Ex-staffer claims Florida lieutenant governor had lesbian affair with aide

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Cole was arrested last October and charged with illegally taping a conversation and sharing the recording with the Times Union. On the tape, which wound up on the paper’s website, Carroll’s chief of staff, John Konkus, is heard saying Scott’s chief of staff at the time was “afraid of Carroll,” and that Scott is “not leading.” It is illegal in Florida to record conversations without the consent of all parties. Cole is charged with a third-degree felony for which she faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Cole’s attorneys filed a motion responding to prosecutors’ attempts to seal evidence in the case. In that motion, she charges that Konkus routinely recorded conversations, as did staffers for Gov. Rick Scott. She accuses Konkus of boasting to colleagues that he used a so-called “magic pen” that doubled as a recording device.

Cole previously accused Ramos of setting her trashcan on fire, and accuses the governor of writing a recommendation for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement officer investigating the incident, to impede the investigation. Ramos claimed she dropped a cigar into the trashcan which she didn’t realize was still lit, and the investigation was dropped.

The allegations of a sexual relationship include Ramos allegedly living at Carroll’s home for a time, and Cole allegedly being ordered to by Ramos to put her and Carroll in adjoining hotel rooms when they traveled — an arrangement that did not apply when Carroll’s husband traveled with her.

The evidence prosecutors had sought to keep from the public includes the results of a polygraph test Cole took in relation to her allegations.

Read the case files here.