TALLAHASSEE, FL— Rep. Carolina Amesty was indicted on four felony charges and booked into the Orange County Jail after a grand jury decided she had forged a signature on a document she notarized for a school run by her father.
Investigated and first broken by the Orlando Sentinel, Amesty claimed in September 2021 that veteran teacher Robert Schafer was an employee at her family-run school, Central Christian University, where she worked as an administrator. The proof? She had personally notarized the form.
The problem was that while Schaffer had previously worked at a K-12 school also run by the Amesty family, he claimed he never worked at the University and never signed the notarized form. A grand jury agreed.
So after a months-long investigation, Amesty turned herself into the county jail Thursday afternoon. She's charged with forgery, uttering a forgery, false acknowledgment or certification by a notary, and notarizing her own signature.
“A concerned citizen brought potential criminal wrongdoing to our attention, and in line with our obligation to investigate fairly and without bias, we requested a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation and thoroughly reviewed the facts and evidence of the case,” State Attorney Andrew Bain said in a statement. “That information was presented to the grand jury who found sufficient evidence to return an indictment. I am committed to upholding fairness and justice in every case by applying the law equally to everyone and my record reflects this dedication.”
Amesty, a one-term (and perhaps final-term) 29-year-old Republican, is no stranger to controversy. In October 2023, she was sued by the former aide to her colleague Rep. Fabian Basabe for defamation. Why? Because she claimed that staffer Nicolas Frevola tried to run her over with his car.
In another odd twist, Amesty had defeated Frevola's mother, Janette Frevola, in the Republican primary for HD 45. Frevola also sued his former boss Basabe for allegedly slapping his behind and declaring, "I want all of that butt."
She also faced claims that she "loves Putin" soon after she returned from a study abroad in Russia and after a blogger posted a side-by-side picture of a Russian flag and American flag during Trump's inauguration.
Amesty is running for re-election this fall—she will take on businessman Leonard Spencer, a Democrat, on November 5th.
