BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION SKEWED?

Editor’s Note: “INSIDER magazine presents this investigative article in hopes of educating our readers as to the illegitimacy that exits in Florida government. Many citizens do not know the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is established under the state constitution as nothing more than a political tool, (Gestapo) of sorts under direct control of the governor often used to investigate and persecute political enemies.

Additionally, most citizens do not know the Office of Attorney General is NOT a Criminal Justice Post, regardless of the PR flowing from that office. Florida government has often been referred to as a, (Banana Republic).

The following article was written and researched by a well-known and respected Florida author who wants citizens to know these things. Fearing reprisal she has granted us permission to publish it providing her identity remains secret.”

INSIDER EXCLUSIVE REPORT

When the state’s longstanding chief law enforcement officer, James T. “Tim” Moore stepped down last year from his position as head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Governor Bush's office initiated a national search for his replacement. Jeb Bush’s director of appointments ran ads in the Washington Post, Florida Times Union, Tampa Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and even the Wall Street Journal. Total cost for the ads amounted to roughly $20,000.

This dragnet of sorts yielded a two-inch stack of applications for 31 individuals including the Interim Commissioner of FDLE, Daryl McLaughlin and several others of whom, on paper at least, appeared highly qualified. (McLaughlin left when he didn’t get the top position, and his brother Jamie, a notable investigator of corruption of public officials was nudged out of FDLE less than a year later.) The field included one candidate who oversaw the investigation into the Pan Am flight that exploded in mid-air over Lockerbie, Scotland, as well as other candidates with impressive credentials in the field of national security, a clear priority post 9/11.

Apparently not satisfied with the pool of applicants after interviewing seven of them in person or by telephone, Governor Bush did what he so often does – he just handpicked the Guy that sounded best to him even though he hadn’t even applied for the position. Guy Tunnell, that is, a sheriff in Bay County, Florida, who had contributed $500 (plus $500 from his wife) to Governor Bush’s re-election campaign in October 2002. One of Tunnell’s references was Bay County railroad magnate Earl Durden, a very generous donor to the national GOP – a “Pioneer” in fact – someone who bundles more than $100,000 in contributions for the Republican party.

Bay County is now at peak load as a state political power center with resident Republican Allan Bense, also from Bay County, as the Florida House Speaker designate, and a likely new airport that if approved will further fuel the already explosive growth, and of course, its former sheriff now as the chief state law officer.

It’s not that the affable, six foot seven and mustachioed Tunnell is not qualified to head the state’s umbrella law enforcement agency. He’s had 31 years invested in police and sheriff work, having started his career in Orlando, before moving up to Bay County where he headed the tiny police department of Lynn Haven before his four terms as sheriff. Bay County is home of the infamous Panama City Beach spring break college orgies. If the area has a law enforcement claim to fame, it certainly is that.

But not only that...

As a relatively affordable vacation destination and the location of Tyndall Air Force Base and the Naval Coastal Systems Station, Panama City and the neighboring town of Panama City Beach also have their share of people of all sorts who like to party year round.

The Sun Dancer Episode

In 1997 a new dance club called the Sun Dancer opened mainly to cater to some of Bay County’s African American residents – roughly 20,000 people out of a county population of 150,000 citizens, and to visiting African-American tourists. The predominantly white neighborhood was less than pleased about the new bar. It started having meetings characterized as "nasty and racial" by United States Magistrate Larry Bodiford who quietly attended one meeting.

Some neighbors would call in complaints when the bar’s clientele would spill into the neighborhood. Also when nothing was going on, some would falsely file noise complaints documented by Tunnell's own deputies according to police reports. One neighbor who lives within 15 feet of the buzzing main drag of Panama City Beach – Thomas Drive – complained about noise from the club which couldn’t possibly have been heard above the din of the traffic and shouting along the commercial Thomas Drive tourist corridor.

Indeed, one deputy, Myron Guilford was on site doing security one night at the EZ Serve convenience store within 30-40 feet of the entrance to the Sun Dancer at the same time the white neighbor called the police to file the complaint. Guilford and Deputy Joe Smiley, both of whom happen to be African American, documented false complaints.

The lawsuit later filed by the club’s owner included the observations of U.S. Magistrate Larry Bodiford who attended a firehouse meeting with residents, sheriffs and county commissioners in the summer of 1997. Bodiford characterized the meeting as “turn[ing] nasty and racial in its overtones.” Even Guy Tunnell at the meeting told the attendees that he was suspicious of some of the complaints about the club, calling it a “zoning issue” with noise expected in a neighborhood that was so close to a commercial/recreational strip. Shortly after the meeting, complaints increased in frequency and severity. Deputies would do walk-through inspections and searches, asking for patrons’ IDs and accompanied by their canines that they would allow to sit next to the buffet. Seconds anyone?

There were also assertions by residents about bar patrons urinating in public. But this likely had more to do with the EZ Serve’s policy of making its bathroom off limits to the public by taping it closed when the Sun Dancer was open, thereby keeping out black clients of the Sun Dancer as well as its own customers.

Illegal parking was sometimes an issue, but that was not something out of the ordinary for a successful eating or drinking establishment. Moreover, a nearby bar called Key West also had patrons parking illegally, but the Key West's mostly white clientele were not towed and complaints not directed at that establishment.

In response and as a result of mediation with neighbors, Cindy Farr, the putative owner of Sun Dancer, spent considerable money to build a high fence and gate to enclose Sun Dancer’s parking lot, as well as increase sound proofing. County code enforcement officials could never sustain a noise complaint against the Sun Dancer. In fact, a recent public records request made to the Sheriff's office for copies of any documented substantiated complaint by the neighbors resulted in a no records found response from Sheriff’s record custodian Becky Johns.

It was on the basis of complaints by white neighbors that Guy Tunnell authorized what is best described as a raid of the Sun Dancer business on New Year’s Day 1998. At least 18 deputies arrived at the club and rifled in the front door and through the club. They were videotaped by the club proprietor, Cindy Farr, who could be heard on the tape asking the deputies why they were there, but receiving no response. The videotape was never obtained by background investigators nor viewed by Senate Committee members who reviewed Guy Tunnell's appointment to head FDLE.

After leaving the club, these deputies then hovered at the EZ Serve next door waiting for something to trigger their assault on the club. On a typically raucous New Year’s Eve, a fight broke out between two patrons. When the bar’s security escorted the brawlers outside, that prompted the storming of the club by the deputies who refused to explain their presence who yelled at patrons, shut down the music and created a panic among the roughly 200 revelers.

Ironically, one of the black deputies, Joe Smiley, was the first to spray mace, and that only contributed to the panic. Several individuals were injured in the melee. Others were deliberately beaten, including a man prone to seizures whose female cousin was an Eglin Air Force Base Airman celebrating New Years at the club with him. She pleaded with deputies to not beat him for fear of bringing on a seizure. In the process, the Airman was thrown to the floor in retaliation and resulting in knee injuries later documented by an Eglin Air Force base medical staff.

Durable (Kevin) Wood

Bay County civil rights activist, Kevin Wood, collected documentation from the assaulted, falsely arrested and injured individuals. Wood’s involvement in the Sun Dancer case along with other instances of Bay County corruption and injustice – enough to write a book on – has not endeared him to local power brokers. As a result of his activism, Wood, who is white, has suffered tremendous personal slight, not the least of which is being banned from the County Courthouse without a legal escort by Tunnell's former attorney, Glenn Hess, who is now a circuit judge.

Wood appeared at pre-trials and attorney-client meetings armed with evidence and information that could aid the defenses of the dozen or so African-American patrons arrested New Years at the Sun Dancer. Wood had the consent of the attorneys (public defenders) and their clients to attend. After several months of attending these meetings without incident, Judge Hess directed a clerk and a bailiff that Wood has "got to go." Wood was standing in line outside the attorney-client meeting room with a black female patron, Toboria Hill (who was one of those sprayed with mace inside the club and whose criminal charges were later thrown out), waiting to see her public defender with Mr. Wood.

Wood was then ordered arrested by a deputy, Mark Sowell, who told Wood to leave and Wood refused after Ms. Hill advised the deputy that she consented to Mr. Wood accompanying her into the attorney-client meeting. Wood is still fighting his courthouse arrest and banishment today in Florida and federal courts.

Not surprisingly, after the raid, business at the Sun Dancer dropped off. Patrons were clearly fearful that there could be another attack. The Sheriff, white neighbors and even the county commission that had encouraged the white neighbors to file a lawsuit against the Sun Dancer club, eventually managed to close down a black business in a predominantly white tourist area. The nearby white-owned bar remained open along with lots of other well-known rowdy bars in Panama City that had far worse documented histories of problems and criminal activity but were not targeted.

With her business having failed, club owner Cindy Farr sued the county. Ultimately her case was dismissed on a technicality by the U.S. District Court Judge Stephan Mickle after it was discovered that Ms. Farr was a partner in the business rather than being an outright owner. She thus lacked legal standing to sue. But that dismissal did not refute a very core finding by Judge Mickle that the evidence showed that “racial animus” was the motivation for the raid on the Sun Dancer club.

In his decision denying Tunnell's motion for summary judgment, Judge Mickle wrote:

“The circumstantial evidence suggests that many of these complaints were bogus and that the Sheriff and the commissioners well knew it. Nevertheless, the Sheriff, in accord with his meetings with commissioners, increased his presence at the Sun Dancer and provoked problems at the club, including the problems that occurred on New Year’s Day, 1998. The Sheriff also used the complaints to make a record against the Sun Dancer.”

A recent decision by the 1^st District Court of Appeal allowed Wood’s case to proceed with Judge Mickle’s Order as an appendix even though the attorney general had motioned to strike Mickle’s order that cited “racial animus” as a cause for the raid.

Wood has shown himself to be a dauntingly effective “pro se” attorney – once cases pass beyond Bay County.

None of the witnesses that Wood tracked down were interviewed for the background investigation report on Tunnell conducted by the Florida Highway Patrol just before Tunnell’s confirmation by the Florida Senate (but not before the Cabinet decided to appoint Tunnell in August 2003 in “bass ackwards” fashion). Nor was there mention of the fact that there exists a videotape of the raid that in all likelihood would show Tunnell’s sheriffs way out of line. Kevin Wood was at the Cabinet meeting to protest the appointment of Tunnell, but he was given less than one-minute to speak by a clearly annoyed Gov. Jeb Bush.

What follows is an excerpt from the August 2003 Cabinet meeting at which Tunnell received the green light to go through the Senate confirmation process.

Gov. BUSH: I asked the cabinet’s approval for my appointment subject to a background review which has already begun. And, of course, subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.

MR. [KEVIN] WOOD: Governor, I just wanted to let you know that there are citizens here from Bay County who oppose that appointment based on findings of the federal court and evidence that show Sheriff Tunnell is not qualified and I ask for just one minute to be heard.

GOV. BUSH: Mr. Wood, you can come for just one minute.

GENERAL CRIST: Governor, while he’s coming, would you entertain a motion?

TREASURER GALLAGHER: Sure.

GENERAL CRIST: I would move that the cabinet approve the appointment of Sheriff Guy Tunnell as commissioner of FDLE effective October 1, 2003.

TREASURER GALLAGHER: Second.

GOVERNOR BUSH: There’s a motion and a second. Now, Mr. Wood, if you could, please – you promise a minute.

MR. WOOD: I promise a minute. I provided Mr. Gallagher a copy of the letter that has been submitted. I asked that that letter be entered into the record today prior to the vote in this case. Attached to that is a federal order by Federal Judge Steven Mickle which has identified substantial evidence of racism on the part of Sheriff Tunnell involving an African-American business in Panama City, Florida. And I don’t believe that this material has before been considered by whoever was considering the appointment, or of course, by the members of the cabinet. And I think it needs to be considered. Sheriff Tunnell, according to the evidence and according to the federal judge, is a blatant racist. And I believe that this evidence should be made public and that people should know about this prior to this appointment. I know I’m probably outnumbered 200 to one here. But in our form of democracy, sometimes one voice can bring to the attention material that needs to be considered before important decisions like this are made. To have a blatant racist to be the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is wrong, and you should not allow it to happen today.

GOVERNOR BUSH: Thank you. And just for the record, you’ve sent me more information, my office more information. We’ve had all of this. It’s not news. It’s not new, and it’s not newsworthy in my personal opinion. All this has been looked at.

MR. WOOD: You still have refused to order an investigation in Bay County and that’s why we have a problem.

TREASURER GALLAGHER: Governor, I’d like to say a couple of things if I may.

GOVERNOR BUSH: Sure.

TREASURER GALLAGHER: First of all, let me just tell you that I think Guy Tunnell is an excellent sheriff. I had a chance to spend a little time with him yesterday after you told us who you had chosen. And I truly believe that he will make an excellent person in charge of FDLE. I would also say that in the future I would ask that your staff would do the background check prior to bringing someone up. I mean, there’s not a sheriff in this room that would hire a deputy that would not do the background check prior to naming them. So I know it’s a formality, but it’s a very important formality that we all have to do. I’m certainly going to vote for him because I like him and was very interested in months ago [sic] that he would get this job. So I’m certainly for him. I just would like us to sort of get things in the right order in the future if we could. And I know that’s not your fault, it’s a staff issue. But maybe this will have the staff do it in the right order. And so therefore, I’d be most happy to vote in favor of the sheriff.

GOVERNOR BUSH: I can tell you that Guy Tunnell is as good a cop that this state has and we’ve got a ton of good ones. And he’s a person of unimpeachable integrity and he has the support – the broad support of law enforcement all across the state. And there has been proper checking. It is a formality and I apologize if you feel uncomfortable about it. But I am completely comfortable with my choice and I would urge a unanimous vote.

TREASURER GALLAGHER: You have a unanimous vote because you have a second and I’m certainly agreeing with it. And I’m sure the background check will come in just fine. But I did feel and obligation to at least mention that. So hopefully staff will put it in the right order in the future.

GENERAL CRIST: If I might. I think I need to give a friendly amendment to my motion to support the sheriff to add the salary of $124,000. And look forward to the unanimous vote.

GOVERNOR BUSH: There’s a motion.

TREASURER GALLAGHER: I’ll second that.

GOVERNOR BUSH: Second. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. All opposed. Sheriff, you want to come up and speak? Congratulations.

Floating Through the Political Process

By most accounts, Tunnell, who switched political parties from Democrat to Republican on Election Day 2000, had a good run in his first few months as director of FDLE since the go-ahead from the governor and Cabinet in August 2003. The collegial Florida Senate approved Tunnell in April of 2004, just several days after the release of his 50-page background check by the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP). However, even a cursory reading of the FHP report raised more questions than answers.

In his passage through the Senate Ethics and Elections committee, Tunnell met mostly accolades from the likes of Bay County businessman and future House Speaker Allan Bense, Senators Charlie Clary, and Durrell Peaden and others including several African American politicians from Bay County. His supporters called him a man of the highest integrity and honesty who had never shown himself to be a racist. The same was true of his treatment by the Criminal Justice Committee, although what was striking about that committee’s proceedings on Tunnell is that Senator Rod Smith, a former State Attorney from Gainesville, seemed to spend more effort challenging Kevin Wood than probing the background of Tunnell.

African American senators on both committees were low-key throughout the confirmation process. In the end, one expected to see beams of light radiating from Tunnell’s halo. Indeed, the Criminal Justice meeting to discuss Tunnell’s confirmation began with the candidate expressing the notion that “divine providence” is what had brought him to that point. The composite account of Tunnell is that he is just a great bear of a guy, “a gentle giant,” or “a nice man who would make a good fishing partner,” according to a neighbor during his background check.

No one was interested in what Kevin Wood had to say. It’s too easy to dismiss citizens who don’t wear expensive suits. Some activists who are persistent and have the smarts to track down facts can become almost crazed with a desire to seek truth from and about their public officials.

Committee chair and Wunderkind Republican Mike Haridopolos from central Florida apparently forgot to switch off his microphone after Wood was reluctantly given a minute to state his views of the Tunnell appointment. After Wood’s last comment about the deficiencies of the FHP report, Haridopolos murmured to a peer, “I don’t want to get into that.”

There isn’t space here to summarize the complexities of Kevin Wood’s life. That, too, would fill a book. But suffice it to say that Wood has nothing to gain from these actions beyond holding public officials accountable for their actions. He’s an engineer by training and scrupulous investigator by instinct with a powerful desire for fair play. In his testimony before the Cabinet and at the senate committees, Wood conformed to the ad hoc rules thrown in front of him. He refused to acknowledge that the train had left the station with regard to Tunnell’s confirmation, and was furious when he saw what he called the “sham of a report” produced by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) failed to interview the patrons of the Sun Dancer club who’d suffered injuries in the raid, and failed to speak with the sheriff’s deputies who’d alleged that complaints against the club were false.

Tunnell, nor anyone else has ever explained why 18 or more deputies were sent to the Sun Dancer on New Year's Day 1998. Everyone has ignored the video of the throng of deputies rifling through the club while the owner, Cindy Farr, unsuccessfully attempted to ascertain why they were there. Farr believed that intimidation of her African-American patrons was the likely motive.

Deputies arrested a black male airman in the club after providing his military ID. His case was the first thrown out of court. The FBI certainly could have tracked down this airman and interviewed him for the FHP or national Top Secret security clearance background investigation required for Tunnell's new Homeland Security duties. When asked by Kevin Wood why the airman had not been interviewed, FHP investigator Major David Brierton answered that because the airman was arrested he was a "defendant" and therefore not an interview candidate. Apparently falsely arrested defendants do not have a right to be heard in background investigations conducted by FHP or the FBI.

The View of a No-nonsense Retired General

The FHP report further grossly mis-characterized the comments of retired Air Force General Lawrence Fleming who was displeased when he saw himself depicted in the report as largely uncritical of Tunnell. He, too, calls Tunnell a nice guy and suggests that the County Commissioners need more scrutiny, as they’re the ones who have approved vague budgets for the Bay County Sheriffs Department that would have been best “printed on tissue paper because that’s easier on the rear end.”

Fleming had questions about the department’s bookkeeping relating to acquisition of used military helicopters and parts that the county refurbished and later sold allegedly without proper accounting. Under the state’s contraband forfeiture requirements, Section 932.705(a) of the Florida Statutes, each county in Florida is required to submit two reports a year about the disposition of seized property and cash.

In an interview, Fleming pointed out some of the questionable entries in recent reports relating to confiscated vehicles (seven of which in one recent report had the same dollar value -- $1,843.89 – even though they were all different models and from different years). Another report that listed 16 vehicles that were auctioned showed a Jimmy truck with a value of $900 that was donated, but it doesn’t say to whom; or a group of automobiles that were sold at an auction, and no proceeds listed.

Fleming is a colorful octogenarian who grew up in the Midwest and had occasion to visit the Windy City, a place famous for sticky-fingered public officials. As Fleming puts it, “The paper boys in Chicago could teach Bay County politicians a thing or two about corruption… These guys are sloppy.”

Yet according to the FHP report, any concerns about Tunnell on the part of Gen. Fleming seemed to have dissipated. In a letter to Col. Christopher Knight, head of the Florida Highway Patrol, Fleming called the FHP background check “most interesting but unfortunately quite inaccurate in my opinion.”

A Lt. Mauriello with FHP had interviewed Fleming and borrowed his notebooks documenting the disposition of seized assets and their cash value. Fleming later had a hard time getting Mauriello who is based in Miami to return his notebooks. When he finally did get them back, the pages were out of order and some were clipped, so he was pretty sure they had copied the parts that raised questions about the accounting irregularities by the sheriff’s department, none of which later were incorporated in the FHP report.

His letter also expressed disbelief that the governor would nominate someone to head FDLE without first performing a background check. “How could the governor be so dumb, or his staff so stupid?” he recounts saying to Mauriello when he was first interviewed about Tunnell.

The report further provided no explanations of several outstanding lawsuits against Tunnell in his capacity as sheriff and as a private citizen. It also noted that Tunnell’s 1973-1978 records of his police service in Orange County were “unavailable.”

In addition, Sen. Rod Smith suggested that the FHP interviewers obtain a copy of a Grand Jury report about the investigation of the shooting of a young man in Bay County during the administration of Lawton Chiles. The report said an investigation discovered procedural flaws with dispatching, but the deputies were cleared of wrongdoing. However, FHP never obtained a copy of the Grand Jury report (“Attempts to retrieve a copy of the summary have met with negative results.”) Grand Jury presentments in Bay County have a way of making themselves scarce.

Other charges against Tunnell cited in the report seemed to attract no interest. Early on a November morning in 1993, Tunnell ran his Ford Bronco through a stop sign in Lynn Haven seriously injuring four members of the Fidler family. All received medical treatment, but according to the FHP report, the driver of the other vehicle said that the collision was “covered up and not fully investigated” because the driver [who caused the collision] was the sheriff – and not tested for alcohol. His stepmother, Janie Fidler, also was interviewed. She, too, expressed dissatisfaction with how officials handled the accident, although she believes Tunnell was looking down at the time of the accident, perhaps distracted by a cell phone. She accused Tunnell of doing nothing to help her family after the accident until the local television media arrived, and said when police got there, they removed “unknown items” from Guy Tunnell’s vehicle. She also maintained that FHP should have investigated the collision given its seriousness.

There were other allegations against Tunnell, not the least of which was the accusation by a former deputy that Tunnell made him rewrite offense reports relating to the children of prominent Panama City businessman Joe Chapman. Former Deputy Doug Haddix sent an email to the Governor and his appointments director offering written proof of these allegations. The FHP report more or less reiterates these charges. In his email, however, Haddix claimed ultimately he was fired for reporting his superior for the beating of a 60-year old man. The FHP report says the Sheriff’s Department terminated Haddix after he was accused of attempted arson. In any case, FHP doesn’t find the charges by Haddix against Tunnell problematic enough to warrant investigation.

Tunnell was not asked about this or much of anything else at any of the confirmation proceedings. The FHP report claimed that “All relevant witnesses and principals have been interviewed and all available information and records have been collected and reviewed,” and thus “failed to identify any information that would support any allegations levied against Commissioner Tunnell.”

And there were several other charges against Tunnell alleging misconduct. He verbally refuted the ones that were raised in the Senate proceedings, including the dismissal of drug use as just a one-time “youthful indiscretion” when he was “apprehended within five minutes of lighting [his] first marijuana cigarette” at age 19. Republican Senator Anna Cowin wanted to know if Tunnell had inhaled, and that brought a wave of laughter.

Tunnell on his behalf challenged what he called the “misrepresentation of facts” on the Sun Dancer case and vehemently asserted that he had never infringed on anyone’s civil rights, and that he had strongly supported anti-racial profiling techniques. That may be true, because the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in 1998 initiated “Operation Thunder Road” – a roadblock that to the chagrin of many Bay Countians stopped all vehicles on a stretch of Highway 231 and searched for drugs, drunks, valid licenses and insurance. As such, it was an equal opportunity civil rights encroachment that raised hackles in a multi-racial manner.

A MATRIX of Considerations

Calling Tunnell “a blatant racist” as Kevin Wood has, may be oversimplifying. Tunnell may be an aggressive law man who knows the source of his bread’s butter and has learned how to traverse the slippery slope of political ambitions while remaining protected from full accountability.

A variety of African American individuals and organizations are quite supportive of Tunnell, although the state’s NAACP expressed strong opposition. The state vice president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference also appeared at the Senate hearing in opposition to Tunnell's appointment.

Tunnell is extremely involved in a number of civic organizations and liked and respected by many. However, in consideration of the level of likely corruption in Bay County, the governor’s appointment of Tunnell is that much more curious, especially in the backdrop of Bush's longstanding refusal to direct investigations into many serious issues and allegations in Bay County. The Sun Dancer matter was one issue ripe for full investigation by a Grand Jury or state or federal officials that has yet to be done.

The question is whether being a “nice guy” is enough of a litmus test for a position of such great responsibility, especially in light of the new wave of “homeland security issues” not the least of which is Florida’s piloting the MATRIX database – the massive "data mining" collection of personal data on U.S. citizens.

MATRIX, which stands for Multi-state Antiterrorism Information Exchange, was developed beginning in October 2001 by the Seisint Corporation of Boca Raton. According to an article by the St. Petersburg Times, the founder of the two companies that were merged in 1999 to form Seisint is a former drug smuggler who became a very good friend of Tunnell’s predecessor at FDLE, James T. Moore.

Seisint is a personal data collection company that gathers information on individuals from various publicly available sources. The state of Florida and federal law enforcement officials helped Seisint create this investigative tool by combining its commercial records—real estate, boat and Internet domain name ownership; address changes, utility connections, and bankruptcies; civil court records such as marriages and divorces, business filings, liens; and voter registrations, all going as far back as 30 years—with government criminal and motor vehicle records.

Florida is one of a handful of states that has decided that the power of "data mining" via Matrix to achieve law enforcement goals is far more compelling than the civil liberties and citizen privacy concerns that may be threatened. Some states have opted out of MATRIX out of fear of being too Big Brotherly. So whomever Governor Bush was going to appoint to head FDLE was certainly going to have to be comfortable pushing the MATRIX effort. Guy Tunnell is now the Chairman of the MATRIX committee.

It’s also important to understand the nature of Tunnell’s job as commissioner of FDLE. According to Article IV, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution, paragraph (g) states:

“The governor as chair, the chief financial officer, the attorney general and the commissioner of agriculture shall constitute the agency head of the Department of Law Enforcement.”

So in essence, the governor and Cabinet are the puppet masters. FDLE is not an independent investigative body, but rather a political appendage of the governor to selectively investigate – or not investigate – improprieties. Perhaps another one of those pesky constitutional amendments would be in order to truly address corruption in Florida. Like Kevin Wood, the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a watchdog organization, has repeatedly petitioned, Governor Bush to investigate serious allegations of corruption in Bay County. Their requests, documented by email and other public records trails, have been consistently denied or ignored.

Questions remain about the legitimacy of the FHP and FBI background checks on Guy Tunnell, and the curious lack of curiosity about what really happened that first day of 1998 at the now defunct Sun Dancer club.

According to the FHP report (Issue #2, Page 14), the FBI reported that "there were no closed or pending civil rights complaints." However, Kevin Wood has provided a list of about a dozen U.S. Department of Justice case numbers of complaints that he, Ms. Farr, and several of the victims of the New Years attack had filed with the Office of Coordination and Review within the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Wood has been to Washington to discuss these complaints with Agent Wonder Moore Davis in the Office of Coordination and Review. Where are these complaints now and why weren't these case files provided to the FBI, FHP, Cabinet or the Senate Committees?

Was it just a bunch of deputies out of control on New Years 1998, or were they acting according to "Tunnell vision," authority, and approval? We have yet to find out if and when state or federal authorities will conduct a legitimate investigation, or if they refuse, by a legitimately empanelled Grand Jury that will investigate the investigators.