TALLAHASSEE — Ousted Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner Gerald Bailey claims he resisted repeated efforts by Gov. Rick Scott and his top advisers to falsely name someone a target in a criminal case, hire political allies for state jobs and intercede in an outside investigation of a prospective Scott appointee.
In a new series of allegations, Bailey says former Scott chief of staff Adam Hollingsworth pressured him to claim that the acting clerk of court in Orange County, Colleen Reilly, was the target of an FDLE criminal inquiry after two prison inmates used forged papers from the clerk's office to plot an escape from the Franklin Correctional Institution. The 2013 case embarrassed the prison system under Scott's control.But there was one problem, Bailey said. It wasn't true, and he told Hollingsworth that."The most shocking thing was being ordered to target another individual without any justification," Bailey said. "I don't know why this woman was in the cross hairs."After a tense meeting in Hollingsworth's office, Bailey said, Scott press aide Frank Collins drove to Bailey's office at FDLE headquarters and asked Bailey if he was defying a direct order from the governor's office. When Bailey again refused, Collins "turned on his heel and left," Bailey said.
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Steve Bousquet and Michael Van Sickler, Tampa Bay Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
