Search of ex-Florida GOP chairman’s phone in rape probe was illegal, judge rules
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 three 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.
According to police reports, Christian Ziegler messaged his accuser last October to propose a threesome with him and his wife. The woman canceled after he told her that his wife had backed out of the plans. But Christian Ziegler showed up at the woman’s apartment anyway, where she said he raped her.
Ziegler maintained that the encounter was consensual.
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. Prosecutors also declined to pursue that charge.
While prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges, concluding that Ziegler’s sexual encounter with his accuser was “likely consensual,” the allegation and subsequent investigation revealed sordid details of the Zieglers’ personal lives that appeared at odds with their reputations as cultural conservatives and advocates for traditional values.
The couple, according to investigators, previously engaged in three-way sexual encounters over the years. Text messages obtained from Christian Ziegler’s phone unveiled how Bridget Ziegler directed him to go to bars to “prowl” for women that they were both interested in having sex with, according to a memo from Sarasota Police Detective Angela Cox.
The allegations and investigation prompted widespread backlash against the power couple. Christian Ziegler faced widespread calls from fellow Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, to resign from his job at the state GOP. Eventually, party officials voted in January to remove him from the chairmanship.
Bridget Ziegler, a co-founder of the conservative group Mom’s for Liberty, also faced intense criticism. The Sarasota County School Board voted overwhelmingly in December to formally call for her resignation from the board, though she declined to do so.
After the Sarasota State Attorney’s Office said earlier this year that it would not pursue charges against Christian 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.
“There is precedent in Florida for a court to order law enforcement to destroy illegally seized material in violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights,” Carroll wrote. “And that is what Mr. Ziegler requests, and the Court grants that request.”
Matthew Sarelson, an attorney for the Zieglers, touted the judge’s decision on Monday as a victory for the U.S. Constitution.
“These were three, overbroad, general warrants to obtain literally everything on Christian’s phone, which is tantamount [to] everything in this life,” Sarelson said in a statement. “Our Constitution requires more nuance because broad general warrants are patently unlawful. And on top of this, Christian [was] neither arrested nor charged. This is a win for all Floridians, not just Christian and Bridget. Hopefully, something like this never happens to anyone else ever again.”
Cynthia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Sarasota Police, said that the department “is aware of the ruling and is working in coordination with the City Attorney’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to review the decision.”
