FDLE report on the death of Harry Lee Coe

By Times staff reports

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

Here are the highlights of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigation into Harry Lee Coe III, the Hillsborough state attorney who committed suicide in July.

Coe's gambling and finances

In the last 15 months of his life, Coe wrote checks to local dog tracks totaling $510,000

Some of those checks bounced. When Coe died, he owed the Derby Lane greyhound track in St. Petersburg $28,000 and the Tampa greyhound track $19,000 from bad checks.

The FDLE investigators said Coe used a laptop computer in his office primarily to access greyhound racing Web sites. In the 17 months he had the computer, Coe accessed greyhound sites on "at least 200 different days," the investigative report says. When WFLA-Ch.8 filed a public records request in April for the addresses of Web sites Coe had visited, Coe ordered his chief technology officer, Bill Reynolds, to delete the greyhound sites.

Loans from employees and friends

From the summer of 1998 to the spring of 2000, Coe borrowed $41,500 from employees and acquaintances. He had repaid some of the loans by the time he died, but he still owed $21,500 to several current and former employees, and an additional $6,000 to Carol Gallagher James, a former girlfriend who had loaned him $10,000.

"No evidence was found that intimidation or coercion was a factor in the decision of the employees to extend the loans to Coe," the report says.

Personal use of campaign funds

After his 1996 re-election campaign, Coe converted $4,500 in leftover campaign funds to personal use.

Approximately $9,000 in contributions to Coe's 2000 campaign were improperly spent on personal expenses, the report says. Coe repaid some of this money, but the report does not say how much.

Rumors after Coe's death

The FDLE investigators looked into several rumors of blackmail or extortion that circulated after Coe's death. One rumor had it that nude-club owner Joe Redner was controlling Coe; another suggested that Deanna Easterling, a former close friend who had fallen out with Coe, was blackmailing him to keep her job with Coe. "No evidence was found that either of these rumors was factual," the report says.

Was it a suicide?

The FDLE investigators say they discovered no evidence to dispute the medical examiner's finding that Coe died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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