Former counsel of Orange County Clerk of Courts answers ethics complaint

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The former legal counsel for the Orange County Clerk of Courts addressed a county courtroom Wednesday on allegations he collected, then later returned more than $100,000 he received as part of a severance package.

Stephan Carter, who is representing himself, is fighting an ethics charge that could cost him up to $10,000 and the reputation he worked to build over 35 years as an attorney and former Orange County judge.

“Nothing I did was dishonest. Did I make bad legal judgments? Maybe, I don't think so,” Carter said.

Carter told the judge the allegations lodged against him in 2014 were politically motivated to benefit Eddie Fernandez. Florida Gov. Rick Scott appointed Fernandez to serve as clerk when longtime clerk Lydia Gardner died.

Carter claims Fernandez tried to use the case to gain notoriety.

“His face and my face and Colleen Reilly's face were all over Channel 9 and that was important to him because, again, no one knew who he was,” Carter said in court.

Carter had a contract to serve as general counsel for the Orange County Clerk of Courts for 11 years.

Carter said when Gardner died, it was the interim clerk, Colleen Reilly, who came up with the plan to terminate both of their contracts, and ordered payroll to issue them a total of $277,000 in payouts.

Carter and Reilly considered it a contract termination fee, not a severance package. It all happened the day after Gardner died, which Carter said he questioned.

“Her answer was I would rather have all the trauma occur now, so everybody can start moving on,” Carter said about Reilly’s explanation for taking the action.

Carter and Reilly remained on the job for nearly a year after they collected the money. The money was later returned in the middle of a criminal investigation.

“The story you've heard is a wonderful, um, story to spin. It's the privileged against the small people, the high rank versus the low, powerful versus the not,” Carter said. “People have sympathy for it and it plays well for the news. But your job is to listen to the real evidence.”

Cox Media Group