Charges against former Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll’s aide, Carletha Cole, are being dropped. (Photo by Florida Coastal School of Law)
By Ashley Lopez
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Carletha Cole, the woman who accused former Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll of having an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer, has reached a deal with prosecutors that will result in charges against her being dropped, according to the Associated Press.
Cole was a former aide to Carroll. She was fired in 2011 after she leaked a conversation she recorded between herself and Carroll’s chief of staff to a Jacksonville reporter. Charges were filed against Cole for the recording and leaking the conversation. However, those charges are getting thrown out.
Prosecutors have reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Carletha Cole that will result in charges being dropped in 12 months if Cole stays out of legal trouble. Cole must also perform 50 hours of community service.
…Cole’s attorneys asserted that their client was being set up because she witnessed unprofessional behavior by Carroll and other employees, including walking in on Carroll and a female aide in a “compromising position.” Carroll has denied the allegations.
According to a filing by Cole’s attorneys, Cole alleged that she witnessed “Carroll and a top aide, Beatriz Ramos, in a ‘compromising position’ inside Carroll’s office, that Carroll’s chief of staff secretly recorded conversations routinely at the direction of those working for Gov. Rick Scott, and that the trash can at Cole’s desk might have been deliberately set ablaze following an argument between her and Ramos,” the AP reported:
Cole also said Ramos was living at Carroll’s home and at one point she was ordered by Ramos to find adjoining hotel rooms for Carroll and Ramos when they traveled. Cole said that she was “scolded” by an agent with Carroll’s security team when she placed Ramos next door to Carroll when the lieutenant governor and her husband traveled last summer to Puerto Rico. The agent told her to not do it again, Cole says, although he did not explain why.
Carroll, a former Navy officer who is also a mother of three, says the allegations are all lies.
At the time, Cole was alleging that the incident involving the fire in her trash can in March 2011 was an example of intimidation to keep the alleged inappropriate relationship between Carroll and Ramos a secret.
In a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report that Cole sent to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting back in July, she said investigators quickly and inappropriately dismissed the arson. She made similar allegations in another court filing.
Since then, it is still unclear whether the filings were merely push back from a disgruntled former employee or more.
However, since the charges and allegations, important things have changed. Last March, Carroll resigned when she became part of a state and federal investigation into a charity organization for veterans, which is tied to an Internet cafe company suspected of racketeering.
Gov. Rick Scott has yet to appoint a new lieutenant governor.