Mitch Perry
Pinellas/Pasco County State Attorney Bernie McCabe will not be filing criminal charges associated with the sewage dumps that occurred in St. Petersburg in 2015 and 2016, The Tampa Bay Times reports.
His comments come less than a day after the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported that McCabe was looking into possible charges against individuals based on the October 2016 Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) report that recommended 89 felonies and 103 first-degree misdemeanors against the city.
The story said that the “latest report” found 700 million to 800 million gallons of sewage were placed into underground injection wells in 2016 as a result of Hurricane Hermine.
McCabe decided earlier this year that no city official should face criminal charges for the sewage mess.
“If Bernie’s given new evidence, I’m sure he’s going to take a look at that and make his decision,” Kriseman said Friday at a news conference with former HUD Secretary Julian Castro in South St. Petersburg. He then quickly changed the subject back to the focus of the news conference, which was to promote an initiative within the South St. Pete Community Redevelopment Area.
The idea that McCabe would revisit charges outraged Kriseman supporters.
“Florida Fish and Wildlife commissioners are appointed by Governor Rick Scott. Scott wrote Baker’s PAC a $25,000 check. Other Tallahassee Republicans have contributed more than $300,000 to Baker’s PAC. This report was conveniently released less than two weeks before Election Day and unauthorized, unofficial copies were circulating among Republican lawmakers before its release. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to find the political motivation here,” said Florida Democratic Party spokesman Amir Avin.
“Nearly every state agency in Florida has been manipulated by Rick Scott for political gain,” Avin added. “Scott is supporting Rick Baker in the hopes that a Republican mayor in St. Petersburg will help him win a U.S Senate seat. The Pinellas County state attorney isn’t pursing charges for a reason. St. Petersburg voters will see this sham of a report for what it is–a political stunt orchestrated by Rick Scott’s administration to influence a local election.”
In July, City Attorney Joe Patner informed the City Council that McCabe’s office would be closing the state investigation, contingent on the city entering a consent order pledging to spend $326 million on sewage system improvements, which they have done.
The Tampa Bay Times quoted McCabe in July saying both his office and FWC investigators agreed criminal charges were not warranted.
“They did not recommend any charges,” McCabe said of the FWC report. “We agreed with them. The consensus was there was no criminal violations.”
The report was finalized and approved by a FWC supervisor on October 19, just weeks before Kriseman faces Rick Baker in the mayoral election.
