Guy Tunnell Update

The Chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement had to apologize for playing email tag with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen. Tunnell wrote "ain't gonna happen" in regards to the chances that he would allow the videotape of Martin Anderson's beating be made public. What makes matters more problematic is that Tunnell and the FDLE were in charge of the investigation and the Florida Medical Examiners Commission. State Attorney Mark Ober removed the FDLE from the case.

''Due to comments expressed by FDLE Commissioner Guy Tunnell in recently released e-mails regarding the Bay County Boot Camp, I have determined that it is in the best interest of this investigation that an independent law enforcement agency assist my office in completing this investigation,''

Orlando Sentinel columnist David Porter noted that Tunnell's son Bradley was involved in a controversy with Corrections Secretary James Crosby.

Bradley Tunnell, who quit corrections, said Corrections Secretary James Crosby tried to pressure him to get his father's agency to back off the investigations.

Crosby was forced to quit by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bear in mind that Bradley Tunnell told the St. Petersburg Times that he got his job in 2004 after his father and Crosby chatted at a Tallahassee social gathering. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Guy Tunnell served on the transition team that analyzed the Department of Corrections for Jeb Bush's second term.

There's nothing like nepotism in the good-ole-boy network.

Tunnell is the former head of the politically-powerful Florida Sheriffs Association. That also explains how a man who was not one of the 28 candidates for the FDLE position got the appointment. Columnist Michael Mayo thinks that might be why the 2 year (and running) investigation into Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne is going nowhere. Sheriff Jenne made over $60 consulting for T&M Protection Resources Inc. Not a bad sum of money for a man already making $156,395-a-year.

FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger said, "We don't work these cases like they have to be solved tomorrow." Apparently not.