Sarasota prosecutors have chosen to forego pending charges against former Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, who is embroiled in video voyeurism charges.
Ultimately, the Sarasota State Attorney’s Office concluded there was not enough evidence to charge him with illegally videotaping a woman who claimed he raped her without her consent, according to a memo obtained by the Post. .
“Mr. Ziegler is relieved that he has been cleared of false allegations and criminal activity. We cooperated at every step of the investigation and remained silent out of respect for the investigation, which was difficult.” his attorney, Derek Byrd, told the Post.
Back in January, just weeks after he was ousted as chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Sarasota police similarly concluded there was insufficient evidence and declined to pursue a rape case against him.
They used video of the encounter recorded by Ziegler on her cell phone and concluded that “the sexual encounter was likely consensual,” according to the memo.
From there, authorities considered whether Ziegler filmed the footage consensually. Otherwise, he would have been charged because it is against Florida law to film a sexual tryst without consent.
According to the memo, Ziegler told authorities in November of last year that he had been talking to a woman through Instagram messages, but the video disappeared after he was recorded to share it with his wife.
Authorities couldn’t find any evidence of that, and the footage of the Oct. 2, 2023 incident gave no hint as to whether it was consensually filmed, but based on the footage, the camera He emphasized that it does not appear to be hidden.
It also noted that she was intoxicated and that there were “inconsistencies” in her conversations with authorities, concluding that authorities could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The victim acknowledged that he may have consented to being photographed,” the memo states.
The woman claimed to have known Ziegler and his wife for about 20 years, and the incident allegedly occurred at her home.
investigation revelation A matchup with Ziegler came up last November. Top Florida Republicans, including Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, have called on him to resign.
Back in January, the Florida Republican Party voted to oust him and replace him with Evan Power, his former vice chair.
The controversy from the ordeal has embroiled both Ziegler and his wife Bridget, a power couple in Florida Republican politics.
Bridget Ziegler is the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, which works to elect conservative mothers to school boards.
Although she was not accused of wrongdoing, she was pressured by the Sarasota Board of Education to resign, but refused to do so. She also serves on the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District Walt Disney World Committee, which oversees the area surrounding Walt Disney World.
Mr. Byrd indicated that Mr. Ziegler was not keen on filing a lawsuit against the woman and wanted to move forward with the case. The lawyer also slammed those who rushed to judgment on the matter.
“We asked everyone not to rush to judgment and reminded everyone to follow the constitutional directives and presume Mr. Ziegler innocent,” Byrd said. “Unfortunately, many people did not extend that courtesy to Mr. Ziegler and damaged his family, career, and reputation through this process.”
