No charges filed against County Commissioner Tobia, despite wide-ranging allegations
A state prosecutor has opted against filing charges against Brevard County Commissioner John Tobia, after investigating a series of allegations of wrongdoing brought by a former Tobia employee.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement reports of its staff's interviews with two current employees in Tobia's office appeared to back up some of former employee Christopher Davis' allegations, but did not address others.
The allegations are contained in a 247-page case file obtained by FLORIDA TODAY from the State Attorney's Office for the 7th Judicial Circuit, which handled the case. The investigation was transferred in November by Gov. Ron DeSantis from the 18th Judicial Circuit that includes Brevard to the Daytona Beach-area 7th Circuit, at the request of 18th Circuit State Attorney Phil Archer, who wanted to avoid a conflict of interest or any appearance of impropriety.
Davis, a former administrative aide in Tobia's Palm Bay office, alleges in sworn statements to investigators that Tobia:
Used staff in his commission office to help him grade papers of students he taught at Valencia College while employees were supposed to be working on county business. Valencia lists Tobia as a full-time professor, and Tobia teaches courses on American federal government and on state and local government. The college paid Tobia $100,663.63 in 2023, according to Tobia's latest financial disclosure report filed with the state. A current Tobia aide backed up the allegation that staff helped grade papers.
Asked Davis to perform personal errands. Davis provided text messages that appeared to indicate that he helped Tobia research airline flights.
Asked Davis to surreptitiously obtain information on Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic's stay in a Washington hotel. Tobia — who cannot seek reelection as a county commissioner this year because of term limits — is challenging Bobanic in an Aug. 20 Republican primary for supervisor of elections, a job that pays $184,356 a year. Davis alleged that Tobia asked him to create an email account that appeared to be Bobanic's in order to obtain those records from the hotel in an effort to determine how the bill was paid and whether taxpayer money was used. The trip was paid for by a federal agency, so Bobanic could discuss election integrity matters.
Had his staff research the political party affiliations and other information about people who called Tobia's office, and that calls from Democrats were ignored. Current staff members agreed that they researched callers' voter registration or other information, but said every call was returned regardless.
Tobia reacts to allegations
Transferred to another district: County Commissioner John Tobia under investigation for alleged voter fraud
In response to the allegations and the state attorney's office's decision not to file charges, Tobia told FLORIDA TODAY: "This was a witch-hunt initiated by a disgruntled former employee terminated for cause and perpetuated by a desperate political opponent who believed this was his path to victory, while concealing his past as a registered Democrat."
Davis on March 20, 2023, was hired to the administrative aide position in Tobia's District 3 commission office. Tobia is completing his second four-year term as commissioner for District 3, which covers parts of South Brevard County.
Davis' personnel file shows that Davis submitted a letter of resignation to Tobia, dated June 27, 2023, indicating that his resignation would have been effective on July 12, 2023.
Tobia said he fired Davis because Davis took a list of personal passwords off Tobia's desk at his Palm Bay commission office. A July 3, 2023, letter from Tobia to Davis in Davis' personnel file said: "Due to recent events, your employment is henceforth terminated due to cause, effective immediately."
Tobia also filed a complaint about Davis with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office about the matter. There is no indication of the status of that matter in the state attorney's office file, and a previous FLORIDA TODAY inquiry to a BCSO spokesman was not answered.
According to FDLE investigative reports, Davis has contended that a list of Tobia's work-related and personal passwords and log-ons were part of an "information manual" provided to employees of Tobia's commission office, and that he did not take the passwords illegally. Davis said he maintained possession of the information manual with the belief the manual was given to him.
Responding to Tobia's contention that Bobanic is trying to hide his Democratic past, Bobanic told FLORIDA TODAY that he briefly switched his voter registration from Republican to Democratic in 2012, while he was working at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office, Bobanic said that was so he could be eligible to vote in a Democratic primary there for his then-boss, who was running in that primary for supervisor of elections. After that primary was over, Bobanic said he switched his registration back to Republican.
In response to Davis' allegations contained in case file, Tobia said: "I categorically deny these baseless accusations."
Hotel bill controversy
In a document filed June 19 in County Court in Daytona Beach, 7th Judicial Circuit Assistant State Attorney Sarah Thomas said she did not intend to prosecute the case against Tobia on a charge of unlawful possession of personal identification information over Tobia's attempt to get Bobanic's hotel records. No other potential charges were listed in that document.
So far, Thomas has provided no further details in the case file related to her decision.
Bobanic questions the decision not to prosecute.
"It seems to be a clear-cut case of identity theft by Commissioner Tobia and his staff to make up an email impersonating me to try to get information on a hotel bill," Bobanic alleged.
The case file included a series of investigative reports written by staff of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Office of Executive Investigations.
In one report, the investigator wrote that Davis said Tobia wanted him to obtain the receipts from the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, where Bobanic stayed during a work-related trip, "to determine if Bobanic was lavishly spending taxpayer money." Davis said Tobia asked him to call the hotel to get the information. When the hotel asked for an email request from the customer, Davis said he was instructed by Tobia to create a fake email account, write the email, and make it appear that it was coming from someone named Timothy or Tim.
Bobanic told investigators that his trip to Washington was at the request of the U.S. Election Assistance Committee so he could present on how Brevard County conducts post-election audits, and that it was financed by the U.S. Treasury, so no county taxpayer funds were used.
Two current staff members in Tobia's office also were interviewed by FDLE officials. But Tobia's attorney told an FDLE inspector on Nov. 7 that Tobia would not provide a statement to investigators.
Two FDLE inspectors on Sept. 27 interviewed both Bethany Prasad, chief of staff for Tobia, and Brian Bond, Tobia's legislative aide.
According to FDLE reports, "Prasad acknowledged that Tobia requested Davis to find out how much Bobanic paid" for the hotel room. She described Tobia "as fiscally concerned, saying Tobia believed travel was a frivolous, often-abused item. Prasad admitted she was the person who came up with the email for Davis to send to the hotel."
A Nov. 14 FDLE report indicated that, "based on the evidence gathered, there is probable cause to believe that the email address was created and sent to the Fairmont Hotel to obtain Bobanic's bill. It is also apparent that the author of the email made it appear there was an affiliation to Bobanic."
But they said the matter fell short of requirement for prosecution because there was no use of Bobanic's official state-issued driver's license number, Social Security number or other personal identification information.
Valencia College allegation
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According to one FDLE report, Prasad indicated that she assisted Tobia by logging into his Valencia College account, and "has assisted him in grading papers." She said Tobia was "technologically impaired," so she also helped him in setting up his new classes when the college made changes to its online system.
A separate FDLE report said Bond indicated that there were occasions when he assisted Tobia with his Valencia College work, including helping when there was a syllabus change and occasionally helping "cross-reference grades."
When investigators asked Prasad if there was anything illegal, immoral or unethical that she was aware of that had occurred at her office, Prasad "advised that she did not like doing Tobia's personal work, but did not feel that it rose to the level of being unethical," the report said.
Research through webElect
The report on the Bond interview said Bond acknowledged that he used Tobia's account with webElect, a voter registration database, "in a limited capacity for constituent research. According to Bond, he used the program to better understand a voter, to determine their party and to know their affiliations."
Nevertheless, Bond told investigators that "each person who contacts Tobia's office gets a response, regardless," the FDLE report said.
That conflicts with an allegation by Davis that registered Democrats or those not having a high enough "score" were to be ignored.
Prasad also told investigators that she used webElect "to conduct informational research on Tobia's constituents," including "to research/verify if a constituent is in Tobia's district," according to an FDLE report.
Questions about Tobia's home address
The FDLE also investigated whether Tobia actually lived at the Palm Bay address he listed on voting documents as his home address. Davis alleged that Tobia actually lived outside his commission district.
According to an FDLE report, the owner of the Palm Bay home told FDLE inspectors that she lived there with her adult daughter, and that she rented a room to Tobia for $300 a month. She said, while some of Tobia's clothes and other belongings were in the rented room and in a garage at the home, Tobia was there only occasionally.
The FDLE concluded that "probable cause has not been established that a crime has been committed," related to the issue of Tobia's address.
Brevard County Attorney Morris Richardson sat in on the interviews with Bond and Prasad.
According to a report in the case file, Richardson said the county's view is that county officials "typically let commissioners run their offices at their discretion."
"As such, it would be necessary for county administrators to determine if the actions of any of the individuals within the District 3 commissioner's office constitute a violation," including if they are criminal in nature or would be more property addressed through county disciplinary procedures, the report said.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at [email protected], on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: State Attorney's Office opts against pursuing charges against Tobia
