CLEWISTON, Fla. — Fox 4 has obtained the front pages of both search warrants related to last year's raids on Clewiston city buildings after months of pushing for answers and reaching out to sources about the investigation.
Community Correspondent Austin Schargorodski has been covering this investigation since the beginning. He got his hands on both warrants on Monday.
The first one came after leaving the clerk a voicemail and questioning their lack of response to an October public records request. Fox 4 also told them the station was prepared to take legal action if the request was not fulfilled. About 15 minutes later, they sent the city hall warrant.
Then, through a different government agency, we obtained the second warrant for the community development building.
The community development building warrant said a judge found probable cause to believe there was official misconduct, but it didn't go beyond that. In the city hall warrant, that same judge believed Florida's bid tampering laws were being violated.
Bid tampering refers to illegally manipulating the bidding process for a city project to favor a specific contractor. The warrant allowed investigators to search city hall and take records related to those allegations. However, the search warrant does not provide details about what bids were possibly tampered with.
This all started in October, when Hendry County Sheriff's Office investigators raided Clewiston City Hall as part of what they called "concerning business practices." At a council meeting, commissioners voted to bring in an outside review of city operations.
In November, the investigation expanded when the Clewiston Community Development Building was raided on a second search warrant. The sheriff's office said a substantial amount of information was taken from that building.
In November, the sheriff's office said, "Detectives are working to close this case in the upcoming weeks." But now, nearly 10 weeks later, the Hendry County Sheriff's Office said the investigation is still ongoing.
Fox 4 will continue pushing for answers and bring updates from the city council meeting on Monday.
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