Notary license may trip up speculator

Don Connolly's notary public application and activities draw the scrutiny of the governor's office.

By JEFF TESTERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 28, 2002

TAMPA -- The governor's office is investigating land speculator Don Connolly and the application he made last year for a notary public license.

State officials want to know whether Connolly, who has created controversy by buying up tax deeds in the Tampa Bay area and then offering to sell the land to adjacent property owners for huge profits, falsified his application or used his notary license improperly.

Asked on his notary application if he had been convicted of a felony, if he had ever had adjudication withheld or if he is on probation, Connolly answered, "no."

Records show, however, that Connolly did have adjudication withheld after arrests for soliciting for prostitution, assault and grand theft. He remains on 15 years' probation stemming from the theft charge, a 1997 case in which Connolly was charged with defrauding the state by failing to remit more than $100,000 in sales taxes collected in a used car business.

"The governor's legal office and the notary section are looking into it to see if there has been any falsification," said Liz Hirst, spokeswoman for Gov. Jeb Bush.

Affirming any information on a notary application that is false may constitute perjury.

Records at the Hillsborough County Courthouse also indicate Connolly violated a section of Florida's notary law by notarizing a signature on a document in which he has a financial interest.

Just days after obtaining his notary commission last year, Connolly notarized a document for a $13,500 mortgage made by his company, Alaskan Ventures, to two Tampa men. Connolly, whose full name is Donnie Clay Connolly, also witnessed the men's signatures, using alternatively, "Don Connolly" and "Clay Connolly."

The governor's office was asked to look into Connolly's notary license by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating one of Connolly's land deals.

Connolly declined to speak to the St. Petersburg Times.

His record includes two arrests involving chance encounters with police officers.

In June 1983, Connolly was charged with misdemeanor solicitation after he propositioned an undercover police officer on Nebraska Avenue in Tampa and offered her $25 to perform two sex acts. He pleaded no contest and paid $300 in court costs.

In 1991, Connolly was charged with assault by making a threat of violence against a motorist. The driver, who claimed Connolly used his wrecker to try to force her off the road, was a Tampa police officer, Candace Cary.

Cary said she was eastbound on Interstate 4 near I-75 when Connolly "came barreling through in a wrecker and ran me off the road." Cary honked the horn at Connolly, "flipped him off," then followed him so she could report Connolly to his employer.

On I-75, Connolly again tried to run her car off the road, Cary said. When she confronted Connolly at his car lot in Brandon, he pulled his wrecker toward her car, she said.

A judge found Connolly guilty of misdemeanor assault.

"He tried to tell the judge he felt threatened by me," Cary said. "But I had my 4-year-old in the car and the judge just didn't buy it."

Connolly was put on probation for six months, ordered to pay $100 in court costs, perform 25 hours of community service and attend defensive driving school.

At the time, Connolly's driving record listed three license suspensions and nine citations for speeding in the previous eight years.

The felony grand theft charge followed a Florida Department of Revenue investigation in 1997 into Connolly's used car business, Kinjite Motors. Agents determined that Kinjite made $3.8-million in sales but remitted only a fraction of the $634,477 in sales taxes Connolly collected.

"The act of theft provided the defendant with an improved lifestyle and unfair and illegal advantage over his competitors," one state agent wrote of Connolly's tax scam.

Investigators also said that Connolly defrauded a finance company in Deerfield Beach which bought hundreds of sales contracts on cars sold by Kinjite. The agreements called for Kinjite to collect and forward car payments to the firm and sign over title of any repossessed cars.

But, according to the records, Connolly secretly kept cars he repossessed, then resold the vehicles to boost Kinjite's profits.

As part of a plea agreement, Connolly pleaded no contest to a single count of grand theft. A judge withheld adjudication on the felony, placed him on probation for 15 years and ordered him to pay $134,378 in restitution to the state.

Connolly is whittling away at the tax debt with payments to the state of $750 a month.

-- Staff writer Robert Farley and researchers John Martin and Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright