Jailed businessman goes free after apology

After 24 days, he says he has made his point. A judge had him locked up for reopening a logging business without a permit.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 24, 2001

LECANTO -- Charlie Strange walked out of the Citrus County Detention Facility on Thursday morning after apologizing for violating a temporary court order by reopening his business with Scott Adams.

After 24 days in jail, Strange decided he had made his point.

"If I thought I could finish the point by staying in jail, I would," Strange said Friday. "But I could be in jail for six months and it wouldn't make a difference."

Brooksville Circuit Judge Richard Tombrink Jr. sent Adams and Strange to jail Jan. 29 after ruling that they deliberately violated a court order by reopening their logging and mulching business at County Road 486 and Croft Avenue.

Citrus County sued the two businessmen a year ago for refusing to get development permits for the site, and a judge ordered that the log yard remain closed until the matter was resolved at trial.

Adams went home Jan. 29 after offering an apology of sorts: "I'm sorry for putting my agriculture operation on the (CR) 486 property as of Jan. 22, 2001. I'm just trying to make a living," Adams' letter read.

But Strange refused to apologize for the next three weeks, saying he felt the temporary court order was unjust.

"The trouble is, I don't feel like we should have been shut down to begin with," Strange told the court Wednesday, when he and Adams appeared for the first part of their trial with the county.

Adams and Strange contend their operation qualifies as a farm and that it is therefore exempt from local permitting requirements under the state's Right to Farm Act.

But Strange said Friday after sitting in jail for 24 days playing cards, reading the Bible and "staring at the wall a lot," he decided it was time to move on with his life.

A copy of Strange's apology letter was not available in the court file Friday, but Strange said he kept the statement "short and sweet."

"I said basically what (the judge) wanted me to say, that the court had shut me down and therefore I never should have reopened my (business) because it was against the court," Strange said. "And therefore I apologize for doing it."

"I made an apology to get out of jail," he added. "That's the extent of it."

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