Harry Lee Coe Framed and Murdered??
Depends.
You always HAD to wonder.
So many buffers in between Harry and someone talking about him writing bad checks. Such a stunning shock.
But look at the list of players and WHERE they are now.
All except for Fusson who tried to best Ober and we all wish he had. WELL, not ALL of us, just those of us who get chased around by him for NO REASON ......
CORRUPTION INVESTIGATION
BUDDY GISSENDANNER
Chronological Listing of Events
06/01/99 Tuesday – Approximate start date for newly hired Assistant City Attorney and Special Prosecutor Buddy Gissendanner.
06/02/99 Wednesday – 1300 hours – Luncheon meeting at Spaghetti Warehouse in Ybor City with Detective DeBlock, Detective Bartlett and Gissendanner. This was their first meeting.
06/15/99 Tuesday – Approximate date that Gissendanner relayed conflict involving the John Brotherton case to DeBlock and Bartlett. Gissendanner stated that Brotherton was his personal friend and a client of his wife’s. He also said that he had no prior knowledge of Brotherton being in the lingerie shop business. Gissendanner pledged to have the case assigned to another assistant state attorney due to the conflict. Of note is the fact that Brotherton owned two (2) lingerie shops in Tampa (The Getaway and Gentle Touch) which closed due to police enforcement action. Brotherton also owns a lingerie shop in Manatee County and helped operate Body Works lingerie shop (now closed due to enforcement efforts) in Tampa which was owned by Candy Stromberger.
06/30/99 Wednesday – Brotherton’s case is disposed of in court.
07/01/99 Thursday – 1400 hours – Meeting at the City Attorney’s Office, 7th floor conference room, in reference to adult use investigations. In attendance were DeBlock, Bartlett, Gissendanner, Lieutenant Jane Castor, City Attorney Jim Palermo, Assistant City Attorney Gina Grimes, Assistant City Attorney Rick Fee and Assistant Licensing Manager Keith Schram. While DeBlock was talking about a planned investigation against the Simply Sexy lingerie shop which is owned by Roland Morito, Gissendanner stopped DeBlock while informing him that he knew Morito and that Morito was a client of his wife’s.
Unknown Autotrack is run on Gissendanner
07/29/99 Thursday – 1647 and 1715 hours – DeBlock is contacted by source Donna McCoy who is Brotherton’s ex-girlfriend. McCoy provides detailed information on numerous subjects, including corruption information on Gissendanner (refer to INTELLIGENCE dated 07/29/99).
07/30/99 DeBlock verifies disposition of Brotherton’s case via the S.A.O. computer.
08/02/99 Monday – 1530 hours – DeBlock meets with supervisor Charles Guthrie and Special Agent Scott Peterka with the F.D.L.E. in reference to this intelligence. DeBlock agrees to provide updated intelligence on Gissendanner and to verify mode of Brotherton’s disposition by contacting S.A.O. attorney responsible via recorded telephone call(s).
Unknown Recorded telephone calls
08/10/99 Tuesday – DeBlock obtains updated intelligence from McCoy (refer to INTELLIGENCE UPDATE date 08/10/99).
08/26/99 Thursday – 1300 hours – Meeting at F.D.L.E. between McCoy and F.D.L.E.. Meeting actually took place at 1400 hours. DeBlock and Bartlett were also present.
Thursday – 1500 hours - Meeting at the City Attorney’s Office, 7th floor conference room, in reference to upcoming Operation GSE. In attendance were DeBlock, Bartlett, Gissendanner, Castor, Palermo, Grimes and Rick Fee. Gissendanner demands the following from DeBlock and Bartlett:
Time, date and inclusion of upcoming Operation GSE
Time, date and location of all operations in advance
Introduction and right to interview all potential CIs
names and D.O.B.s of all CIs
08/27/99 Friday – Castor takes Grimes to lunch and informs her of pending investigation involving Gissendanner. This was done due to hostility displayed by Gissendanner towards detectives at yesterday’s meeting and the reluctance of police to give in to his demands.
08/30/99 Monday – Palermo contacts Castor via telephone in the morning and is upset because he was not notified sooner of this investigation. Since Palermo was not available the previous Friday, Grimes apparently informed him of her conversation with Castor. Palermo expresses that he does not want any embarrassment to come to the City Attorney’s Office. Castor relays that the F.D.L.E. has actually not started an investigation at this time. At Palermo’s direction, Castor agrees to drop criminal investigation against Gissendanner so Palermo can confront him in person in reference to these accusations. A meeting to confront Gissendanner was set up for Thursday, 09/02/99.
Monday – Castor advises DeBlock later in the day that she had to promise to drop the criminal investigation against Gissendanner in order to appease Palermo.
08/31/00 Tuesday – DeBlock and Bartlett are aware of pending meeting to confront Gissendanner in two (2) days. They decide to collect as much intelligence as possible to substantiate these claims prior to the meeting taking place.
Tuesday – 1400 hours – DeBlock and Bartlett meet McCoy at a Denny’s restaurant in St. Pete. She is interviewed again and responds back to Tampa with detectives in order to locate Gissendanner’s boat. McCoy identifies a boat by the name of “Take’n It Easy” matching its description at the Jean Street Marina. This marina is operated by Brotherton. DeBlock notifies McCoy that the criminal investigation against Gissendanner has been terminated, but advises her of the planned meeting to confront him on these charges. She expressed that he did not have to go to jail in order for her to be happy.
09/01/99 Wednesday – 0900 hours – DeBlock and Bartlett respond to the Jean Street Marina in an undercover boat along with two (2) plainclothes marine patrol officers. Bartlett meets with Brotherton in an undercover capacity and engages him in incriminating information about Gissendanner and Gissendanner’s wife. Bartlett, while portraying himself to be in the adult video business and in the need of an attorney to help him get things started in Tampa, arranged for Brotherton to put him in contact with Gissendanner’s wife. Brotherton relayed that Gissendanner’s wife was an environmental attorney and did work for him. He bragged about being friends with Gissendanner, a state attorney who prosecuted lingerie shops, and his wife who puts them in business. Brotherton confirmed that Gissendanner’s boat had a bad engine and that he did work in it. He also mentioned that he was going to leave for Homosassa Springs on Friday. Brotherton even talked about his arrest while in the lingerie business. He continued by saying he attended parties with the Gissendanners but no one was supposed to know. He also leaked that he meets Gissendanner’s wife for lunch 3 to 4 times a week. DeBlock confirmed that “Take’n It Easy” was Gissendanner’s boat by comparing it’s hull number with that of one shown in Gissendanner’s Autotrack printout. Photos were also taken.
09/02/99 Thursday – Bartlett contacted Brotherton via telephone in an attempt to get in touch with Gissendanner’s wife. Brotherton advised that he was actually on the telephone with her at the time and would have her call Bartlett back. When she did not call, Bartlett again called Brotherton and discovered that he was on the telephone with her again. Bartlett contacted her shortly afterwards via telephone and learned that she was going to Homosassa Springs on Friday. After learning that Bartlett was in the adult business and wanted to set up shop in Tampa, she had no problem with setting up an appointment for him to come into her office for that purpose on the following Wednesday, 09/08/99.
Thursday – 1500 hours – DeBlock contacts Castor and provides the latest information to her in reference to Gissendanner’s wife.
Thursday – 1530 hours – Gissendanner, Palermo, Grimes and Castor attend a meeting at the City Attorney’s Office. Castor is allowed to run the meeting and advises Gissendanner that there are concerns over his association with Brotherton. Gissendanner gives a brief account of his association with Brotherton, citing that he had no prior knowledge of his association with the lingerie shop business. Castor then reads from a list of accusations, involving improprieties, directed at Gissendanner. Gissendanner defends each one and maintains his innocence with regard to prior knowledge. However, Gissendanner eventually gave conflicting accounts as to when he knew Brotherton was in the lingerie shop business and was basically caught telling two (2) lies with this regard. His statements involving the disposition of Brotherton’s case generally matched those of the state attorney involved. Gissendanner saw nothing wrong with his wife’s involvement with adult businesses, but was also unaware of her appointment with Bartlett to help start one. He said his wife was going to Homosassa Springs to sell some property for Brotherton and volunteered that they were planning on taking a trip to Key West with Brotherton also. Gissendanner agreed to talk with his wife and to severe his relationship with Brotherton. When Palermo instructed Gissendanner to contact DeBlock and Bartlett and work it out, Castor protested that she still had a problem with this untruthfulness and relationship to Brotherton. Grimes seemed to share this conviction. Gissendanner was not fired or requested to resign, but Palermo left the door open for him to stay.
Thursday – 1700 hours – Castor meets with DeBlock and Bartlett, explaining to them the result of the meeting.
09/03/99 Friday – 1310 hours – McCoy and DeBlock talk via telephone about the result of the meeting. McCoy is highly upset, not because Gissendanner was not arrested, but because he was not fired or forced to resign. She threatens to contact Channel 13 and the newspaper about this cover-up.
Friday – 1700 hours – Castor contacts DeBlock via telephone stating that she has been summoned to the Chief’s office in reference to the Gissendanner case. It apparently has something to do with Palermo contacting Misdemeanor Division Chief Sandra Spoto and State Attorney Harry Lee Coe about the investigation of Gissendanner.
Friday – 1730 hours – Castor meets with DeBlock in person. Palermo apparently contacted Chief Holder and told him to expect a telephone call from Coe about the incident. The Chief was concerned because Coe and Spoto were supposedly enraged that DeBlock conducted an investigation against one of their attorneys. The accusation that DeBlock solicited the F.D.L.E. to investigate was also brought up.
09/06/99 Tuesday – 1000 hours – DeBlock and Bartlett attend deposition with CI at Gissendanner’s office. Gissendanner was present.
After the deposition, DeBlock left Bartlett and the CI outside the courthouse while he obtained something from his nearby car. While returning back across the street, a vehicle driven by Coe stopped in front of DeBlock and blocked his access across the street to the courthouse. The vehicle then slowly pulled away and parked in reserved parking while the male driver kept staring at DeBlock. DeBlock confirmed that the driver was Coe upon his exiting the vehicle, along with passenger Spoto. Coe continued to glare at DeBlock during his entire walk to the courthouse.
Tuesday – Castor was contacted by Palermo and the Chief again in reference to this investigation. Palermo expressed to Castor that either DeBlock or Gissendanner would have to go due to the probability that they could no longer work together. Both the City Attorney’s Office and the Chief’s Office are apparently being contacted by the SAO with protests. Castor maintained that Coe and Spoto are livid with the situation at both of them.
Tuesday – Castor was contacted by Palermo who relayed that Gissendanner obtained information from Brotherton that his ex-girlfriend (McCoy) was being harassed by the F.D.L.E. all weekend long. Gissendanner was concerned that the F.D.L.E. was investigating him despite representations from the City that they were not. Spoto and Coe are also upset about this possibility as well.
Tuesday – DeBlock confirms with McCoy that she has not been contacted by the F.D.L.E. and that she did not give Brotherton this information. DeBlock relays this information to Castor who, in turn, relays it up the chain.
Tuesday – DeBlock talks with Castor and she relays her desire to talk with Spoto pending Palermo’s approval.
09/08/99 Wednesday – 1430 hours – DeBlock and Bartlett hold a meeting with Castor. Castor relayed that Palermo called her the night before and this morning in reference to this investigation. Gissendanner has hired an attorney because he believes that he is being investigated by the F.D.L.E.. He has also been instructed by this attorney to continue all cases due to the possibility of DeBlock contesting that losses in court are done intentionally. Castor also states that she met with Spoto and Assistant Misdemeanor Division Chief Robin Fusson on this date. Spoto and Coe are still highly upset at DeBlock and Castor and DeBlock is lucky that Coe did not swerve his car at him yesterday. Spoto has never seen Coe this upset before. Spoto raised a lot of accusations involving past instances with DeBlock (St. Pete Times article and Melvin Jones) while Castor countered (Billy Fairbanks and Bob Buckhorn). Fusson cited cases involving CIs and TPD cops saying DeBlock is a zealot. By Castor’s interpretation, the meeting had limited success. The S.A.O. is apparently placing pressure on the City Attorney’s Office to remove DeBlock from his position. Grimes relayed to Castor today that it would be wrong to remove DeBlock from his position instead of Gissendanner and that she did not believe Palermo would do this.
DeBlock runs LEO affairs and NOT very nicely. Quite rude last I spoke to him. LOL.
Mighty strange all of this.
Tampa: Raise the hood and have a peek but then SLAM IT SHUT AND RUN.
Screw you.
I will NEVER run.
I am going to make you SUFFER ME.
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