Tampa Radio: Charges Dropped Against Schnitt Attorney

Phil Campbell

At the cozy downtown bar that January night, the text messages and cellphone calls flew fast and furious — more than 200 before the evening was over.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, a paralegal texted her bosses even as she flirted with a lawyer who didn't know she worked for the very firm he faced off against that day in court. One of those bosses called his friend on the police force, who sat outside Malio's Prime Steakhouse restaurant and bar for nearly three hours, the two texting back and forth 92 times.

In the middle of it sat lawyer C. Philip Campbell Jr. — who didn't plan on driving that night because his downtown apartment was two blocks away — unaware he was about to get popped for DUI.  Campbell at the time was representing Tampa radio personality Todd Schnitt who was suing crosstown rival Bubba The Love Sponge in a civil defamation case.  Schnitt has a PM Drive Show on CCM+E's N/T WFLA 970 AM. Bubba is morning host on Cox Media's WHPT  FM.  Bubba eventually won the case.  Schnitt is now suing the 65-year-old Campbell over his legal fees.

Todd Schnitt, Bubba

In the end, the tale told by the calls and texts that night helped persuade prosecutors to drop the drunken driving charge against Campbell and use words like "collaboration" and "organized effort" to refer to his arrest in a report issued this week.

"The intensity of the communication," said William Loughery, a prosecutor with the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, which was called in to investigate, "was jaw-dropping."

"It is now absolutely clear that Mr. Campbell was the victim of a devious setup," said his attorney, John Fitzgibbons. "And all honest and ethical police officers and lawyers should be deeply troubled over what happened."

The prosecutors' report pulled the lid off a case that has been the talk of the legal community and beyond.

Tampa police Chief Jane Castor backed off her previously unequivocal support of the officers involved, releasing a written statement: "It is clear that Sgt. Ray Fernandez utilized bad judgment when he failed to remove himself from this investigation. He should have assigned it to an officer who did not have a personal connection to the tip."

She declined questions because the FBI is investigating.

Read More Now