REDINGTON BEACH – Former Redington Beach Town Commissioner Sam Maniotes was arrested and charged with grand theft June 12 by Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies.
He was released later the same day from Pinellas County Jail on $5,000 bond.
According to sheriff’s officials, Maniotes, 40, was a partner with two others in a bar called the Jungle Island Bar at 153rd Avenue and Gulf Boulevard, which Maniotes said never opened.
According to a sheriff’s report, Maniotes took more than $15,000 worth of items from the building that, according to terms of the lease with Evelina Vassileva of Madeira Sunrise Properties, belonged to the property owner.
The items included a television, ice machine, stools, tables, a filing cabinet, fans, bar equipment, restaurant equipment and a couch.
Maniotes claimed the two partners were responsible. The two partners claimed Maniotes was responsible.
A four-month investigation concluded Maniotes took the items from the bar, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
“This is a very trying time for me,” said Maniotes. “I know how dark this looks. I believe I will prevail and be found innocent of these charges.”
Maniotes said the Sheriff’s Office investigation was incomplete and more details will come out in court.
“The sheriff’s investigation, as do all sheriff’s investigations, cut some corners,” Maniotes said. “The Sheriff’s Office didn’t get the whole story. The judge will have to make that determination.”
Maniotes, a computer programmer, was elected to the Town Commission in March 2005.
Less than a year later, in January 2006, he spearheaded an effort to dismiss former Town Clerk Beverly Brown when he alleged Brown illegally signed city checks on behalf of former Mayor Robert Fountaine, a violation of the town charter. Maniotes also accused Brown of sending pornographic material via city e-mail and suggested she doctored the budget for fiscal year 2006.
Brown in turn filed a lawsuit against Maniotes and the town of Redington Beach, which was later dropped after a settlement was reached. Brown later resigned on May 16, 2006.
On June 1, 2006, a recall election petition to remove Maniotes from office was filed at Town Hall by Anna Wiggers of Redington Beach. The petition alleged Maniotes illegally withheld public records.
Three months later, Maniotes won injunctive relief in court regarding the petition drive to remove him from office. The court ruled the charges were “devoid of facts” to form the basis of a recall under Florida law.
Maniotes was later awarded $4,322 after winning a civil lawsuit against the Town of Redington Beach. He sued the city for costs associated with his legal fees to defend himself in an earlier lawsuit by Fountaine.
The earlier suit alleged Maniotes failed to honor a 2006 public records request by Fountaine concerning public records Maniotes copied from city files for his own investigatory purposes.
Coupled with an earlier award of nearly $11,000, the town reimbursed Maniotes more than $15,000 in attorney fees and court costs in 2007.
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