As she faces a federal criminal complaint, former state Rep. Carolina Amesty is seeking to clear from court records any mention of separate charges filed last year
alleging she fraudulently notarized an employment document.
Amesty, 30, is asking an Orange County circuit court judge to expunge records from the forgery case, which would result in the removal of the case from the Clerk of Courts website and prevent members of the public from obtaining the records by request.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigated the allegations lodged against the Republican ex-lawmaker from Windermere, has already sealed records from its probe, according to a court filing earlier this month.
The request to expunge the related court records, filed by high-powered Winter Park attorney Michael Sasso and his associate XiXi Li, notes Amesty was not judged guilty on the charges stemming from the indictment or any previous offense. Instead, the charges were dismissed by outgoing Orange-Osceola state attorney Andrew Bain, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a negotiated settlement.
Sasso also is an ally of DeSantis. Sasso and Li did not immediately respond to emailed questions from the Orlando Sentinel.
The expungement request, which is likely to be granted, would allow Amesty to say under oath she has not been charged with a criminal offense, said Michael Barfield, public access director for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. Such requests are routinely granted by judges if the defendants meet the requirements, as Amesty appears to do, he said.
Allowing first-time defendants to seal their records is the “legal equivalent of a mulligan,” Barfield said, noting that repeat offenders do not have the opportunity to hide their indiscretions a second time.
“It’s not atypical that the wealthy and the politically connected take advantage of that law,” Barfield said.
But in Amesty’s case, her arrest was extensively covered by local media outlets, so it’s less clear how expunging the official record could benefit her.
The 2024 forgery charges were
prompted by an Orlando Sentinel investigation published earlier in the year.
Their dismissal, coming upon Amesty’s completion of community service and a financial crimes course, was viewed as lenient by some local defense attorneys.
Elected to the House in 2022, Amesty narrowly
lost her reelection bid in November to Democrat Leonard Spencer, a former Disney executive.
In addition to last year’s charges, Amesty is the subject of
a separate ongoing federal criminal complaint claiming she fraudulently obtained $122,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through an eponymous foundation and a car dealership that investigators don’t think was ever licensed to operate
. She faces two counts of theft of government property, punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, but is fighting those charges with the help of attorney Brad Bondi, brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
If the FDLE probe or records from the state charges become relevant to the federal case, which seems unlikely, investigators could obtain them via subpoena, Barfield said. Federal judges can also consider a defendant’s previous conduct when sentencing them for federal offenses, but allegations that result in a conviction are more likely to result in a stiffer sentence, he said.
Barfield said he thinks it’s reasonable to allow defendants to clear their name if they were arrested only once, particularly if the alleged offense happened when they were young.
“On the other hand, I don’t think it’s appropriate when it’s a public official,” Barfield said. “Although there is no exception for public officials, in my view, public officials should not take advantage of this statute.”
