Published by the Florida Center for Government Accountability
Appeal filed in Ziegler case 5 days after Sarasota officials decline to pursue one
A month after a Sarasota judge ruled the Sarasota Police Department’s search of Christian Ziegler’s phone amid rape allegations was illegal, intervenors in the case are appealing the judge’s order.
In a court filing, Michael Barfield, the Florida Center for Government Accountability Inc., Gannett (the Sarasota Herald-Tribune’s parent company), McClatchy and Scripps have filed an appeal with the Second District Court of Appeal about the final judgment that ruled in favor of Christian and Bridget Ziegler.
Sarasota Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll ruled on July 1 that SPD’s three search warrants violated Christian Ziegler’s Fourth Amendment rights, according to the 46-page ruling. Carroll also ordered police and the State Attorney’s Office to destroy original copies of records found through the warrants “promptly and without delay,” according to previous reporting.
Carroll stated the investigator’s actions regarding the warrants were “patently erroneous and constitutionally intolerable.”