Tampabay: Coe likely faced criminal charges

Coe likely faced criminal charges

An FDLE investigation says that State Attorney Harry Lee Coe repeatedly broke the law to pay for his gambling habit.

By GRAHAM BRINK and DAVID KARP

TAMPA -- Desperate for cash two years ago, State Attorney Harry Lee Coe summoned three trusted employees and told them he needed $15,000 right away. Each agreed to give their boss $5,000, and each turned down the offer of a written IOU.

That Coe had stooped to borrowing money from his employees is a stark example of how his gambling addiction had taken over his life. In the 15 months leading up to his suicide in July, Coe cashed more than $500,000 worth of checks at local dog tracks, an average of $1,000 a day, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report released Tuesday.

To pay for the habit, the county's top law enforcement officer repeatedly broke the law.

He dipped into campaign funds, the FDLE said.

He bounced checks, lied to banks and falsified travel statements and election reports, the FDLE found. After a TV reporter asked for computer records of Coe's visits to online greyhound racing Web sites on a laptop computer, Coe instructed an employee to delete the records.

Had he not killed himself, Coe likely would have faced criminal charges, ranging from misdemeanors to official corruption, a charge that brings a possible prison term. FDLE officials didn't determine the exact charges they might have pursued.

"Crimes were committed," said Charles Guthrie, the special agent supervisor who conducted the investigation. "We determined what they were and how they happened."

The FDLE report shows how Coe's inner circle rallied both before and after the suicide to keep his financial problems under wraps, a subject they repeatedly denied knowing much about.

Agents began investigating Coe in May after receiving a complaint from a reporter for WFLA-Ch. 8 who had been investigating tips about Coe's gambling debts and loans from employees. The reporter said Coe's office had covered up public records that would have showed Coe's appetite for visiting online betting sites.

Coe, 68, shot himself under the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway by his apartment just days after WFLA-Ch. 8 and newspapers documented two of the employee loans.

The FDLE report paints a bleak picture of addiction, debt and denial.

Coe, who made $216,000 a year in salary and pension, had racked up $250,000 in liabilities. He spent $510,000 in 15 months at local dog tracks, where he bounced $47,000 worth of personal checks.

The mounting debt forced him to borrow $15,000 from a former girlfriend and a relative. He also hit up a core group of employees.

He received $7,500 from former Chief Investigator Bill Stevens, $5,000 from Human Resource Director Deanna Easterling, $5,000 from aide Dudley Dickson, $5,000 from Assistant State Attorney Paul Johnson and $4,000 from Chief Technology Officer Bill Reynolds.

At the time he asked for the loans, Coe hinted that he knew he could end up in trouble. He asked his employees what they would say if investigators asked about the loans, Guthrie said. The employees stammered. Coe told them simply: "Tell the truth."

"I'm in trouble," Coe told Stevens, according to the FDLE.

The FDLE found no evidence that Coe coerced the loans or that he gave the employees any special treatment.

"The folks that loaned him the money, I think would have given him everything they had," Guthrie said. "They loved and respected the man."

The loans, though, worsened Coe's crisis. Instead of using the money to pay down his debts, Coe kept gambling. Then he and his aides worried about how to keep the loans secret from the public.

Coe's troubles intensified this spring when Easterling, a close aide who had lent him money, broke ranks. The trouble arose when Easterling's daughter, Stacey, decided to run for the County Commission against Coe's wishes. At a certain point, Easterling went to Dickson and told him, "I just want my money back."

Over lunch one day, Coe and his inner circle discussed the problem, according to the FDLE. They agreed the loan was "a political liability."

Rather than repay Easterling directly, Coe borrowed the $4,000 from Reynolds. He found another $1,000 from an unknown source. Coe and Easterling's relationship was so bad, money never exchanged hands between the two of them. Dickson acted as the middle man.

Coe took out bank loans, as well, saying he needed them to pay taxes, Guthrie said. The loans, in fact, were used for gambling, debts and everyday expenses, a misrepresentation that could have attracted attention from federal authorities.

On top of that, very few of any of Coe's loans showed up on his financial disclosure forms, another violation of Florida statutes.

As Coe's 2000 campaign began, he used about $9,000 in campaign contributions for personal use. Coe would put campaign contributions into his personal accounts and repay most of the money weeks later, after his paychecks cashed or Coe received another loan.

Coe's actions violated numerous election laws. The law allows only Coe's authorized campaign treasurer to handle money, but investigators said others -- Coe, Dickson and Assistant State Attorney Craig Clendinen -- handled campaign funds. Coe also falsified campaign expenditure reports.

This year, Coe deputy treasurer Paul Nee kept asking Coe for campaign receipts.

"Look, don't worry about it," Coe told Nee, according to Guthrie. "I'm the state attorney."

Coe's practice of dipping into his campaign funds began eight years ago, after his first election as state attorney.

In 1992, Coe set up an office account at a bank with about $1,300 in leftover campaign funds. State law allowed Coe to use campaign money for office expenses. At first, the bank required two signatures to withdraw funds. But Coe changed the account, allowing him to take out money by himself. Then he emptied it.

Coe continued the same practice in 1996, converting about $4,500 in leftover campaign funds for his use. He used the money as a "revolving credit account" for personal use. On 14 reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections, however, Coe claimed that none of the money had been withdrawn.

Coe also lied on travel reimbursement expenses to get taxpayer money that he wasn't entitled to receive.

The problem jumped out at the investigating FDLE agents. On one form, Coe got reimbursed for driving his own car to a crime conference in Orlando. An FDLE special agent who looked at the form knew it was false. The agent remembered driving Coe to the conference.

No one was checking Coe's forms. He submitted them to his own office, which then forwarded them to the county for payment.

Was that theft?

Guthrie said that if he had done what Coe did he "would expect internal affairs officers to come and put handcuffs on me."

Until the end, Coe maintained his innocence as FDLE investigators finally began closing in.

The day before Coe killed himself, FDLE Regional Director James Sewell told Coe on the phone that Gov. Jeb Bush would probably authorize an investigation the next day.

Sewell said Coe told him he welcomed what he hoped would be a thorough investigation.

The next morning, Sewell tried to call Coe when he learned that Bush had approved an investigation. Coe's office tried to page Coe, but Coe had left his pager on his desk. By then, Coe knew about the governor's decision.

"He knew if there was something there that we'd find it," Guthrie said.