Cappelli goes to prison
January 15, 2008 at 11:00 am by Wayne GarciaThe Times reports that unsuccessful 2006 Republican legislative candidate Angelo Cappelli is off the Hotel Graybar for a 21-month stay:
Judge Joseph Bulone sentenced Cappelli to 21 months behind bars on Friday after Cappelli pleaded guilty to charges of grand theft and perjury.
“He wanted to get this behind him,” said Frank Louderback, Cappelli’s attorney. “He’s very remorseful and feels very bad about what happened.”
Cappell is a guy who had it all: a Yale education, money, a good job in banking (I know, that’s an oxymoron), house, car, wife, etc. When I sat down with him at the start of the 2006 election cycle for my column in CL, I was impressed with his in-depth knowledge of the issues and some of his ideas on how to solve them. I thought he was dressed far to garishly (expensive white-collared shirts, cuff links, braces, the whole corporate banking look) to come off as a “Man of the People” that was needed in the St. Pete district where he was running. Even our gay, married editor David Warner liked Cappelli, who was against gay rights, in a story Warner did about the Heller-Cappelli race. I was later disappointed to see that he had succumbed to the state Republican Party’s ham-handed inclination to attack his opponent, Bill Heller, in an unfair and untrue way in mailers and other ads. It cost Cappelli the election and his reputation as a caring, good guy.
Cappelli had some friends in high places, as well:
Well-known developer Mel Sembler and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker supported Cappelli’s run against Democrat Bill Heller for House District 52 in 2006. Cappelli ended up raising $160,000 more than Heller but lost the race in a difficult election year for most Republicans across the state.
I have spoken with folks who spoke privately with Cappelli right after his arrest story broke. He was devastated and didn’t have an answer for why he lifted $100K from the estate of a dead client. My source knew Cappelli fairly well and was dumbfounded, too.
I’ve already seen lots of blog chatter on Cappelli being a hypocritical Republican, and given the GOP scandals of the past three years, that’s understandable. But Cappelli admitted his crime immediately, paid back all the money, didn’t fight the charges, and his taking his medicine rather than paying sharp lawyers to get him off or at least appeal the case for years and years. He pleaded guilty but didn’t bargain for a low prison sentence.
I think Angelo deserves some credit for that, and not a fresh bunch of lumps from blog-commenting knuckleheads. I think Cappelli still has something he can contribute to our Tampa Bay community when he gets out; let’s hope he turns things around enough to be able to do that.
