You can run but you can't hide
Cornered on the campaign trail, council candidate Emilio Carlesimo was finally forced to address the allegations made in Charlotte McGowan's lawsuit against the condo board that Carlesimo serves on as vice-president. This, after reportedly asking "Lawsuit? What lawsuit?" at the Venice Board of Realtors appearance on October 22.

I caught up with Carlesimo the next day as he was campaigning in a residential neighborhood on the island portion of Venice. I asked him if he really did deny knowledge of the lawsuit at the realtors' forum, but Carlesimo ran away as soon as he spotted the video camera. I turned the camera on him and asked him again, but he ran into the nearest house, a complete stranger to Carlesimo as far as I could determine (see Candidates ducking badly).

At the Eastgate Homeowners Association candidate forum on Sunday, October 26, Carlesimo protested the question as inappropriate, then went on to deny the charges, stating that his attorney had proof. Carlesimo stated he would not make the proof public, but that this web site should contact his attorney.

From there, things went south for Carlesimo when he was told that that his "proof" was already on file at the courthouse.

Carlesimo's response was a sideways snipe attack on the plaintiff, 73-year-old Charlotte McGowan: "For purposes of private... uhhh..  respecting other peoples' privacy, I'm not going to comment on Charlotte McGowan and her motives."

Uhhh, Emilio, I think you just did.

Judging from the court filings of both sides of this lawsuit, McGowan's stated motives are that she just wants to be left alone and doesn't want her bedroom walls torn out just to accommodate a washer/dryer combo in the condo unit above her, especially when the condo board withheld that information from her and stated the work would actually be for the purpose of mold mitigation. She also wants to be able to get condo association documents and board meeting minutes without having to play hide-and-seek with the condo's management staff.

See video clip below, full story on McGowan lawsuit is available here.

John Patten is the editor and publisher of Venice Florida! dot com and had previously worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.