Reform and Rehabilitation?

Has the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) been reformed or rehabilitated?

The MBI that I describe in Memoirs of an Accused Madam: The War on Adult Business in Orlando, and in these articles, is the MBI of past as far as I can tell. Last fall an announcement appeared on the MBI website stating that longtime director, William Lutz, would be retiring in December 2008. I did bid him a heave-ho in the Epilogue of my book. I'll be honest here – I was hoping that the agency would be dissolved. It doesn't look like I got my wish, but it is looking like the MBI is a reformed agency under its new director and the former Brevard County Sheriff, Phil Williams.

The strange part is that Lutz's retirement statement is still posted on the top of the main page on the MBI website, and the website is the same as Lutz left it, with no additional "My Word" editorials and no new press releases. Why wouldn't the agency brag about its new director? Lutz was not liked by many people, so I would think that there would be an announcement of the changes. Phil Williams deserves an announcement. Past strategies and agent misconduct went out the window when Williams took over – I know this because I have always been tied to Brevard County and I'm positive that the past behavior and selective targeting would not be acceptable to Phil Williams.

It also looks like the attack on adult businesses was tossed to the curb since Williams took over the agency. The new MBI has new agents and is all about drug trafficking and violent crime cases. Oh, I'm sure the agency would go after an adult business that clearly or obviously broke the law, but I don't think we will see any more of those lengthy pursuits, threatened witnesses, and criminal behavior. MBI Commander Zambouros is also gone – now this guy really enjoyed the sex cases. I hereby bid Zambouros a heave-ho.

Farewell to the old criminal MBI! Welcome to the new reformed and rehabilitated MBI!

So where's the announcement? Trust me; the great majority of central Florida residents will be ecstatic to hear that the old guard is now history. Now my book is about history: the history of the MBI war on adult business in Orlando. The MBI is an agency that will forever leave its mark on central Florida.