Welcome to

Florida’s Lieutenant Governor is being asked to take a lie-detector test tonight in connection with a criminal case of one of her former employees.

Cole Calls for Fire Marshal Investigation

Carletha Cole is that employee. She was fired from Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll’s office in September and later charged with a felony for leaking an illegally recorded conversation to reporters. Cole claims she was setup because she caught Carroll and her female travel aide in a “compromising position.” After the alleged incident Cole’s trashcan was set on fire by the travel aide, Beatriz Ramos. According to a FDLE arson investigation Ramos started the fire when she threw away a partially smoked cigar in Cole’s trashcan. FDLE ruled the fire an accident.

Now, tonight, in an TV exclusive, we’ve obtained a letter sent to the state fire marshal’s office. The letter, written by Cole’s attorneys, calls for an independent investigation and for “the Lieutenant Governor (to) voluntarily submit to a polygraph examination by an FBI polygrapher.”

Cole’s Attorneys are requesting the same for Ramos, who admits she accidentally started the fire. The letter gives the State Fire Marshal’s office until the end of Tuesday to respond. If an investigation isn’t launched by then, the FBI will be asked to intervene.

More tonight on the court filing full of salacious allegations against Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll. Along with the claims of sexual misconduct, as Whitney Ray tells us, there are also claims, from the fired Carroll employee who filed the document, that she was the target of a fire started at the state capitol.

This is evidence of a fire that could have set the state capitol ablaze. The pictures are part of a closed FDLE arson investigation. In this report Beatriz Ramos, a travel aide for Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, admits to starting the fire.

Ramos is also accused of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with Carroll. The allegations are all part of a court filing in the case of Carletha Cole. Cole is a former web designer for Carroll who was fired for telling reporters the office was in disarray.

After Cole was fired, she leaked this illegal recorded audio that was supposed to expose chaos in the office. She was arrested and charged with a felony.

Audio Recording From Summer 2011
John Konkus, Carrolls Chief of Staff: I knew it was going to be trouble.
Cole: Do you know why?
Konkus: Because we are not leading.

Her attorney is fighting back. He says Cole was targeted by Carroll and Ramos because she caught the two in “a compromising position.” After the alleged incident Cole claims she was regularly harassed and Ramos set her trashcan ablaze.

“The state attorney’s office should conduct a real investigation, ask real questions about the arson and determine whether or not it was inadvertent or intentional,” said Steve Webster.

According to the FDLE Report, Ramos smoked a cigar here, just a block from the state capitol. After taking a few puffs, she extinguished the cigar, wrapped it in a paper towel. Walked back to the Capitol and threw it away in Cole’s trashcan.

We retraced the most direct path to the capitol. If Ramos took this route, she would have passed five trashcans and an ashtray before entering the building.

Four days after the fire, Ramos told her story to an FDLE agent. No charges were brought, the evidence was destroyed and one day after the case was closed, Cole’s attorney says Carroll wrote this letter of recommendation for the investigator.

Cole’s attorney claims the fire and the closed investigation proves his client was targeted and that Carroll had enough pull to have criminal charges brought against Cole. We asked FDLE about the allegations and the arson investigation. They issued this written response.

“With the responsible party stepping forward and absent any other evidence or suspicious circumstances we found her (Ramos) statement credible and determined this to be an accident. However, if there is a witness with additional information, we encourage them to come forward,” wrote Gretl Plessinger, FDLE Directory of Communications.

Carroll is standing up to the allegations

Carroll has responded, calling her accuser a lair. She went on the radio telling a WOKV reporter quote, “They aren’t even allegations, they’re outright lies.” Carroll went on to say she and her husband have a healthy sex life.

“My husband and I have a very healthy and exciting relationship for 29 years and I don’t need to seek satisfaction anywhere else. And I have sought council and any further questions on this matter I will be referring to my attorney.”

Her attorney responded in an oncamera interview.

“It’s one of those situation where Carletha Cole is facing felony charges, it’s a third degree felony punishable up to five years in prison and she is going to say what she can in order to get out of those charges, would be my guess,” said Soud.

And finally the Florida Federation of Republican Woman is coming to Carroll’s aid. Their president wrote a letter saying the Lieutenant Governor is the quote “victim of a vile, vicious and ludicrous attack from a disgraced former employee.”

Scathing accusations tonight against Florida’s Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll. In a court filing an ousted employee accuses Carroll of carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a female aide. The Governor’s office calls the accusations “outrageous.” In an exclusive interview, Whitney Ray asks the Defense attorney who filed motion how the heavy allegations help client’s case.

In this 16 page court filing, a former employee of the Lieutenant Governor’s Office makes some serious accusations. Carletha Cole is facing a felon charge for this recording. According to the state it was recorded in secret and the crime occurred when she gave it to reporters.

In an exclusive TV interview with Cole’s attorney Steve Webster, he tells me Cole didn’t make the recording and in fact she was the one who was being recorded. To prove her case Webster says he had to expose a secret relationship between Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll and a female travel aide.

“We do believe that their relationship, would suggest that, the Lt. Governor would have wanted to discredit my client because of what she knew about their relationship,” said Webster.

In the motion Cole describes Carroll’s relationship with the aide as “bizarre.” She claims on one occasion she opened the door to Carroll’s office and caught the two in “…what can only be described as a compromising position.”

“We do believe that the time will come when details maybe necessary, further details, but as of right now, I think it’s sufficient to say that there was inappropriate behavior by our estimation,” said Webster.

Sources close to the governor’s office tell me the defense had been threatening to release this information for months and that the document was filed only to embarrass Carroll.

A spokesman for Governor Scott’s office calls the accusations “Outrageous,” and says they don’t warrant further comment. The state attorney in the case is also remaining silent.

In less than one week’s time two Florida teens found themselves in the jaws of two massive alligators. The attacks were four days and 300 hundred miles apart. As Whitney Ray tells us, it’s feeding time for gators in Florida; swimmers beware.

It was a typical summer’s day for 71 year old Billy Ezell and his 15 year old grandson Kaleb.

They loaded up the boat to go spear fishing and headed to a grassy island five miles off the coast of Keaton Beach. An hour later the day turned from typical to anything but.

“I didn’t ever expect to have any encounters with an alligator,” said Kaleb Towles.

Billy was in the boat; Kaleb was 30 feet away when all of a sudden…

“He came from my left side and bit me across my chest,” said Kaleb.

“I got the boat cranked and went and got the boat between Kaleb and the gator,” said Billy.

Kaleb swung his elbow and his spear gun. The alligator let go.

“Soon as I felt the pressure, I raised my elbow and he got off,” said Kaleb.

They killed the gator and counted their blessings.

Kaleb was fortunate to escape without losing life or limb. A few days after the attack, about three hundred miles south of here, another Florida teen was attacked. He wasn’t so luck.

His name is also Kaleb, but the 17 year old goes by Fred. The gator bit off part of his right arm before he was able to break free. Back in Taylor County, they couldn’t believe the news.

“It just made me think about how it could’ve been me as well, and how all these people need to think about what can happen around these gators,” said Kaleb.

“I wish that Kaleb had a speargun in his hand like my Kaleb did. It might’ve made a difference,” said Billy.

The bite marks on Kaleb’s chest and shoulder are already healing and he has a new nickname… ‘Gator Boy.’

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is warning swimmers. They say gator attacks are more common during the warm weather months because an alligator’s metabolism is boosted in the summer and, of course, this means they are eating a lot more than in the winter when the reptiles tend to be less active.

Dr. James Ammons has resigned as Florida A & M’s president.

The announcement came this afternoon, after the Robert Champion family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school. Champion, a Marching 100 drum major, was killed during a hazing ritual last November. Recently released documents show school administrators were asked to suspend the band three days before Champion’s death. We spoke broke the news of Ammons resignation to students.

“There was a lot of pressure on him, so with all the negativity coming at him… There’s not much positive coming out of anyone’s mouth; not even people from the school that work here. It was probably just a lot of pressure, and he probably talked it over with his family and his fire and got tired of it and resigned,” said FSU Mikaya Kelly, a FAMU Freshman.

Ammons is staying on at FAMU as a professor. His resignation isn’t official until October.

Nearly two weeks have passed since a federal judge ruled the state can move forward with its efforts to remove illegally registered voters from the voting rolls. But as Whitney Ray tells us, Governor Rick Scott is still fighting to use a federal database needed to continue the purge.

Last summer Governor Rick Scott began efforts to remove non-US-Citizens from Florida’s voting rolls. Scott asked the Department of Homeland Security to give the state access to its immigration database to avoid making mistakes.

In May Scott tired of waiting on the feds. The state moved forward with its voter purge efforts using three thousand names from a state DMV database. But the list was flawed and US citizens, some of them war heroes, were caught in the fray.

Most of the state’s Supervisors of Elections stopped the purge. The feds sued Scott. Scott filed his own suit, demanding access to the immigration database.

Last month a federal judge ruled in Scott’s favor saying his voter purge efforts can continue, but without the database the state risks ousting legally registered voters. So for now the efforts are on hold as Scott tussles with the Department of Homeland Security”

Voter registration groups, like the League of Woman Voters are watching his every move and are ready to pounce if the purge goes awry.

“Were there to be a situation where, prior to the General Election or ongoing that voters were being removed from the rolls who were eligible to vote, we feel that we could go back to court,” said Jessica Lowe-Minor, the Executive Director of the League.

As the standoff continues and elections approach, a warning from the federal judge in the case stands, “Irreparable harm will result if non-citizens are allowed to vote.”

Opponents of the purge claim the state’s effort disproportionally target registered Democrats and at the very least scare low income and minority voters who are legally registered from showing up at the polls.

Hundreds of tobacco retailers who provide Roll Your Own services are shutting down. Federal legislation now classifies shops which provide cigarette rolling machines to be classified as manufacturers, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the operators are finding it easier to drop the roll your own business.

The concept is simple: the shop sells you tobacco, wrappers, and then rents you time on a machine that turns the two into cigarettes by the box. Customer Dave Mason says it’s all about cost.

“I can get something just like what I get out of the store, but I can get it cheaper,” customer Dave Mason said.

Reporter: How much cheaper?

“About half the price,” he said.

But starting this week, shops that operate these roll your own machines must register as cigarette manufacturers and pay hefty license fees. Most are shutting down instead.

“It’s sad for us to go, a lot of our customers are sad too, because they don’t want to go back to regular cigarettes, they like these a lot better,” store manager Barbara Smith said.

Die-hards can still roll their own cigarettes with one of these. But they’ll have to do it at home. The cost? 45 dollars.

Research shows that as prices go up smoking goes down. Tobacco Free Florida, which operates a Quit helpline issued this statement, saying there’s no safe cigarette and no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke.”

For this roll your own smoker, who wouldn’t give us his name, money isn’t the issue.

“What business is it of the government’s what you do to your own body?”

The change was pushed by some big tobacco companies and convenience stores. They worried the roll your own shops put them at a competitive disadvantage. For our unnamed smoker, it is a loss of freedom.

“This is not the same country I grew up in.”

According to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids: “The general consensus is that every 10 percent increase in the real price of cigarettes reduces overall cigarette consumption by approximately three to five percent, reduces the number of young-adult smokers by 3.5 percent, and reduces the number of kids who smoke by six or seven percent.”

A statewide game of catch-up is underway as the deadline to register to vote for the August Primary.

The deadline is July 16th. The League of Woman Voters is hosting voter registration drives statewide this weekend. The league stopped signing up new voters last year because of strict new voter registration laws. The laws were overturned in court. Now Leagues Director Jessica Lowe-Minor says it time to play catch-up.

“Now that we are able to resume voter registration we are eager to get out there and make up for lost time as much as we can and get people registered,” said Lowe-Minor.

The league sprung back in action last month after a year hiatus. During the hiatus new voter registration fell by 81-thousand people statewide.

There are conflicting stories tonight over what transpired in a meeting of FAMU administrators three days before a drum major was beaten to death in a hazing ritual. Notes of the meeting say there was an effort to suspend the band, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the administrator who held the meeting says the topic never came up.

Three days before drum major Robert Champions November 19th death, notes from a meeting attended by high level FAMU administrators suggest then police chief Calvin Ross recommended suspending the band because of a spate of hazing cases being investigated by the FAMU police department.

The meeting was held in the office of then Provost Cynthia Hughes Harris.

Reporter: Was there a recommendation to suspend the band?

“No,” Hughes Harris said. “There was not.”

Reporter: No one suggested it?

“There was not a recommendation to suspend the band,” she said.

Reporter: That’s different than someone suggesting it.

“I have no memory that a suggestion was made or was not made,” Hughes Harris said. “It was an active discussion focused on our concern that we did not want anything negative to happen.”

Retired police chief Calvin Ross didn’t return our calls, so we knocked on his door. He declined to be interviewed on camera, but he did confirm that the notes were accurate and the discussion of suspending the band did take place.

“One thing is certain, no one in the meeting went to the university president and said there was a recommendation to suspend the band.”

The former Provost says she is at a loss to explain the differing accounts of the meeting.

Reporter: And Dr. Kirby’s notes that suggest there was a recommendation or there was a discussion?

“I am truly unable to comment on that,” she said.

The decision that was made that day was to give the band a stern lecture. Ross says he left thinking the message was not getting through to band members.

The Attorney for retired band Director Julian White says his client also remembers discussing suspending the band, that White was not opposed to the suspension, and that he recalls that “no one in the room had the authority to make that decision.”

To the delight of many opponents of standardized testing Governor Rick Scott is considering changes to the FCAT. As Whitney Ray tells us, the make-over comes as more parents than ever before are writing the governor to complain about the test.

Rebecca and Brianna are enjoying a summer day away from school, but even as the sisters bike through the park, their minds aren’t far their future careers.

“I want to be a meteorologist,” said Brianna. “I want to be a teacher,” said Rebecca.

Their mom Teresa knows, they’ll need a good education to achieve their dreams and she fears her daughters are spending too much time testing and not enough time learning.

“We found a lot of frustration this past year and the amount of preparation and the fact that they cannot stay on a subject longer in order to make sure the students get it,” said Boles.

Governor Rick Scott seems to agree. Last week Scott said Florida students are tested too much and he’s considering changes to the FCAT.

Last month, the Florida School Board Association drafted this resolution on standardized testing. In it, it calls for changes to the FCAT to be phased in slowly and other performance factors besides tests to be used when evaluating students and teachers.

Wayne Blanton the Association’s President says Florida high school students take around a dozen standardized tests before they graduate.

“Most students out there are spending about 38 to 40 days a year in a testing mode and we feel that’s too many,” said Blanton.

Teresa agrees. She’s removing her kids from their traditional public school and next year they’ll be attending a new charter school.

“Hopefully at the charter school, they won’t have as much emphasis on the testing,” said Teresa.

She’s not the only parent with concerns about standardized testing. An FCAT hotline setup this summer received three thousand phone calls in a month and the governor’s office has received more complaints about the test than ever before.

Scott’s office didn’t provide details about what changes are being considered, but we do know they won’t end with the FCAT is phased out. The state is changing tests in 2014, and lessons learned from FCAT will be used to make the new test better.

Three thousand parents contacted the state’s temporary hotline with questions about FCAT 2.0.

The hotline was up for about a month before being shutdown at the end of June. It was set up to help parents who had concerns about their students’ FCAT scores. Kelly Seay, the Deputy Director of Education Relations for the Department of Education says the call center will be a key component as the state changes the way it tests and grades students.

“I think what we’re experiencing is a lot of unknown. I think the communication hasn’t really been there so what we are trying to do is get more information about the changes and about the new standards,” said Seay.

The hotline will be reactivated in Mid-July when the Department of Education releases its school grades.

New statistics released by the US Department of Labor show the nation’s unemployment rate is stagnant at 8.2 percent, while Florida’s unemployment rate continues to drop. Whitney Ray, meet up with Governor Rick Scott for an exclusive, one-on-one interview about the competing statistics.

Even though the national unemployment rate stayed flat, 80-thousand jobs were added nationwide last month. It just wasn’t enough to impact the statistics. Florida’s rate has fallen 2.3 percent since Scott took office.

Joey Costanzo is just one of small number entrepreneurs growing their businesses despite the recession and the nation’s high unemployment rate.

“I’ve had to hire eight new people, since we moved and we are going to have to hirer at least three or four more people,” said Joey.

In 2009, Joey opened this seafood restaurant. The economy along with the gulf oil spill quickly threatened his survival.

“If I had had debt over there when we had the oil spill, at our South Magnolia location, we wouldn’t have made it,” said Joey.

Joey weathered the Great Recession and now his business is booming. He moved to this new location three weeks ago. It’s prime real estate, less than a mile from the Florida’s state capitol building.

As Joey’s business grows, the nation’s unemployment rate stays stuck at 8.2 percent. The state rate is much higher at 8.6 percent, but its falling fast.

In a one-on-one interview with Governor Rick Scott Friday, I asked about the differing statistics and who deserves the credit for Florida’s improving economy.

“We reduced regulation. We have made it easier to get a permit to start a business. So we are doing the right things to help people start their businesses and grow their businesses. Now the federal government has to do the same thing,” said Scott.

While Joey appreciates lower taxes and less regulation he says it’s not the key to his success.

“I don’t think it matters who is in office. I think if you put your heart into it, work really hard, put out a good product, give really good customer service, people are going to come with you,” said Joey.

Joey’s business is up 65 percent and he doesn’t care which politician takes the credit.

Even though the national unemployment rate stayed flat, 80-thousand jobs were added nationwide last month. It just wasn’t enough to impact the statistics. Florida’s rate has fallen 2.3 percent since Scott took office.

Governor Rick Scott is not letting up on efforts to prevent non-citizens from voting in Florida.

We caught up with Scott at the airport today. He told us the Department of Homeland Security needs to give the state access to its immigration database to allow the state to better identify non-citizens, illegally registered to vote.

“The right thing to happen is the Department of Homeland Security should give us the database we have the right to have, the SAVE database. I want to make sure in the Primary in August, in November, we have honest, fare elections,” said Scott.

Last week a federal judge ruled that the state had the right to move forward with its voter purge efforts, but it needed to use the DHS database. Scott is still plotting his next move to convince the federal government to give the state access.

New documents in the case of a FAMU student hazed to death suggest school administrators were asked to suspend the band three days before the tragedy.

Notes taken by the Dean of Students claim FAMU’s Former Police Chief Calvin Ross asked administrators to suspend the band immediately because of recent hazing reports. The administrators ignored the warning and on Nov. 19th, Robert Champion was beaten after a game in Orlando and died. Ross retired in April. FAMU’s President Dr. James Ammons answered the report with this written response.

“Prior to the Florida Classic weekend, the former provost, vice president for student affairs, former chief of police, dean of students and former department chair/band director met as a group and decided on the proper course of action in light of the recent band member suspensions, and the group’s decision was for the chief of police, dean of students and band director to call together the entire band to underscore their written Anti-Hazing Agreements and the fact that hazing is against FAMU policies and a felony crime under Florida law. No one told me before the Florida Classic that they disagreed with the group’s ultimate decision and course of action,” wrote Ammons

Ammons goes on to say the school is making a good faith effort to settle the matter with the Champion family, but a date for the settlement has not been reached. He added that, at the advice of his legal counsel he will not comment any further at this time.

Corporate logos could soon start appearing at a state trail near you. Seven trails from one end of the state will be allowed to accept sponsorships under legislation signed by Governor Rick Scott. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the idea is sure to spark debate by trail users.

Thousands of people bike, skate or walk state trails everyday. So when we told this couple that corporate logos could soon be coming to their trail, we sparked a debate.

“If the last desperate attempt to keep them would be to put up signage, then I could live with a little bit of advertisement,” social worker Anthony McDonald said. “If the money is going back in there.”

“Yeah, but you start with a couple of signs and you end up with New York,” Catia Carvallo, a conference center director, said.

Seven trails, from Pensacola to Key West could soon be sporting corporate logos under legislation that took effect July first.

The law limits the signage to 16 square feet. That’s four feet by four feet, which is just a little bit bigger than this sign here.

Jim Wood with the Office of Greenways and Trails says how much the signage will bring in is still anybody’s guess.

“As we’ve tried to figure out what revenue this is going to generate, we’ve tried to look at other examples, and really, there’s nothing at a state level that we’re aware of in any other state in the U.S,” Wood said.

The money will be small in comparison to the parks overall budget.

“This is something that would possibly give us the ability to have a little more maintenance,” Wood said.

And if the idea proves successful, look for state lawmakers to expand the idea in the future…which will be guaranteed to spark more debates like this one.

“There’s a limit of what we would allow in there,” McDonald said.

“There’s never a limit,” Carvallo said. “Once you allow something, it’s like an open market there.”

In the meantime, the state is seeking sponsors compatible with the mission of the parks and trails.

Six of the seven trails selected for the pilot are in either North or Central Florida. the largest pilot will he the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage trail, spanning almost a hundred miles through the Florida Keys.