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Scandalous Tampa: An Interactive Map

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By JANINE DORSEY, TBO.com

Published: March 14, 2008

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Sex! Drugs! Double lives! Welcome to Tampa, home of the, well, bizarre.

In the past 20 years, celebrities have become jailbirds and jailbirds have become celebrities in the Bay area.

Here are their stories, from the well-to-do double Dad to Pee-wee and the adult playhouse.

View the full-size interactive map of Tampa-area scandals.

Hot For Teacher

Greco Middle School
6925 E. Fowler Ave., Temple Terrace

This is the site for the most famous of Bay area teacher-student sex scandals. In June 2004, Debra Lafave, who was 23 at the time, was arrested on charges she had sex with a 14-year-old boy at her home and on school grounds. A week later, she was arrested again and charged with having sex with the boy in her SUV as his cousin drove around Ocala.

TBO Special Report: Debra Lafave

Drunk & Disorderly

Hyde Park Cafe
1806 W. Platt St., Tampa

Former "American Idol" contestant Jessica Sierra was arrested after police said she threw a glass at a bar patron's head. She then resisted arrest and began to kick the squad car windows, according to an arrest report. When her property was searched at Orient Road Jail, deputies reported they found a small baggie of cocaine.

Previous Coverage From TBO

Drunk & Disorderly, Part Deux

Full Moon Saloon
1613 E. Seventh Ave., Ybor City

Merely two weeks after pleading no contest to the previous charges stemming from an incident at the Hyde Park Cafe, Sierra was charged with disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest, felony battery and possession of cocaine. She then offered the favor of a sex act in exchange for being released by the arresting officer, according to arrest reports.

Previous Coverage From TBO

LaBrake On The Take

3608 W. Corona St., Tampa

As Tampa's housing chief, Steve LaBrake awarded a single contractor more than $1 million to build low-income housing for the city. He and his then-girlfriend, Lynn McCarter, paid the same contractor to build a 4,200-square-foot luxury home in South Tampa for the below-market cost of $105,000 in 2001.

LaBrake was sentenced to five years in prison in this case and a bribery case involving the USF Credit Union that came to light during the investigation. Lynn McCarter LaBrake was sentenced to 41 months in prison. McCarter worked as LaBrake's employee during the period in question.

A Taxing Situation

Jackson's Bistro
601 S. Harbour Island Blvd., Tampa

Fresh off a scolding for resting his head on a woman's breast, Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden reportedly got cozy with three other women at Jackson's Bistro one night in October 2006. One woman complained he touched her breast while petting her dog in her lap, according to a police report. (The dog had no comment.) A surveillance camera caught it all on tape.

Who's Your Daddy?

Berkeley Prep
4811 Kelly Road, Tampa

Douglas Cone and Hillary Carlson were married two weeks after the March 2003 death of Cone's wife Jean Ann. The attorney representing Cone's oldest son wanted the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office to look into Jean Ann's death.

It turned out that Cone, a millionaire road builder who constructed many of the Tampa area's highways, kept two families who lived just 20 miles apart, a double life that went unnoticed until his first wife died. The overlap of the two families was most shocking in that children from both households went to the exclusive Berkeley Prep school, never knowing that their classmates were also siblings.

More On This Story (From FreeRepublic.com)

The Most Famous Bathroom Stall Ever -- Before Sen. Craig's

Banana Joe's
615 Channelside Drive, Tampa

On Nov. 6, 2005, two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were arrested after getting into a fight with nightclub patrons who accused them of engaging in sexual activities with each other in the bathroom.

The other patrons complained about having to wait and pounded on the door until one of the cheerleaders, 20-year-old Renee Thomas, emerged and punched a female patron in the face.

Her bathroom partner, Angela Keathley, 26, was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing an officer without violence. Thomas, who presented the driver's license of another cheerleader, who was older than 21, was charged with battery and a felony charge relating to false identity. Both women were fired from the squad.

Hot Under The Clerical Collar

255 Sixth Ave. N., Tierra Verde

The Rev. Henry Lyons was convicted in 1999 of grand theft and racketeering while he was president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. His downfall began two years earlier, when his then-wife, Deborah, set fire to a $700,000 Tierra Verde home owned by Lyons and his mistress, Bernice Edwards, right, a convicted embezzler.

He denied wrongdoing for months. Then an investigation into his personal and church affairs showed that he used convention funds to finance his lavish lifestyle.

Lyons served more than four years in state prison and will remain on probation through this year.

Brenda Harris, Lyons' ex-mistress, left, received 18 months' probation for failing to report a felony to authorities.

Miss Nevada's Bluff

Fletcher's Backstreet Grille
508 Fletcher Ave. W., Tampa

In December 2006, Miss Nevada 2007 was stripped of her title after pictures were released that showed her topless and engaging in or simulating sex acts with men and women. The photos were taken at Fletcher's Backstreet Grille when she was 19.

Highway To Hell

Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority
412 E. Madison St., Suite 800, Tampa

Ralph Mervine resigned as executive director of the expressway authority on Nov. 8, 2006, hours after Tampa Tribune reporters confronted him with questions about his ownership of a pornographic video company based in San Diego.

Mervine and the authority board had been under fire for months, accused of improprieties in competitive bidding and conflicts of interest.

After weeks of not returning calls, Mervine called the Tribune to dispute one allegation: that he was in business with an authority subcontractor who received an extra payment from the authority soon after Mervine was hired.

He said allegations that he pushed authority officials to pay Driggers Construction of Auburndale more than $400,000 were unfounded.

Boy Meets Girl

Largo City Hall
201 Highland Ave. N.E.

Largo City Manager Steven Stanton was fired in February 2007 when commissioners learned he was undergoing hormone therapy in preparation for his planned gender reassignment surgery.

The news broke before Stanton was able to tell his child.

Living now as Susan, Stanton has applied for other city manager positions, most notably in Sarasota.

His wife filed for divorce in April 2008.

Pee-wee In The Playhouse

South Trail Cinema
Sarasota

In July 1991, Paul Reubens, a k a Pee-wee Herman, was arrested in Sarasota after police said he masturbated publicly in an adult theater.

Although the children's series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" had ended by that time, CBS reacted by dropping the reruns from its lineup. Reubens was fined and sentenced to community service.

Hand In The Collection Plate?

Without Walls International Church
2511 N. Grady Ave., Tampa

Randy and Paula White, pastors at Without Walls International Church, were the subject of a Tribune investigation into their spending habits versus how much money they collected in their 23,500-member megachurch.

The couple own jets and expensive houses, and they have both had plastic surgery. Randy White has claimed degrees and titles that he does not possess.

One elderly parishioner supplied a promissory note saying the couple had borrowed money and not paid her back. The couple have also broken contracts with businesses and in one case were accused of using the church's tax-exempt status to buy furniture, though Paula White has since said that was a mistake and paid the difference.

There has been an exodus of staff both forced an voluntary, and the couple are in the process of a divorce.

TBO Special Report: Without Walls Church

Adventures At Sea Wolf

Sea Wolf Restaurant, Tampa

Gene Holloway opened one of the most successful restaurants in Tampa, the Sea Wolf. It generated $5 million in revenue in its first year and was named the eighth-largest restaurant in the nation based on sales. He has been married to a beauty queen and owned exotic animals, and in 1980 he ran for president.

After his wife filed for divorce and accused him of burning down their house, he faked his own death in the Bahamas by disappearing overboard. He was later arrested in Toronto using an alias and carrying $270,000 in cash.

Holloway was indicted on conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and perjury charges. The IRS auctioned his antiques and art collections.

Holloway beat the arson and insurance fraud charges in the house fire, but he was sentenced to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge.

He is now retired and a deep-sea treasure hunter.

Full Article | TBO Special Report: The Sea Wolf

The Buddy System

Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office
Falkenburg Road, Tampa

Elections boss Buddy Johnson has been the subject of media scrutiny in early 2008 for spending tax money on a PR firm to further his political ambitions.

Other items surrounding Johnson include his attempt to reduce a property tax bill by seeking an agricultural exemption, and a recent report that he owes thousands in back taxes on various recently purchased properties across the Bay area. Some have questioned such extravagant purchases given his $132,128 annual salary.

Also at issue are some campaign contributions that have been criticized as illegal.

Follow this story on Tampa's Sticks Of Fire blog.

To Protect And Serve

Mulberry Police Department

Deputy police chief Jody Beaudry was accused April 14 of having sex with a teenage girl, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

Beaudry turned himself in on charges of felony sexual battery and engaging in unlawful sexual activity with a minor, FDLE spokeswoman Trena Reddick said. Beaudry, 40, is accused of having a sexual relationship in 2004 with a girl who was 16 at the time.

Beaudry was suspended without pay, Reddick said.

Tribune researcher Stephanie Pincus contributed to this report. Did we miss anything? Leave a comment below.

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