Singh will not face charges
With the primary election a month away, prosecutors announced Friday they will not file criminal charges against incumbent Orange County Property Appraiser Rick Singh after a lengthy review of a state investigation into his conduct in office.
Attorneys for State Attorney R.J. Larizza, who was assigned the case by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, concluded they had “insufficient evidence to establish criminal activity beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The prosecutors on Friday re
leased a 10-page memorandum that said Singh’s office altered 10 documents, apparently in an effort to try to avoid scrutiny or “bad optics” during an audit by the Orange County Comptroller. But prosecutors said they couldn’t conclude that the paperwork was doctored at Singh’s direction or that he derived any actual benefit from the alterations.
Singh celebrated the decision on Friday in a statement that said the criminal complaints against him stemmed from “bogus claims in a frivolous lawsuit” filed by former employees, who had a financial interest in the outcome of the lawsuit.
“From the beginning, I’ve said that this lawsuit was financially and politically motivated,” Singh said in a statement emailed from his office. He declined to be interviewed.
A Democrat, Singh faces two challengers, state Rep. Amy Mercado and businessman Khalid Muneer, in the Aug. 18 primary.
Until Friday, prosecutors had said little about their review of an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. According to an FDLE investigative summary released by the state attorney on Friday, agents concluded that Singh “engaged in a pattern of official misconduct by knowingly and intentionally ordering OCPA members to falsify 10 official OCPA documents …” Official misconduct is a thirddegree felony.
The 10 instances of doctored materials included payments for fuel for property appraiser’s vehicles used by Singh that were changed to appear as though “staff” rather than Singh used the vehicle.
Singh was collecting a monthly vehicle stipend of $540 to $575 in addition to his public salary while he was also using truck that belonged to the property appraiser’s office and buying fuel on a credit card paid by his office.
“Modification of the documents to reflect usage by ‘staff’ versus ‘Singh’ could arguably have been done to avoid political criticism or consequences for receiving the monthly stipend while also using a county owned vehicle,” prosecutors wrote.
But they said there is no prohibition to collect a vehicle stipend while also using a county-owned truck.
The documents also included a staged photograph of Singh made to appear it was taken at a 2013 Curry Festival in Tampa, but was actually taken at a park near Singh’s Windermere home years later.
But prosecutors said conflicting witness testimony from witnesses about who ordered the documents be changed and a lack of legal precedent to establish that Singh gained any benefit from the misconduct led them to conclude that charges against Singh weren’t warranted.
“Whether the statutory definition of ‘benefit’ could be construed to include ‘avoiding scrutiny’ or political criticism/consequences is tenuous at best,” read the memo.
Larizza’s office noted, “It is clear that [Singh’s office] did not follow protocol when it submitted altered documents to the [comptroller] for the purposes of the 2015 audit.”
The property appraiser is among Orange County’s most powerful elected officials because the office determines how much homeowners and commercial landowners pay in taxes by setting the values of each property — a total tax roll of $221.6 billion.
Singh’s 2020 salary as the elected property appraiser is $172,000. He is seeking a third four-year term.
The Orlando Sentinel reported in December 2018 that two former high-ranking property appraiser employees had alleged misbehavior by Singh — including misusing office resources — in 2017 depositions conducted by former OrangeOsceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry.
In his own interview with the former chief judge, Singh denied the allegations against him and described accusers Laverne McGee, his former communications director, and Aisha Hassan, formerly his finance director, as underperforming and disgruntled ex-employees.
They first raised their concerns to Singh.
They later filed a whistle-blower’s lawsuit.
McGee, a former TV anchor, and Hassan sent Singh an email in June 2017 complaining about their treatment and outlining the alleged misdeeds, including that he directed his staff to alter audit and travel documents, used his employees for campaign activities and awarded a public contract to a vendor who had agreed to contribute $55,000 to Singh’s re-election campaign with contract funds.
Prosecutors noted another employee, Vikaasha Maharaj, recalled McGee had asked him to make the fake curry banner.
Beth Watson, spokeswoman for the Property Appraiser’s Office, said the claims by McGee and Hassan were discredited by former Judge Perry’s investigation and now a “deep review” by Larizza’s office. Singh paid Perry $30,000 to look into the complaints.
“Throughout these unfortunate circumstances, the award-winning office has continued to exceed expectations,” she said.
Hassan and McGee declined to comment and referred questions to their lawyer Jill Schwartz.
In February, Singh sued both women, alleging McGee secretly recorded calls and private meetings and both she and Hassan kept tabs on him with a tracking device “in a stalking-like manner…” even after they were dismissed from their executive jobs.
Schwartz has asked a judge to dismiss the case, saying it was filed to punish both for blowing the whistle.
But Larizza’s assistants said the dueling lawsuits posed a credibility problem for McGee and Hassan as witnesses.
“Their relationships to the office, combined with their current and past litigation creates factual conflicts and motivation to fabricate facts for their benefit,” the memo noted.