Two years ago, attorneys for shock jock Bubba The Love Sponge were locked in a fierce defamation court fight with lawyer Phil Campbell who represented Bubba’s radio rival Todd Schnitt. Then, there was a new twist in the high-profile case when Tampa police arrested Campbell outside of Malio’s Steakhouse for DUI.
Now, Campbell’s lawyer claims a paralegal helped seduce Campbell inside Malio’s that night with alcohol-fueled flirtations. She later told her ex-husband she was involved in a plot with Bubba’s lawyers, a conversation he claims he recorded on his cell phone camera.
“I think it’s a game changer and again I think its a smoking gun,” said Campbell’s attorney John Fitzgibbons.
Fitzgibbons says that the paralegal’s ex-husband Kristopher Personius contacted Campbell in May of 2014 to set up a meeting in which he played the cell phone recording for Campbell and gave him the phone.
According to Fitzgibbons, Personius was not aware that Campbell had notified the FBI about the meeting and agents had bugged the room when Personius explained his ex-wife’s confession and played the video.
Fitzgibbons says Campbell later gave the cell phone and recording to the FBI as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.
“It explains what really happened that night,” Fitzgibbons said. The FBI won’t comment citing an ongoing criminal investigation into the actions of attorneys Stephen Diaco, Robert Adams, Adam Filthaut and their paralegal Melissa Personius.
Attorneys for Diaco and Personius claim that any recording that might exist is inadmissible as evidence because Personius did not give her consent. “Melissa Personius has never consented to be recorded for any purpose,” said her attorney Todd Foster.
Monday, there is supposed to be a trial in which the Florida Bar tries to take away the law licenses of Diaco, Adams and Filthaut. On Friday, their lawyer will try to have the video recording thrown out as evidence and have the Florida Bar counsel removed from the case for using “illegal” recording as evidence.
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