Fireworks dispute ends with probation

A posh neighborhood was rocked at 5 a.m. after Gasparilla.

By BILL COATS
Published July 20, 2007

TAMPA - Ernie Haire pleaded no contest Thursday to setting off explosions that boomed through his posh Avila neighborhood the morning after January's Gasparilla parade.

Haire, the 52-year-old president of Ernie Haire Ford, was sentenced to a year's probation on misdemeanor charges of assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct. He agreed to be evaluated for alcoholism treatment but told the Times he didn't think it was warranted.

"I don't drink that often, not anymore," Haire said. "The party scene, clubs and all that, it's fun, but it runs its course after a while."

Haire had been drinking on Sunday, Jan. 28, celebrating Gasparilla, when he decided at 5 a.m. to call his next-door neighbor, Paul Bilzerian.

Haire and Bilzerian were longtime friends, and Haire had partnered in several business deals with Bilzerian's wife, Terri Steffen. But business disagreements have split them in recent years, and they are entangled now in four lawsuits.

Haire said he thought Bilzerian agreed to a predawn meeting. But they never got together.

By the time Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies arrived, they found Haire in a golf cart outside the 28,000-square-foot mansion Bilzerian had built, which is the largest home in Hillsborough County. Fifteen phone messages from Haire were on Bilzerian's recorder. The lakefront estates of Avila and nearby Lutz had been rattled by at least three explosions of M-80s - a souped-up firecracker. And Bilzerian's son, Dan, had temporarily lost his hearing. And Haire had another M-80 in his pocket.

Bilzerian filed a victim impact statement that described hearing the booms. "My two sons, my mother-in-law, my nephew and my wife were all terrorized by these events," Bilzerian wrote.

In Thursday's hearing, County Judge Lawrence Lefler initially ordered Haire to stay 500 feet away from Bilzerian's sons, but was reminded that their houses are next door. Lefler settled on 20 yards.

"You're not to get on the property for any reason or under any circumstances at all," the judge ordered.

Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 20, 2007, 00:17:32]