FL – Mayor Dale Massad attempted murder LEs, practice medicine w/o license, Port Richey, 21 FEB 2019

[SeesSeas]

Port Richey Mayor arrested after shots fired at SWAT attempting to serve warrant at his home
Updated: February 22, 2019
[...]
Caj Jospeh calls Dale Massad her hero, but says her boyfriend was scared when a SWAT team shot through the front door before dawn.

“I ran into the closet because I was scared. I thought we were getting killed. I thought somebody was coming into to murder us or something," she said.

She says they didn’t know it was law enforcement.

Massad was upstairs when he fired his gun while the deputies were still outside.

“Don’t you think if he shot at the officers, they would have killed him?”

Friday, Massad’s attorney told a Pasco County judge the shots were not premeditated, but the judge still denied the mayor a chance to bond out of jail.
[...]
In December of 2017, Massad removed a fish hook from a "patient" who returned to him in April of 2018 to get a shot of cortizone, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by ABC Action News. On August 24, 2018, another "patient" came to Massad for a "surgical procedure" to close a laceration on his left ankle. During that procedure, Massad administered a local anesthetic and gave the "patient" stitches.

One recent treatment sent a patient to the hospital.
[...]

 

[cybervampira]

Florida Mayor Charged With Shooting at Deputies Suspended

A Florida mayor accused of shooting at deputies trying arrest him on allegations of practicing medicine without a license has been removed from office.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Friday suspending Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad.

 

[SeesSeas]

Port Richey Mayor Dale Glen Massad resigns
Updated: Feb 22, 2019 08:54 PM EST
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Port Richey Mayor Dale Glen Massad has resigned on Friday, hours after he was suspended from office by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley confirmed on Twitter that his office has been notified of Massad's resignation.
A special election will be held on a date to be determined.

Florida mayor resigns after arrest for allegedly shooting at police officers
Feb 23, 2019 1:18 AM ET
Brian Corley, the Pasco County Supervisor of Election, tweeted that Massad had resigned from his elected position late Friday.
"Our office has been notified by the City of Port Richey general counsel that mayor Dale Massad has resigned. In accordance with the municipal charter of the City of Port Richey, a special election will be held on a date to be determined."

 

[SeesSeas]

Bowen: Why is nobody surprised at Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad's downfall?
February 25, 2019
The public reaction to the spectacular crash and burn of Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad comes in a near unanimous one-word response.

Inevitable.

A disgraced former physician, Massad nonetheless found a niche in Port Richey politics where he moved on and off the council over the past 19 years. He became mayor after gaining 40 percent of the vote in a three-way race in October 2015 to complete the term of the late Eloise Taylor.

Massad’s public service was noteworthy mostly for its cronyism. But even that undistinguished career in governing-by-acquaintance became overshadowed by his personal habits and the goings on at his Hayward Lane home.
[...]
In the past, two public officials privately volunteered their suspicions that Massad displayed questionable sobriety during some government meetings. At least one Port Richey resident made that claim publicly.

“You’re in a fog,’’ resident Arthur Giammarino told the mayor during a March 2016 council meeting. “You’re definitely in a fog.’’

There was a reason for that perception.

“You guys know I like to party,’’ Massad once told the Port Richey police.

That conversation came in 2015, the night a gun-toting Massad summoned officers to his home to report homeless voyeurs were in his air conditioning vents watching him have sex. A woman in the house acknowledged to police that she’d been doing cocaine.

“If I was you, I would think I am crazy, too,’’ Massad told the officers.
[...]

 

[flute4peace]

Bowen: Why is nobody surprised at Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad's downfall?
February 25, 2019
The public reaction to the spectacular crash and burn of Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad comes in a near unanimous one-word response.

Inevitable.

A disgraced former physician, Massad nonetheless found a niche in Port Richey politics where he moved on and off the council over the past 19 years. He became mayor after gaining 40 percent of the vote in a three-way race in October 2015 to complete the term of the late Eloise Taylor.

Massad’s public service was noteworthy mostly for its cronyism. But even that undistinguished career in governing-by-acquaintance became overshadowed by his personal habits and the goings on at his Hayward Lane home.
[...]
In the past, two public officials privately volunteered their suspicions that Massad displayed questionable sobriety during some government meetings. At least one Port Richey resident made that claim publicly.

“You’re in a fog,’’ resident Arthur Giammarino told the mayor during a March 2016 council meeting. “You’re definitely in a fog.’’

There was a reason for that perception.

“You guys know I like to party,’’ Massad once told the Port Richey police.

That conversation came in 2015, the night a gun-toting Massad summoned officers to his home to report homeless voyeurs were in his air conditioning vents watching him have sex. A woman in the house acknowledged to police that she’d been doing cocaine.

“If I was you, I would think I am crazy, too,’’ Massad told the officers.
[...]

Holy moly. How was he not removed from the mayorship then?

 

[SeesSeas]

Agents said the allegations against Rowe are tied to the allegations against Massad case . . .
Not a rerun: A second Port Richey mayor is under arrest
March 14, 2019
PORT RICHEY — Another mayor is behind bars.

This time it’s acting mayor Terrence Rowe, 64, who was arrested Wednesday by Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate the commission of a crime.
[...]
Agents said the allegations against Rowe are tied to the allegations against Massad case, but did not say how.

“It’s related but it’s an off-shoot,” said Special Agent in Charge Mark Brutnell, of FDLE’s Tampa office, about the connection. “From information we received, (Rowe) was conspiring to inject himself into an active criminal investigation.”

Earlier this month, at his first City Council meeting as acting mayor, Rowe praised Massad’s past service and criticized the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office for the way it raided Massad’s home.
[...]
Rowe was to set to be booked into the Pasco County jail, where his bail will be set at $15,000, Brutnell said.

There he’ll join Massad, who faces five counts of attempted murder, four counts of practicing medicine without a license and two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device. Massad is being held without bail.
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

Former Port Richey Mayor, Massad, In Trouble Again
PUBLISHED March 14, 2019 @11:21 AM
PORT RICHEY, Fla. — The former Port Richey mayor is in trouble again.

• Former Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad arrested again
• Massad faces new charges including obstruction of justice
• Current acting mayor, Terrance Rowe, also arrested

Dale Massad has been sitting in the Pasco County jail without bail since his arrest last month after firing shots at the Pasoc County SWAT team when they served a warrant for charges that he had been practicing medicine in his home without a license.

Wednesday night, Massad, 69, was arrested again for conspiracy to obstruction of justice and the use of a two-way communication device to facilitate the commission of a crime, according to the arrest affidavit.
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

"criminal attempt, solicitation or conspiracy"
Unless there is MORE conversation, this seems like a S T R E T C H . . .
Arrested again: Ousted Port Richey mayor, with acting mayor, accused of intimidating police officer
Massad and Terrence Rowe talked on a jail phone about intimidating a city police officer involved in Massad’s February arrest, FDLE says.
March 14, 2019
PORT RICHEY — Former mayor Dale Massad conspired with acting Mayor Terrence Rowe to intimidate a city police officer involved in Massad's Feb. 21 arrest on attempted murder charges, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Massad and Rowe discussed the Port Richey police officer on March 3 about 10:50 p.m., using a recorded jail phone, FDLE agents said.

"I don't know why, but he is in on everything," Massad said of the officer, in reference to his arrest, according to FDLE.

"I'm on it," Rowe replied.

When Massad said that anything Rowe could do would be "good," according to FDLE, Rowe replied: "You know, this doesn't go down without somebody answering for it."
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

Updated:
Arrested again: Ousted Port Richey mayor, with acting mayor, accused of intimidating police officer
March 14, 2019
[...]
The recorded phone call came up at a court hearing at the West Pasco Judicial Center in nearby New Port Richey on Thursday. Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Mary Handsel was asked to address several issues in the Massad and Rowe cases.

Massad's defense attorneys, Bjorn Brunvard and Denis M. deVlaming, argued the two mayors discussed nothing illegal.

“What else could he mean?” the judge asked deVlaming. She added: “How is that not tampering?”

The defense argued that Massad had no reason to target the officer. Why then, the judge asked, did the two mayors talk about the officer in the first place? In turn, deVlaming said Massad doesn’t believe that officer should be on the force.
[...]
Meanwhile, in court filings and in the courtroom, Brunvard and deVlaming signaled what may serve as Massad’s defense at a trial: that the ex-mayor believed “someone posing as the police” was trying to break into his home on Hayward Lane, which led him to fire gunshots as a SWAT team raided his house. (They deny he fired at the deputies themselves.)
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

The long, odd history of Pasco County politicians behaving badly
FLORIDA
The long, odd history of Pasco County politicians behaving badly
Pasco officials have a pattern of engaging in bizarre and illegal shenanigans.
March 20, 2019
Pasco County Commission chairman Barry M. Doyle: Accepted tens of thousands in bribes
Pasco Sheriff John Short: Corrupted department and used power to target enemies
Pasco Sheriff Jim Gillum: Violated ethics
Pasco County GOP Party chair Merland Conine: Trafficked drugs, resisted arrest
Pasco sheriff candidate Ken Tallier: Took bribes, stole money off a dead body
New Port Richey Council member Scott Bryant: Claimed a kid that wasn’t his to boost military pension
Ex-Acting Port Richey Mayor Bob Leggiere: DUI; Violated state ethics law
New Port Richey Mayor Scott McPherson: Drunkenly threatened deputies, accused them of assaulting his wife
Port Richey Mayor Richard Rober: Committed tax fraud
Zephyrhills High Principal (and Mayor) Steven Van Gorden: Sexually harassed female teachers
Constantine “Chuck” Kalogianis: Committed forgery and fraud

 

[penak]

I love this thread, good info

 

[SeesSeas]

Jailed Former Port Richey Mayor Claims He Was Set Up by Police
PUBLISHED 6:13 PM EDT Mar. 25, 2019
PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — In a jailhouse interview obtained from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, jailed former Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad expressed disbelief about still being in jail and expounded on why Port Richey Police may have "set him up."

"Basically, it's like, am I in Russia, or am I in America?" Massad asks at one point during the interview last month. "Why are they keeping me here? Explain that to me."

Massad was arrested on February 21 after an incident at his home where he allegedly fired a weapon at deputies and FDLE agents who were there to serve him a warrant.

“I heard this stuff, and I’m yelling, 'who is it? Who is it?' Because I don’t know who it is, I don’t know what it is," Massad explained. "I’m groggy, it’s 4:30 in the morning, I just jumped out of bed, I’m scared to death.”

Massad goes on to say his attorney told him no law enforcement agents were allowed inside his home without a warrant because Port Richey Police had searched him illegally in the past. It's that prior encounter with the city's law enforcement that Massad believes is the reason behind why he was set up.
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/03/26/port-richey-going-public-with-search-for-new-mayor
Port Richey Going Public With Search For New Mayor
PUBLISHED 6:20 AM EDT Mar. 26, 2019
PORT RICHEY, Fla. — The Port Richey city council is set to take a step forward Tuesday after multiple scandals and the arrest of two mayors.
[...]
Anyone interested must be a registered Pasco County voter and a resident of Port Richey for the past 12 months. The candidate also must have no felony charges.

 

[flute4peace]

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2019/03/26/port-richey-going-public-with-search-for-new-mayor
Port Richey Going Public With Search For New Mayor
PUBLISHED 6:20 AM EDT Mar. 26, 2019
PORT RICHEY, Fla. — The Port Richey city council is set to take a step forward Tuesday after multiple scandals and the arrest of two mayors.
[...]
Anyone interested must be a registered Pasco County voter and a resident of Port Richey for the past 12 months. The candidate also must have no felony charges.

ROFL

 

[SeesSeas]

Attorneys give tour of Dale Massad's house after former mayor's arrest
Updated: Apr 05, 2019 05:21 PM EDT
PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFLA) - Attorneys for former Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad opened his home Friday to show reporters what they claim happened just before his February arrest.
[...]
Then, the attorneys said Massad shot twice. One bullet hit an elevator shaft. The other went into a wall near the front door.

They explained the bullets were simply warning shots from a hallway because Massad and his girlfriend had no idea who was on the other side of the door.
[...]

Attorneys for Ousted Port Richey Mayor Give Media Tour of His Home
PUBLISHED 5:02 PM EDT Apr. 05, 2019
[...]
“Some of the information that’s been going out there seems to indicate Mr. Massad intended to hurt any police officer or shoot in their direction, and what we wanted you to see is that was a physical impossibility,” Massad’s attorney, Denis Devlaming, said.
[...]
Relevant statute?
In Massad’s arrest report there’s a statute cited that says if a person uses force against a law enforcement officer who enters their house, the shooter should know he's shooting at law enforcement.

Massad’s attorneys, however, say that statute shouldn't apply, since he didn’t know he was shooting at law enforcement.

They also maintain that since they never entered the home, he shouldn’t be charged with five counts of attempted murder, and at the very least he should be issued a bond.

 

[SeesSeas]

Ex-Port Richey mayor Dale Massad used crack cocaine and meth, new records show
April 11, 2019
PORT RICHEY — The mayor of this small coastal city spent years smoking crack cocaine on a nightly basis and used methamphetamine, too, according to court records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

Dale Massad paid runners to bring him illegal drugs, the records show, and acted as the personal doctor for his pals, suturing their injuries on his kitchen table — all while he held elected office.
[...]
Massad and his friends liked crystal methamphetamine — a concentrated form of meth — a man named Corey White told investigators on Sept. 27, records show. They called it “jet fuel.”

White said he had known Massad for years and lived in an apartment attached to the mayor's home from about Christmas 2017 to the end of April 2018, according to records. He told agents he had purchased drugs for Massad about 60 times.
[...]
He said he saw Massad smoke and eat meth, records show. Sometimes, Massad would crush the drug up, form a line of it on his counter and snort it before going out to golf, White told agents.

White said the mayor also smoked crack cocaine on a nightly basis while he lived with him, records show, and White told agents he also bought that drug for Massad, sometimes up to five nights a week.
[...]
Another man who said he had lived with Massad last year, Daniel Tatum, told investigators that the mayor would trade him the hormone testosterone for meth or marijuana, records show.
[...]

 

[SeesSeas]

Drugs, guns and politics collided in the small town of Port Richey. Two mayors went to jail.
A very Florida investigation.
May 4, 2019
PORT RICHEY — Month after month, police officers headed to the big blue house on the water.

They had often been called there by the home’s owner, one of the most prominent people in Port Richey: the mayor, Dale Massad.

Many calls were about two women in his life. Massad told the police one spat in his face, the other threatened to plant drugs in his home and he wanted both to go away. At times all three lived together at the house; they got into fight after fight, year after year.

Other calls described thefts, trespassers and strange occurrences. Once, while telling an officer about a missing gun, the mayor added that a bag of marijuana had appeared in his desk drawer, only to vanish mysteriously the following day.

Police came to Massad's house more than 50 times in the three years he was mayor.

Then in February, a SWAT team burst through Massad’s door to arrest him on charges of practicing medicine without a license. Massad fired two rounds from a handgun. He was charged with attempted murder.

A Tampa Bay Times examination of the mayor’s rise and fall shows that his growing instability was in plain sight of the city’s leaders. But for nearly two years, none of them moved to determine the extent of his problems or to curtail his influence in the city.

Several had unusual entanglements with the mayor. City Attorney James Mathieu owned and operated a rental property with Massad. City Council member Richard Bloom prescribed Massad’s girlfriend Prozac at the mayor’s request without physically examining her. City Manager Vincent Lupo gave Massad a high-powered pistol, then separately wrote the mayor a $1,200 check while Massad was under criminal investigation.
[...]
Massad had problems long before he appeared in Port Richey.

Late one morning in July 1992, a Pinellas sheriff’s deputy found Massad sitting on the sidewalk outside a Palm Harbor strip mall. He was shirtless, slurring his words and clutching a pistol.

Rounds from the gun were scattered on the ground. Massad, then 41, said he’d been in a fight with his girlfriend. He had no ID but explained who he was: a laser surgeon.

The deputy didn’t buy it. Massad “was unshaven, had no shoes or shirt on, and had dirty fingernails and hands,” the deputy wrote in a report.

Massad was indeed a laser surgeon.
[...]

 

[flute4peace]

Drugs, guns and politics collided in the small town of Port Richey. Two mayors went to jail.
A very Florida investigation.
May 4, 2019
PORT RICHEY — Month after month, police officers headed to the big blue house on the water.

They had often been called there by the home’s owner, one of the most prominent people in Port Richey: the mayor, Dale Massad.

Many calls were about two women in his life. Massad told the police one spat in his face, the other threatened to plant drugs in his home and he wanted both to go away. At times all three lived together at the house; they got into fight after fight, year after year.

Other calls described thefts, trespassers and strange occurrences. Once, while telling an officer about a missing gun, the mayor added that a bag of marijuana had appeared in his desk drawer, only to vanish mysteriously the following day.

Police came to Massad's house more than 50 times in the three years he was mayor.

Then in February, a SWAT team burst through Massad’s door to arrest him on charges of practicing medicine without a license. Massad fired two rounds from a handgun. He was charged with attempted murder.

A Tampa Bay Times examination of the mayor’s rise and fall shows that his growing instability was in plain sight of the city’s leaders. But for nearly two years, none of them moved to determine the extent of his problems or to curtail his influence in the city.

Several had unusual entanglements with the mayor. City Attorney James Mathieu owned and operated a rental property with Massad. City Council member Richard Bloom prescribed Massad’s girlfriend Prozac at the mayor’s request without physically examining her. City Manager Vincent Lupo gave Massad a high-powered pistol, then separately wrote the mayor a $1,200 check while Massad was under criminal investigation.
[...]
Massad had problems long before he appeared in Port Richey.

Late one morning in July 1992, a Pinellas sheriff’s deputy found Massad sitting on the sidewalk outside a Palm Harbor strip mall. He was shirtless, slurring his words and clutching a pistol.

Rounds from the gun were scattered on the ground. Massad, then 41, said he’d been in a fight with his girlfriend. He had no ID but explained who he was: a laser surgeon.

The deputy didn’t buy it. Massad “was unshaven, had no shoes or shirt on, and had dirty fingernails and hands,” the deputy wrote in a report.

Massad was indeed a laser surgeon.
[...]

I don’t even want to know what the “bad guys” are like in that town. Yikes!!

 

[SeesSeas]

June 24, 2019 TRIAL on the charge of conspiring to obstruct justice.
Former Port Richey mayor Dale Massad gets a trial date in conspiracy case
The defense is demanding a speedy trial because Massad is being held without bail on the charge.
May 17, 2019
NEW PORT RICHEY — June 24 has been set as a trial date for former Port Richey mayor Dale Massad in one of three criminal cases he faces.

The date was set at a hearing Friday before Pasco-Pinellas Circuit Court Judge Mary Handsel.

Trial is expected to take one or two days on the charge of conspiring to obstruct justice, according to estimates provided by defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand and prosecutor Rita Pavan Peters.

"While it's unusual to demand (a) speedy trial, that is the case that's been keeping him in jail without a bond," Brunvand told reporters outside the New Port Richey courthouse. "So we're hoping that will change in the near future."
[...]
Massad's lawyers waived his speedy-trial rights in the attempted murder and practicing medicine charges. His next court appearance was set for June 20.

 

[SeesSeas]

Still no bail for jailed ex-Port Richey mayor Dale Massad, judge rules again
Massad's defense attorneys again argued the ex-mayor should have the chance to be freed from jail pending trial. The judge didn’t change her mind.
June 10, 2019
Former Port Richey Mayor Dale Massad isn’t going anywhere.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court Judge Mary Handsel on Monday denied another motion to grant Massad bail before trial. The 68-year-old ex-mayor and ex-doctor has been held without bail in the county jail since his Feb. 21 arrest on multiple charges of attempted murder, practicing medicine without a license and conspiring to obstruct justice.
[...]
However, the judge noted that Massad’s sister herself testified she can watch over her brother’s home. The judge also said Massad already appears to be “very active” in his own defense from jail.That’s because the ex-mayor is still making calls about his case from the Pasco County jail — which records all inmate calls. Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Rita Pavan Peters called on Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Corey Davidson to testify. He said during a record jail phone call, Massad urged his on and off again girlfriend to take a witness in his case to his defense attorney’s office, to get them to change their testimony.
[...]