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Torture, Drugging Conviction Upheld

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 17, 2008

TAMPA - A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of Steven Lorenzo, who is serving 200 years in federal prison for drugging and sexually torturing nine men.

"There was ample evidence to support the jury's verdict of conviction on all counts," the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a single-page, unsigned ruling issued eight days after a three-judge panel heard oral arguments in Jacksonville in the case.

Lorenzo is serving his sentence at the U.S. Penitentiary-Lee in Jonesville, Va. He was convicted of nine counts of distributing the date-rape drug GHB with the intent of committing a crime of violence and one count of conspiring with Scott Schweickert.

Evidence in the trial showed Lorenzo lured men to his Seminole Heights home, slipped the drug in their drinks and used chains, handcuffs and plastic zip ties to restrain them while he beat and sexually tortured them. Two of the victims in December 2003 died: Jason Galehouse and Michael Wachholtz.

One of Lorenzo's victims who testified in the trial, Albert Perkins, said the ruling "comforts me." Referring to Lorenzo's incarceration, Perkins said, "I still think he is where he should be. He should be there the rest of his life."

The Tampa Tribune usually does not publish the names of victims of sex crimes, but Perkins gave permission to use his name. He chose to go public when Lorenzo was sentenced in 2006, saying he wanted people to know he had nothing to be ashamed of.

The court has not issued a ruling in Schweickert's appeal, which was heard a week ago.

Lorenzo's court-appointed attorney, Ellis Rexwood Curry IV, argued in court last week that the evidence at the trial was insufficient to prove the drug charges. He said the prosecution inappropriately introduced evidence of murder in a drug case, inflaming the jury, causing it to convict without adequate evidence of the drug offenses.

The appeals judges brushed that claim aside, noting during the oral argument that the charge against Lorenzo was that he gave the victims the drugs with the intent to commit a crime of violence. "The two murders were crimes of violence," Judge R. Lanier Anderson said.

Lorenzo has not yet been prosecuted for murder.

Curry also argued that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution did not permit prosecutions like this in federal court. In his brief, Curry discussed "horrid federal socialism" and the "USA's present growing police state."

The appeals court dismissed the Commerce Clause argument, saying it had been settled by precedent.

Asked by e-mail for a comment on the ruling, Curry referred to an earlier e-mail in which he said, "The case will probably be heading for the United States Supreme Court on the same arguments."

He added the fact that the court said his Commerce Clause arguments were "foreclosed by precedent" was "a moral victory for me and my client along with the fact that it took the Court over a week to issue the opinion after 'careful consideration.'"

Melissa Hartford, a friend of Wachholtz, said she wasn't surprised that the appeals court upheld the conviction.

"I didn't expect them to do anything else," she said. "I was pretty comfortable with the fact that they would keep the conviction, given all the evidence stacked against him."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com. Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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