Uncuffed

By SUE CARLTON and AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 12, 2000

Public defender's private interests

In campaign billboards around town, Hillsborough Public Defender Julianne Holt claims to have saved taxpayers millions of dollars.

She's not as public about other, more personal, benefits from the office.

In 1995, Holt asked her public defender secretary to write two letters to the U.S. Embassy in Colombia. One encouraged immigration officials to allow a former private client's grandmother, Aura Elena Munoz Cuellas, into the country on a tourist visa. The other letter was proof that Holt was indeed employed as public defender.

The letters -- both written on government time -- enthused how Holt wanted Cuellas to help care for her ailing mother and how she would pay for all travel and living expenses.

"I have known this very respectable woman for several years," the letter stated. "I would very much appreciate her presence in my home ... "

But Cuellas' daughter, Maggie Mejia, said that her mother was elderly herself and at no time was going to look after Holt's mother.

"She couldn't have taken care of her," she said in June. "She wasn't capable of it."

In 1998, Holt's mother died. A year later, the immigration service allowed Mejia's mother to join them in Valrico.

Today, a grateful Mejia says she considers Holt a friend, so much so that she babysits Holt's children for free. She says she does not want to be paid.

Holt acknowledges sending the letters, saying she did it to try to find help for her mother.

"I'll work diligently and desperately for anyone who can help me in my personal life, so I don't have to give up what I do for this office," she said. "I work so many hours that I do the best I can to cover my personal life so that I don't have to give up my professional life."

HOLD THE PHONE: The scene is repeated at the federal courthouse almost daily. A lawyer blusters into the high-rise building on N Florida Avenue in full battle dress: tailored suit, briefcase, cell phone and beeper.

Hold it, the marshals say pleasantly. No electronic gadgets in here.

What's a lawyer -- parked blocks away and nearly late for a hearing -- to do now?

Call necessity the mother of capitalist invention. Around the corner from the courthouse at the Zack Street Newsstand, Raj Patel is happy to hold on to the cellular phones and pagers while lawyers are in court, a practice he says he inherited from the previous owner of the store. On a busy day, Patel says he's juggling four or five under the front counter. And, Patel says, those lawyers very often feel compelled to make a purchase -- a lottery ticket, a magazine -- to show their appreciation.

THE WINNER IS ... WHAT'S-HER-NAME: Jan Reilly, the always affable woman often first in the line of fire at the Public Information Office at the Tampa Police Department, is out on medical leave for a few weeks. Before she left, though, the ever-efficient Reilly attended to a few final details, such as why no one had been chosen as October Employee of the Month.

Not only did no one tell her who was chosen, Reilly fretted, but whoever organized it ordered the wrong size plaque.

Monday, Reilly found out why, when Chief Bennie Holder announced who had won: Jan Reilly.

Besides the regular plaque, Reilly got a gag plaque, complete with a speech from Capt. Sam Jones. The plaque, which looked as though a 5-year-old put it together, was adorned with tape, tacky nails and misspelled words.

"Jan, first of all we selected you ... since there were no other nominees," Jones said.

As far as her name, he said, "Is it Jane? Jan or Janice?"

Reilly said she will treasure the plaque -- the real one, too.

- Times staff writer Graham Brink and researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

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