Spin Patrol

By DAVID KARP, MICHAEL SANDLER and BILL COATS

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 4, 2000

Candidate turns to mom for assistance

In her campaign's last days, former prosecutor Stacey Lyn Easterling has turned for support to someone who played a controversial role in her candidacy's beginning:

Her mother.

Deanna Easterling, the former human resource director for the late State Attorney Harry Lee Coe, has written a letter urging Democrats to support her daughter, a Republican running for the County Commission against Ben Wacksman. The letter praises Stacey for her hard work and uncompromising principles.

Easterling's mom says in the letter that she has been a Democrat "all my life," but records show that she switched to the Republican Party on April 4. Stacey Easterling's decision earlier this year to run for the commission caused a rift between her mom and Coe. Coe had hired Stacey Easterling out of law school; her mother was Coe's judicial assistant for about 16 years and a close friend.

Coe had asked Easterling not to run against Wacksman, but she declared for the seat anyhow. The decision ended Coe's friendship with the Easterling family. Coe and Deanna Easterling did not speak for months afterward.

Deanna Easterling also was one of two aides who had loaned Coe money before his death. Coe borrowed $5,000 from Easterling for reasons he would only say were "personal." At the same time, Coe was a regular visitor to local dog tracks.

A news report on WFLA-Ch. 8 about the loans led Gov. Jeb Bush to order an investigation, which is ongoing. Three days later, Coe killed himself.

In his last official act as state attorney, Coe wrote a letter firing Deanna Easterling. Stacey Easterling said she didn't think twice about her mom's letter.

"It didn't even enter my mind," she said. "If I had a guilty conscience, maybe it would have."

GOOD GRADES FOR ROMEO: In the District 60 seat of the Florida House of Representatives, Democrat Sara Romeo recently gave herself good grades for education proposals. Two subjects she did not evaluate were researching skills and attribution.

Romeo's campaign recently distributed report cards for both candidates with grades for class size, school violence, problem solving and teachers' trust. Romeo earned an A in all four; Ed Homan, her Republican opponent, received a D, two F's and an incomplete.

All grades were followed by comments, two of which were attributed to a Tampa Tribune article and a Web site set up by the Center for Florida's Children. "I can tell you everything that was cited was taken from the sources," Romeo initially said.

That seems open to interpretation.

According to the Web site, Homan did not answer the survey question that asked whether trigger locks and other safety devices should be mandatory on guns. It was one of 15 "yes or no" questions in the survey.

Romeo gave Homan an F for his efforts on school violence.

Next to the grade was this explanation: "Ed Homan turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to the issue of mandatory child-safety trigger locks on new guns kept at home, ... too many of which can turn up in our schools. When he could have led here, he refused to speak out. (www.floridakids.com)"

In another Web site survey by Project Vote Smart, Homan said he supports requiring child-safety locks on guns.

Romeo said the comments next to the grade were written by her campaign, not the sources.

"If it is not in quotations, it's an opinion," Romeo said. "That's where I get my information for my opinion."

THE CRIMINAL ELEMENT: Stacey Easterling's latest ad shows a criminal standing behind bars with a cigarette in his left hand, looking with dark eyes at the voter. His message:

"Wacksman has my support!"

The ad accuses Commissioner Ben Wacksman, a Democrat, of pandering to criminals. Easterling, a former prosecutor, also touts her endorsement from the West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association.

"Wacksman has been very open about his dislike of prisons," Easterling said in an interview. "He does not like to vote for prisons. He doesn't think we need more prisons. He supports voting for more non-prison environments."

Wacksman, a Democrat, said he has supported the sheriff and the attorney general during his two years on the commission. While voting for prisons, he also has pushed for more programs to help reduce the causes of crime, he said.

"I just think that is an outrageous, desperate distortion of my record, which has been to fully support law enforcement," Wacksman said.

MEMBER OF THE CLUB: Public Defender Julie Holt is personally trying the case of Mike Fuqua, the 24-year-old Lutz man accused of fatally stabbing a man in a March 14 Ybor City bar fight.

She said it's the fourth murder case she has handled. "This is one of those cases that caught my interest because of all the convoluted details," Holt said Monday.

Specifically, she cited the fact that an employee of the Blues Ship Cafe, where the fight occurred, identified a black man as having stabbed 22-year-old Air Force airman Jeremiah "Jeff" Kleiss. Fuqua is white.

"I'm a little intrigued by this one," Holt said.

The decision puts Holt in a cozy club of defense attorneys who have defended youths known as the Lutz Boyz. Another member of the club: Holt's Republican opponent, Alan Sandler, who a year ago represented Lutz Boy James Chambers on a violation of probation charge.

- Times Staff Writers David Karp, Michael Sandler and Bill Coats were on Spin Patrol.

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