HOA BOD told they committed numerous crimes …
On 11 January 2011, Detective Gordon Opitz and 3 other members of the Sheriff’s office, debriefed the Lake Ashton Home Owners and Home Owners Association, regarding the tasking, by the Florida States Attorney’s Office to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, to investigate the Lake Ashton (LA) Home Owner Association (HOA) Board of Directors (BOD), regarding alleged crimes committed by the LA HOA BOD in terms of their Bingo operation.
Detective Opitz stated, several times, that while numerous crimes had been committed by many people, crimes that include miss-appropriations of funds well over $100,000, and ranged from buying drapes, rugs, to taking bingo volunteers on expensive dinners, buying gifts, and giving money etc to volunteers. In short, ALL those who participated in such activities or willingly received monies from Bingo, ALL are considered to be guilty of these crimes.
Detective Opitz went on to state that in spite of these numerous crimes, that it was the opinion of Detective Opitz and his superiors, NOT to make any arrests and that the Sheriff’s Department would NO LONGER pursue this issue any further because the Sheriff’s Office had the ‘word’ of the HOA BOD that they would no longer operate in an illegal manor.
Additionally, when Detective Opitz was asked by a Resident, if the Sheriff’s Office would take any new evidence which would show that the HOA BOD has continue to run their Bingo Operations much as they did prior to the so called investigation, Detective Opitz said NO and that as far as the Sheriff’s Office was concerned, the matter was closed.
For Residents who may not be aware the roles that a Sheriff’s Office and the States Attorney’s Office has; the role of the Sheriff’s Office is to investigate crimes and then forward their findings to the State’s Attorney’s Office who, at that time, reviews the evidence and decides, based upon the evidence, if a case is to be prosecuted or dismissed.
Following this short notice meeting, the Florida State’s Attorney’s Office was contacted and informed as to what just occurred; we were subsequently informed that:
1) the State’s Attorney’s Office was shocked to hear that the Polk County Sheriff’s department held this meeting
2) stunned that the Sheriff’s Office claimed that the investigation was over since it is NOT the role of the police department to make such judgments and finally
3) that the State’s Attorney’s office stated that investigation was still very much underway.
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