A Florida Republican leader and father allegedly destroyed his hotel room during an alcohol-fueled assault after his worried family reported him missing after not hearing from him for days.
Florida Republican Party Executive Director George Riley Jr. was reported missing to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office on April 2, after being unable to contact his loved ones for four days.
Investigators later learned that Riley, 43, had been kicked out of the Hampton Inn in Kissimmee on April 3 for trashing his room and cleaning up the alcohol inside the hotel. The Tampa Bay Times reported.
According to an Osceola County Sheriff’s Office report obtained by a local newspaper, the party cadre was found by sheriff’s deputies two days later, allegedly “urinating and vomiting” inside the hotel room and breaking the electric blinds.
Riley told his family he was traveling to Kissimmee for work, but they stopped contacting him on March 29. Riley’s sister told the sheriff’s office that Riley had a medical condition and was taking medication, but both details were redacted.
The local politician had checked into the Hampton Inn the previous day, March 28, and extended his planned stay the next day. The paper said that when he tried to extend his stay again on April 3, hotel staff refused him, citing “excessive drinking and damage to the room.”
According to the sheriff’s report, an assistant general manager at the Hampton Inn said Riley purchased so much alcohol at the hotel’s concession stand that he frequently had to order more.
He was evicted and charged an additional fee for cleaning the vomit- and urine-stained room and broken blinds, which employees said he did not object to.
After speaking with staff at the Hampton, deputies searching for the missing man checked other hotels in the area and ended up staying at the B Resort and Hotel in Lake Buena Vista on Friday, according to local newspaper reports. They say they found the man at the spa.
“He was in good health but under the influence of alcohol,” investigators wrote in a follow-up report, according to the publication.
Deputies determined the Republican was not a threat to himself or others and released him.
He stood in solidarity with his family and later apologized for his actions in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times.
“I am truly sorry. I have dealt with alcoholism and mental health issues,” Riley told the newspaper. “I will pay for any damages caused. I apologize to my employees for my inappropriate behavior and will seek help immediately.”
“I ask for help to be a better father, a better person, and a better all-around employee,” he added.
Riley has worked for the Florida Republican Party since 2008, when she began her career as a field staffer in Tampa.
