A former Florida tax collector whose arrest led to a federal probe into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for intercourse trafficking of a minor and different offenses.
Joel Greenberg, former tax collector for Seminole County, was accused of stalking a political opponent, public corruption, making pretend licenses and scheming to submit false claims for a federal mortgage.
He pleaded responsible to 6 federal crimes, together with identification theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Prosecutors stated he paid at the least one woman to have intercourse with him and different males.
"Nothing justifies my actions. My conduct is so shameful. I really feel regret for what I've finished," Greenberg stated Thursday earlier than U.S. District Choose Gregory Presnell sentenced him in an Orlando courtroom.
Greenberg additionally instantly apologized to the residents of Seminole County, his household and a schoolteacher he smeared when the educator determined to run in opposition to him.
Presnell stated that in his 22 years as a federal choose, he had by no means skilled a case like Greenberg's and "a defendant who has dedicated so many various kinds of crimes in such a brief time period."
Greenberg's lawyer had requested for leniency, saying that his consumer had assisted in investigations of 24 individuals, together with eight for intercourse crimes. Protection lawyer Fritz Scheller stated that Greenberg's cooperation has led to 4 federal indictments, and that he believed further ones have been anticipated within the coming month.
Greenberg's cooperation might play a job in an investigation into his good friend Gaetz over whether or not he paid a 17-year-old woman for intercourse. Gaetz has denied the allegations and beforehand stated they have been a part of an extortion plot. No expenses have been introduced in opposition to the Republican congressman, who represents a big a part of the Florida Panhandle.
Greenberg has been linked to different Florida politicians and their associates. To this point, none has been implicated within the intercourse trafficking investigation.
After the listening to, Scheller known as Greenberg's sentence simply.
Scheller stated he was shocked that Greenberg's cooperation hadn't but resulted in additional prosecutions and that Greenberg has been in communication with federal investigators prior to now three months. When requested whether or not he thought others could be charged with intercourse crimes, the protection lawyer stated, "I do."
"There needs to be, and I believe a part of my frustration is that I've a reasonably good perception into the proof on this case," Scheller stated.
Federal prosecutors had requested for a major discount in Greenberg's jail sentence, agreeing throughout a court docket listening to Wednesday to a lowered vary of 9 years and three months to 11 years.
U.S. Lawyer Roger Handberg argued for the higher restrict of the vary, telling the choose Greenberg abused belief to commit crimes.
Scheller requested the choose to provide Greenberg solely a fraction of the vary, arguing he was making amends and was now not the identical one who dedicated the crimes.
"Mr. Greenberg was utilizing cash and intercourse to get entry to political circles," Scheller stated. "He got here from a darkish place, a scarcity of self-worth, and tried to ingratiate himself with a group of individuals."
The minor within the intercourse crimes case was virtually an grownup and had marketed as being over age 18 in her escort profile on the web site "In search of Preparations," which facilitates "sugar daddy" relationships, Scheller stated.
Scheller additionally had requested the choose to think about Greenberg's struggles with psychological sickness, beginning with an consideration deficit dysfunction analysis at age 7 and panic assaults, depressive and nervousness issues as an grownup. On the time he dedicated the crimes, he had bipolar dysfunction with signs of mania, which affected his judgment and impulse management, Scheller stated.
Some paperwork associated to Greenberg's cooperation have been filed beneath seal and out of the general public eye, with prosecutors and the protection lawyer saying they have been a part of ongoing investigations being performed by federal authorities in Florida and Washington, in addition to state investigators.