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He said, she said. That's been the tenor of the Republican campaign for state attorney of the 20th Judicial Circuit.
The latest salvo came this week when Stephen Russell, the current state attorney, requested that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement conduct an investigation into a complaint alleging a felony violation by attorney Chris Crowley, who is running for state attorney against Chief Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox.
The campaign, which has two months to go for the Aug. 28 primary, has seen several complaints of ethics violations filed against Fox with the Florida Ethics Commission, none of which have been ruled on. The complaints claim Fox or her campaign for state attorney have blocked or deleted negative comments made on social media, and heckling at some campaign forum events that featured both candidate.
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Wednesday's announcement by Russell, who is Fox's boss and is retiring, included a request to Gov. Rick Scott to appoint another state attorney to handle the Crowley matter.
Russell said a two-page complaint recently came to the office alleging felony violations by Crowley stemming from a June 14 fundraising reception at The Hut Restaurant in Buckingham and referencing audiovisual recordings.
"The recording will speak for themselves, as well as other written materials released in the report," Russell's June 25 letter to the FDLE's Fort Myers office said.
A spokesman for the FDLE confirmed receipt of Russel's request and said it was under review but that no active investigation had been started.
Crowley dismissed the allegations.
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"It's like a drive-by hit," he said. "This is the dirtiest cheap shot."
Crowley said he thinks the allegations stemmed from a raffle that organizers of his fundraiser held at the door of the Buckingham restaurant asking for $1 per person.
"I got $670 from a raffle," he said. "I emailed the state ethics board and asked if I could keep it and they said no. I gave it back to the organizers." Crowley said he told them to give it to charity because the campaign couldn't accept it.
"I never deposited the money," he said. "And they weren't part of my campaign."
Crowley also said claims of an audio recording that he offered jobs for donations were false.
"I haven't promised anybody a job," Crowley said. "I've told people I know in the private sector I'd bring them back in the state attorney's office ... but there's been no promises of jobs for money."
Crowley said he went to the Fort Myers FDLE offices on Wednesday and spoke with an agent, showing him an email from the ethics commission.
The primary will decide who will win the job because only a write-in qualified to run in the general election.
Since he started running for the office in 2017, Crowley and his supporters complained that Fox campaigned for months for the post before she officially announced her candidacy and campaigned for office during work hours after her announcement.
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Crowley, who left the state attorney's office in 2014, has also been adamant that Fox should have to resign to run.
Daniel Endrizal, a Fort Myers attorney and vice president of the Lee County Bar Association, filed an ethics complaint with the state against Fox in November 2017, claiming she violated state statutes by campaigning for the state attorney's position while working as second in command in the 20th Circuit.
A Tallahassee spokeswoman for the Florida Commission of Ethics, Kerrie J. Stillman, said she could neither confirm nor deny the complaint.
Those complaints led Russell to issue a statement that state attorney office policy for employees seeking elective office includes a clause that gives the state attorney discretion to determine whether an employee would be required to resign in order to run for elective office.
Crowley also has championed animal rights activists who claimed that the state attorney's office wasn't prosecuting local slaughterhouse violations. However, according to the state attorney's office, a Miami Beach-based animal rights group gathered evidence illegally so it couldn't be used in a prosecution.
Connect with this reporter: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook) @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter)
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