MARTIN COUNTY — A man once charged in the sex spa investigation is suing Martin County Sheriff William Snyder for refusing to provide him with e-mail and text messages related to the case.
Daniel Cash, 61, of Hobe Sound was charged in February with use of a structure or conveyance for prostitution and soliciting prostitution. He was one of dozens of men in Martin, Indian River and Palm Beach counties charged in stings by law enforcement agencies investigating several massage parlors.
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The lawsuit filed Friday is for negligent or intentional destruction of evidence and injunctive relief of the Florida Public Records Act.
In August, Cash agreed to go through a pre-trial diversion program for his charges.When the program was completed, the state dropped the charges in October.
Cash retained attorney Richard Kibbey of Stuart to pursue a potential civil lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office.
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Kibbey said the Sheriff's Office has refused to provide the e-mails and text messages requested for his client. Cash paid $3,000 for thousands of pages turned over by the Sheriff's Office, but much of it was redacted.
"The lawsuit was a last resort" to address the issue, Kibbey said.
With the Asian Spa case closed, the lawsuit states the records requests should be honored. But Kibbey said many of the records, such as the text messages, may not be available now.
"The (Sheriff's Office's) willful failure to follow the law has caused irreparable damage to both Mr. Cash and the public at large," the lawsuit states.
The Sheriff's Office spokeswoman couldn't be reached Friday.
Stancil is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Contact Stancil at 321-987-7179 or lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com. Twitter: @TCPalmLStancil