FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Broward County Commissioner Stacy Ritter has often complained about the attention paid to her by the media and authorities, but now she may finally feel some relief.
After an investigation that looked back at her votes and actions spanning about eight years, the state attorney's office has cleared Ritter of criminal misconduct in three separate cases. Prosecutors wrote that they found insufficient evidence to prosecute, but spared Ritter few damaging details in its 26-page, close-out memorandum on the investigation.
The report revealed, for instance, that bribe-paying developer Bruce Chait, who has been a key witness in several corruption trials, bought Ritter a $2,000 golf cart while she was campaigning for office -- just six months before she voted to approve Chait's controversial golf course development.
Ritter claimed the golf cart was old and "worthless," but Chait produced the receipt for the E-Z-GO cart, which he told investigators that Ritter asked for personally and said she "would really, really, really appreciate," according to the report.
Prosecutors also learned that Ritter's husband, Russ Klenet, paid $890 to replace the cart's six batteries two years after they received it.
"Clearly the cart had value," prosecutors wrote in refuting Ritter's testimony.
The investigation also found that Chait, now a convicted felon, helped influence Ritter to drop her bid for the state Senate in favor of the commission seat. Ritter testified that she used the golf cart once to campaign at a July 4 parade in Tamarac in 2006.
"I think that's the only time I used it," she said under oath. "And it wasn't for the county commission campaign, because I was giving out state Senate T-shirts."
But prosecutors again questioned Ritter's truthfulness.
"She denied that she used it during her campaign for the Broward County commission seat. However, at the time of the parade ... Stacy Ritter was clearly a candidate for Broward County commission and not a candidate for state Senate, having formally withdrawn from the [Senate race] on June 1, 2006, and filing [for the commission race] on the same day," prosecutors wrote.
But they chose not to prosecute for unlawful compensation because they said there was "no evidence to prove that her vote was ... because the Chaits gave her a golf cart or benefit."
A second investigation related to work done by Klenet, a lobbyist. When elected, Ritter promised the public that her husband wouldn't lobby her or any other county official while she was on the dais, but investigators learned that Klenet did work for the lobbying firm that employed him at the time, Dutko Worldwide, on behalf of Vista Health, while that company was vying for a $40 million insurance contract. It found that Klenet also charged a $550 dinner with Ritter and other family members to the Dutko Worldwide, while claiming it was a lobbying dinner for Vista with "commission staff."
When the couple then went on a European vacation, Ritter voted by phone for Vista from a hotel room in Copenhagen, Denmark, after Dutko executives sent Klenet an email telling him, "We need to make sure Stacy is on phone."
In a sworn statement taken in 2010, Ritter admitted to prosecutors that there was an appearance of impropriety in some of her husband's actions, but she was adamant his actions didn't influence her vote. The state attorney's office ultimately found that, despite the dinner charged as Vista lobbying, it couldn't be proved that Klenet, who was being a $375,000 annual salary, was paid specifically for his Vista work, or that Ritter had corrupt intent when she cast her vote for the company.
After Ritter was hit with 14 election violations in 2012 for questionable campaign spending, including thousands spent by Klenet on dinners and other perks, the state attorney's office investigation determined there was no criminal wrongdoing, citing the wide "latitude" given to candidates by Florida law in campaign spending.
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