Less than a minute ago Yes he is a TRUE REPUBLICKAN
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Report Abuse Kawliga May 27, 2011 10:04 AM About 1 hour ago It's so sad that he's a colored fella.
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Report Abuse 0 0 BizzaroRealistone May 27, 2011 10:08 AM About 1 hour ago Did they have lunch together, and is that ethical? That is the question here. And the answers are clear.
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Report Abuse 0 0 nocheapshots May 27, 2011 10:25 AM About 1 hour ago Mr. White is quite The Operator. And Mrs. Lee doesn't have much street sense. Mrs. Lee, time to update your resume and apply for a small, out of the way county like Glades County or Dixie County. Your face has a lovely glow, but your career in Hillsborough County is toast.
Reply
Report Abuse 0 0 mattgordonmd May 27, 2011 10:57 AM About 1 hour ago Yikes, Laurato's brother is linked to one of the pill-mill pain clinics that has five deaths on its hands. Going to be fireworks when Kevin White fails to pay this cosigliere's bill.
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Report Abuse 0 0
JaneCastorLies May 27, 2011 11:42 AM Less than a minute ago mattgordon, that's also the one where the sheriff QUICKLY returned one of what one assumes is several LARGE SUITCASES STUFFED WITH CASH. Don't forget: david gee made over a million dollars last year(reported)
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JaneCastorLies May 27, 2011 11:38 AM Less than a minute ago Man, my opinion of manteiga is slipping like mad. And if he's in cahoots with laurato ... well, there you have it. Laurato should be disbarred. COME ON FLORIDA BAR find a reason and axe his corrupt ●●●.
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