Secretary says Holt compiled dossier

Public Defender Julianne Holt insists she did not dig for personal information on a Times columnist.

By AMY HERDY and GRAHAM BRINK

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 22, 2000

TAMPA -- It was nothing new for Sharon Slater to make a trip to the Property Appraiser's Office to pick up something for her boss, Hillsborough County Public Defender Julianne Holt.

But on this trip, what she was asked to get surprised her: personal information about Times columnist Mary Jo Melone.

"She wanted to know where she hung out, where she lived, what she drove, what her mortgage was," recalled Slater, Holt's secretary from 1993 to 1997.

Slater said Holt had staff members follow Melone and compile a dossier on her as she researched a series of articles about Holt in the mid-90s.

"When Mary Jo began investigating Julie, she began investigating Mary Jo," Slater said.

Holt, 45, denies having anyone follow Melone or compile any sort of dossier on her. She said she has been the victim of smear campaigns herself and would not subject someone else to that type of scrutiny.

"It would be crazy to do anything like that," Holt said Tuesday.

A memo Slater wrote Nov. 15, 1994, documented a conversation between Slater and Terry DeLisle, one of Holt's investigators.

Slater said DeLisle told her he was following Melone at Holt's request. DeLisle was at Hillsborough Property Appraiser Ron Alderman's office "watching him run around, because Mary Jo Melone was over there," she recalled.

DeLisle, who now works for the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, denied he ever followed Melone. The only time he ever went to Alderman's office had nothing to do with Melone, he said.

"I've never done anything with Mary Jo," he said.

Joe Moore, a former process server who said he was fired by Holt in May, said he once followed Melone at Holt's request. "She wanted to know where she was going when she left (Holt's) office," Moore said.

Holt called Moore a liar, saying he was a disgruntled employee out to ruin her chances of winning a third term.

Two people who once worked for Alderman say they helped compile a secret file on Melone.

Maida Cronin, Alderman's communications director, said she kept the file at her office. She said another Alderman employee, Scott Moore, and Moore's father, Joe, did the research. Cronin and Scott Moore went to work for Holt after Alderman was defeated in 1996. Cronin is now a receptionist for Holt. Scott Moore was a computer technician for Holt until he was recently fired.

Scott Moore said his involvement was limited to gathering information on vehicles owned by Melone, other Times reporters and employees of WFLA-TV. He said he did the research on a computer at the Property Appraiser's Office. Cronin asked him to do the research at Holt's request, he said.

Holt said she knew that Scott Moore had compiled a file on Melone when he worked at the Property Appraiser's Office, but she did not order him to do it and never asked him for it.

"I didn't want the file," she said. "And I couldn't do anything with any dirt anyway."

Cronin said she does not recall Holt requesting the research, which she said included details about Melone's husband and their cars. She said Scott Moore compiled the information, gave it to her and she kept it in an office drawer. "It was never used," she said.

Slater recalls differently.

Holt asked her to pick up some documents from Cronin, she recalled, and when she arrived at the Property Appraiser's Office, Cronin told her the information concerned Melone.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.