Vendettas and Conspiracies

I cannot say too much about the importance of understanding that the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) today bares little resemblance to the MBI pre-December 2008. The serious difference is that former director William Lutz retired in December 2008. The new director is former Brevard County Sheriff Phil Williams. I did address this topic in The New MBI back in September; however, this take on the subject is from a different perspective.


The MBI under Director Lutz was capable of just about anything. I have already discussed many of the agency's transgressions over the years in: Informants that Reappear; Reform and Rehabilitation; Bullies and Con Artists; After Arrest: A Story; The Bingo Racketeering Case; The Yellow Pages Fiasco; and of course in my book, Memoirs of an Accused Madam: The War on Adult Business in Orlando. I will not be rehashing this criminal misconduct here.

The MBI of today, under Director Phil Williams, is indeed a reformed agency. I have little doubt that the agency would pursue only real cases. The criminal acts of past are exactly that – in the past. To this day the agency has not changed its website since November 2008, when the announcement appeared concerning Lutz's retirement. I can only imagine that the Governing Board cannot admit that there was anything incorrect and illegal done in past; no doubt due to civil liabilities.

This brings me to the currents events that prompted this post. Ezell Harris was arrested on drug charges by the MBI a week ago. Harris bonded out on what I believe was a $100,000 bond, but was arrested again late this afternoon on seven additional charges and now sits in the Orange County, Florida jail on a $1.4 million bond. Ezell Harris was an Orlando City Council candidate in what promised to be a very heated election.

When released following his initial arrest, Harris had the audacity to state to news reporters that it was a conspiracy and a political vendetta and that the MBI had planted the drugs. That didn't fly with me because this is a new MBI and Phil Williams stated publicly that the MBI has controlled buys in the case. My only response on Orlando Sentinel forums was that it would all be revealed in the discovery process if Harris chose to plead not guilty.

I am incensed that Ezell Harris used the knowledge of the agency's past as a platform to scream abuse and assert that drugs were planted in his home. The agency has used seriously questionable and even criminal, confidential informants in past, but the bottom line is that a controlled buy set-up is not possible if he was not selling drugs or did not go out and find drugs for the confidential informant. If he doesn't make a deal as most do, the truth will be revealed in court documents.

False assertions today serve to minimize the true misdeeds of this agency in past, and I, as a true victim of criminal police misconduct and a very real vendetta, resent the hell out of it.