Search of ex-Florida GOP chairman's phone in rape probe was illegal, judge rules

MIAMI — A Sarasota judge has ruled that law enforcement officials violated former Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler’s rights during their investigation into an alleged sexual battery and video voyeurism.

In a 46-page order posted early Monday morning, Sarasota County Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll declared that search warrants that allowed investigators to comb through Ziegler’s cell phone for documents — including hundreds of thousands of photos, videos and text messages — were “severely overbroad,” and contained communications that had “no connection” to the allegations against Ziegler.

Ziegler was not charged with a crime.

“Cellphones today can contain a person’s entire life story,” Carroll wrote. “Law enforcement agents euphemistically described the unlimited search and seizure of Mr. Ziegler’s cellphone data to be ‘best practice.’ But 250 years ago, our forebears fought a Revolution against the tyrannical policies of King George III, including the allowance of general warrants that permitted unreasonable search and seizure.”

The ruling is a win for Ziegler, who was accused last fall of sexually assaulting a woman with whom he and his wife Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler had previously had a three-way sexual encounter.

In the course of the investigation, Ziegler also faced an accusation that he took video of his encounter with the woman without her consent — an allegation that opened up the possibility of a video voyeurism charge.

While prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges, the allegation and subsequent investigation prompted widespread backlash against the power couple and led to Christian Ziegler’s removal as Florida GOP chairman.

After the Sarasota State Attorney’s Office said earlier this year that it would not pursue charges against Ziegler, the former Florida GOP chairman sued to stop the release of records obtained over the course of the investigation.

Carroll ordered investigators on Monday to return Christian Ziegler’s cell phone and destroy the contents of the data seized as a result of the search warrants. That order, however, doesn’t extend to a video and photographs that Ziegler voluntarily handed over to law enforcement.