CLOSE-OUT MEMO Criminal Investigation Public Corruption Unit = ASA. Isis Pereg~ INVESTIGATION #: 64-18-10 aa a DATE: May 15, 2018 REV. "Le fay Math ~p—— DATE: shir Tim pete Division Ghief, PCU : _ pare; £| reels JOSE J. ARROJO, Chief Assistant SUBJECT(S): Mary Kramer EMPLOYMENT: Attorney at Law Connie Leon-Kreps Mayor of N. Bay Village ‘Ana Watson Private Citizen INVESTIGATOR: S. Caceres INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATOR: AGENCY: FOLE AGENCY: PHONE; PHONE: CONCLUSION (1 CHARGES FILED COURT CASE NUMBER: CRIME STATUTE DEGREE, Extortion 836.05 Second degree Boomer: North Bay Village, (NBV), commissioner, Douglas Hornsby (hereinafter “Homsby’) announced at the May 9, 2017 NBV regular commission meeting that he had received two leiters in his mail box. The first letter was received by Hornsby on April 21%, 2017. The letter had a copy of his prior convictions and in bold typing on a blank sheet it stated” Did you have a pardon to have your voter's rights restored?” The second letter, received May 1, 2017 had copies of his prior felony criminal conviction in Tennessee, other arrests in Florida and copies of the hospitals and organizations Hornsby was associated with, Also, right before going to the commission meeting on May 9, Mary Elizabeth Shute, (hereinafter “Shute") his wife, had received an anonymous E mal. These letters and E mail contained his prior criminal records attached. The priors included one conviction in Tennessee, which occurred in 1992. ‘There were no other convictions. According to NBV police no prints of value were found in either set of letters. NBV police also had forensic analysis done on the anonymous E mail and they were unable to find who the sender was.Hornsby stated he was being extorted because some people wanted him to either vote to fire City Manager Rollason or resign from the commission (so they could get somebody to vote to fire the manager) and he interpreted the delivery of the letters to be about exposing his prior troubles if he did not do one of the two. According to Hornsby he strongly suspected Mayor Connie Leon-Kreps, hereinafter “Leon-Kreps”, Mary Kramer hereinafter “Kramer”, an attorney who resides in North Bay Village and/or Ana Watson, hereinafter “Watson”, a resident of North Bay Village of being the persons who had sent them the letters as he felt they were the ones who wanted him to vote to fire the manager Hornsby and Shute provided sworn statements to NBV and FDLE. Shute, according to her and Hornsby, had been a very close friend of Leon-Kreps and Kramer. Shute categorized the relationship with Watson as an acquaintance. Shute stated that she had confided to Leon-Kreps and to Kramer about Hornsby prior criminal record, lawsuits and arrest! Hornsby reported that ever since he had applied to become a commissioner for the open seat in NBV, Leon- Kreps wanted to fire then City Manager Frank Rollason, Hornsby stated that he had made it clear that he would not vote to fire the City Manager unless he had good cause to do so, According to Homsby, his wife told him on many occasions that Leon-Kreps wanted Hornsby to vote to fire Mr. Rollason, Shute also stated that Leon-Kreps constantly told her to have Hornsby vote to fire Mr. Rollason. Hornsby also suspected Kramer of dropping off the papers in his mailbox because, according to him, she also wanted the Manager fired. He recounted a conversation he had with her on the day he was sworn in as a commissioner, where she allegedly stated, “now we can get rid of Rollason”. Hornsby stated that Kramer had visited their home on April 19% and asked Hornsby to call an emergency finance meeting, Hornsby stated that during the conversation, Kramer made 4 statement to him that her clients were drug dealers and they would do whatever she said. He became very upset with this statement, because he felt she was implying a threat. However, hie did not inquire as to what she meant by the statement. There were no other witnesses to this conversation. ‘An outdoor video camera at the residence of the Hornsby"s next-door neighbor shows a white car passing by the residence of Homsby around the time that an envelope could have been left in the mail box. The video did not reveal a driver or any other identifiable information such as a license tag or whether anything was left in the Hornsby mail box ‘NBVPD pulled records of incoming and outgoing vehicles at the gate of the NBV Island where the Homsby and the Kramer residences are located. No evidence relevant to this investigation was obtained. On April 23, 2017, Shute reported to police that she was being threatened by Watson via text and phone call According to Shute, Watson stated that if her husband did not resign from the commission, there was going to be a big problem involving his past. When the alleged threats were reported by Hornsby, Shute agreed to have her cell phone downloaded. There were no text messages recovered to support the exchange.¥ Hornsby provided an E mail exchange between himself and Watson. The E mail references a request from Watson for Hornsby to assist her with a matter at her condominium association, ‘The message from Watson clearly shows that she ‘was upset with Hornsby for not helping with the condominium association issue. She blamed him for his trust in the City Manager, Frank Rollason. In the E mail to Hornsby, Watson states that I hope everyone is ready for what is next. She states that something is going to happen on Friday and that Hornsby is going to claim to be a victim. Watson was sent two notices to-appear at the Office of the State Atomey and she never responded. She was subsequently arrested on an unrelated matter and did not give a statement relating to this matter The SAO issued subpoenas for the lexis nexus records of the person who requested the criminal records of Hornsby. ‘The response revealed that Homsby's eriminal records were requested by the law offices of Mary Kramer. Kramer asked to come to the State Attorney’s Office (SAO) to speak fo this Assistant State Attomey with her attorney David Kubiliun. Her statement was not recorded at her request. Kramer stated that she was aware that there were citizens of NBV who were concerned that Hornsby had a prior criminal conviction, Theit concem was the legality of a " As Shute purports to be a witness to many of the communications that make up the allegations, itis relevant to note that Shute was very candid about her mental health issues. ‘Those issues impact her reliability as a witnecomnissioner sitting on the dais, having the ability to vote on financial matters that affected the village and whether the village would be subject to any legal liability. They talked about sending Hornsby his prior criminal history. ‘The citizens, Via a public record request from the State of Tennessee, obtained his present civil rights status, It includes the right to vote, serve on a jury and/or hold public office. She said that she represented some of these citizens and would not divulge theit name based on attorney client privilege. She was not aware that these citizens had ever sent out or mailed the prior criminal history, Kramer stated that she herself never sent these records to Homsby.“ Kramer stated that she never threatened Homsby. Leon-Kreps gave a statement on Television,; she stated she was not aware of the criminal history of Hornsby, until after it was made public by Hornsby. Purther, Leon-Kreps stated at a commission meeting that Shute was the one who had constantly asked that Commissioner Rollason be fired. Leon-Kreps was asked to come to the Office of the State Attorney to provide a voluntary statement and she declined through her attorney. The investigation revealed no evidence that any of the three subjects sent the letters to Hornsby and Shute. The contents mailed to Hornsby were public records accessible to anyone who request them, Further there were no threats on the letters themselves and no independent witnesses that can testify to the three subjects threatening Hornsby Accordingly based on the above, thete is no evidence to support that Leon-Kreps, Kramer and or Watson committed the crime alleged. investigation is now closed.