State's technology chief is arrested

By JULIE HAUSERMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 31, 2001

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush's technology czar, a man in charge of a $600-million budget, was arrested Thursday on grand theft charges from an alleged fraud that happened three years before he joined the administration.

Roy Cales, 39, is accused of falsifying a letter to get a Tallahassee bank to lend him $35,000 in 1996.

Cales resigned his $95,000-a-year job with the governor's office and turned himself in at the Leon County Jail. He was released on his own recognizance.

Cales oversaw 1,760 workers and was the chief architect of a massive effort to consolidate all state computer purchases under one department.

Bush hired Cales in 1999, even though Cales had a bankruptcy in his past and a 1985 grand theft charge. In the 1985 case, Cales embezzled $1,800 from a lumber store he worked at in Leesburg. He admitted guilt, repaid the money, and the charges were dropped.

The governor's office talked to Cales about the old charge and decided to overlook it.

"Roy's record in previous service to the governor was really what stood out, not something that happened 15 years ago," then-Bush spokesman Justin Sayfie told the Wall Street Journal last year.

Cales' lawyer, Steve Dobson, said Thursday that Cales "emphatically denies he did anything wrong, much less illegal."

Bush issued a statement calling Cales "my friend" and said, "The crimes which Roy is accused of committing are serious, but we must affirm that public officials enjoy the same presumption of innocence afforded all of us."

Cales started doing computer work for Bush during the 1998 campaign. When Bush won the Governor's Mansion, Cales came aboard as information systems director for the governor's office. Ten months later, Bush made him Florida's first chief information officer.

The Leon County Sheriff's Office began investigating Cales this year after Farmers & Merchants Bank in Tallahassee reported the alleged 1996 fraud.

A probable cause affidavit outlined the alleged fraud this way: Cales' computer business went to the bank for a loan in 1996, saying the loan was for a computer contract with a local television station. Cales' company brought a letter it said was from the TV station, Fox 49, promising to make joint payment on the loan.

Cales' company went bankrupt after Cales suffered a stroke.

The bank then approached Fox 49 about repaying the loan. The station's business manager, Sue Schultz, said the letter was obviously fake: It wasn't on official Fox 49 letterhead, and her signature was forged and misspelled.

Because Cales was in poor health, the bank didn't pursue the defaulted loan at the time. But this past Christmas, one of the bank officers, Don May, saw Cales at a party and learned he was in good health and had a new job as Bush's technology director. The bank decided to pursue criminal charges.

The Sheriff's Office interviewed Cales, who said he didn't remember the letter. He said his wife, Dawn, ran the business after his stroke. Dawn Cales also said she had never seen the letter.

This month, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement handwriting expert confirmed that the Fox 49 station manager's signature was forged.

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