Sarasota Police Department

The 43-page report at the center of the dispute was commissioned by Sarasota County Schools and completed in April by the law firm Hultman + Joshi. It concluded the district failed to properly handle three separate complaints of teacher misconduct at Riverview High School.

Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal reversed a Sarasota ruling that sealed and ordered destroyed the police investigation records on former GOP chair Christian Ziegler, holding that courts cannot invent new exemptions to the Public Records Act.

State law was violated when the third-party report was leaked. School board members had access but were not supposed to share details with anyone until the investigation was complete.

Criminal citations for sleeping outside in Sarasota have increased more than fourteenfold since 2020, driven in part by expanded police training that now empowers officers throughout the department to enforce the city's lodging ordinance.

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The report, obtained by the Florida Trident and authored by Sarasota police Det. Angela Cox, recounts how Christian Ziegler went “on the prowl” in bars for women to bring home to Bridget, a Sarasota County School Board member who has backed a number of anti-LGBTQ measures at both the state and local level, for threesome encounters.

Sarasota Police Chief Rex Troche launches the project as a means to speak directly to the people his department serves.

The Florida Trident reports new information released by Sarasota police reveals details on a rape allegation against Christian Ziegler.

New details have emerged in the now-closed sexual battery investigation of recently ousted Florida GOP chairman Christian Ziegler that contradict his claim a threesome involving his wife was planned on the day the woman alleged he raped her.

Police have cleared the ousted chair of the Florida Republican Party of rape allegations, but have asked prosecutors to charge him with video voyeurism.

The alleged sexual battery occurred inside the woman’s home in Sarasota last month, according to a police report. According to sources close to the investigation, she said she and both Zieglers had been involved in a longstanding consensual three-way sexual relationship prior to the incident.

It's part of the department's efforts to decentralize and strengthen trust within the community.