84 boxes of files obtained by Channel 6 TV in Orlando contain Guetzloe invoices for thousands of dollars to Allan Keen, former chairman of the Orlando Orange County (Toll) Expressway Authority. Keen who was behind payments by the toll authority of $107k to anti-toll activist and hustler Douglas Guetzloe had claimed he had no previous dealings with the man.

The 84 boxes of Guetzloe's old files are the subject of a three-way legal tussle between the TV station, the state attorney, and Guetzloe. They were bought by the TV station from a man who spotted them at an auction of unclaimed items left behind by non-payers of their rent at a storage facility. They cost the man $10 at auction. The TV station paid him an undisclosed sum.

A judge this week ruled that the TV station was within its rights in reporting anything from the files except personal medical matters and Guetzloe's communications with his attorney.

Lawman says need files as evidence of crimes

A state's attorney officer said in court yesterday that the TV station should be ordered to hand over the files to him saying: "They do have in their possession physical evidence of crimes having been committed in our jurisdiction and I need to have those."

He said the attorney's office were investigating whether public money (toll revenues) had been illegally funneled to Guetzloe.

"Mr Keen may have been involved in the improper expenditure of public funds as it relates to the $107,000 plus paid by the Expressway Authority to Mr Guetzloe," said assistant state attorney Steve Foster in the continuing court tussle over custody of the 84 boxes of files.

Guetzloe had insisted the files were purely personal in nature.

Wanted to get Guetzloe on side for toll increase

Keen said his only motive for paying Guetzloe was to prepare the ground for a toll increase by reaching out to the most prominent and loudest opponent of tolls to see if he could be brought around. The payments were revealed by the state attorney and created outrage on the board of directors who had not been informed.

The TV station's first edition of the "Guetzloe Files" that ran last night also revealed that Guetzloe accepted tens of thousands of dollars from strip clubs for secret political work on their behalf.

Guetzloe is free pending an appeal against a 60 day jail sentence on another infringement of electoral law.

Keen, a developer, is also the subject of investigation by law enforcement for a case in which he made large land transactions in the area of the FL429 western tollroad while as chairman of the toll authority he could have been privy to thinking about alternative routes, and voted on the issue.

TOLLROADSnews 2007-02-13