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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 28, 2002
NOVEMBER 2001: In six months, Valrico land speculator Don Connolly acquires a combined 22 acres by paying delinquent tax bills or attending tax deed sales in Pinellas County. For the 49 properties, Connolly paid $184,600.
MAY 9: Workers begin erecting a 6-foot-high fence around a lake in the East Lake subdivision of Tarpon Woods, painting part of it pink. Connolly had paid $848 for the 4-acre lake and a small ring of land surrounding it. He demands $30,000 each from 15 waterfront homeowners to sell back the view.
MID MAY: Connolly threatens to fence off docks unless owners of 61 waterfront homes near South Pasadena pay him $100,000 each. Connolly had bought a 10-acre stretch of submerged land adjacent to the homes for $2,000. The homeowners sue and, in a June settlement, buy the property from Connolly for $18,000.
MAY 25: Connolly takes down the fence he erected in Tarpon Woods as a "good faith" gesture.
JUNE 19: The Hillsborough State Attorney's Office charges Connolly with perjury, a felony, for lying about his criminal history on his May 2001 application for a notary public license.
JUNE 20: The Florida Department of Revenue files four tax warrants totaling $272,661 against Connolly. Three relate to a 1997 tax fraud case in which Department of Revenue investigators determined that Connolly failed to pay $512,713 in state sales taxes from his Kinjite Motors used car company.
JULY 19: Connolly pleads guilty to felony charges of perjury and probation violation.
AUG. 13: Connolly announces that virtually every property he bought at tax deed sales will be offered at his cost to county governments and then to adjacent property owners.
AUG. 21: Connolly sells the Tarpon Woods lake to one of the homeowners for $4,000.
AUG. 27: Connolly is convicted of perjury for falsifying a state notary license application, and violation of probation charges. Circuit Judge Debra K. Behnke gives Connolly a suspended sentence of 364 days in jail, puts him on community control for a year and orders him to perform 150 hours of community service. Connolly also receives a suspended sentence on probation violation charges. He remains on 15 years' probation and must pay the state $94,717 at the rate of $750 a month.
-- Compiled by Times news researcher John Martin.