Of rifts in Jim Greer's legal camp and sloppy, trashy Tampa TV ...

James Cheney Mason and Donald A. Lykkebak, two Orlando lawyers representing former GOP Chairman Jim Greer, want out.

Mason is asking an Orlando circuit judge to allow him to withdraw from the criminal case scheduled for trial on July 30. Greer is charged with money laundering, grand theft and fraud in connection with money he received from the GOP while he was chairman of the party.

Greer says his other lawyer, Damon Chase of Lake Mary, is prepared to take the case to trial.

We don't know the reasons (lawyers ought not and don't talk about their clients), but there's good circumstantial evidence to suggest that Mason -- who successfully represented "tot mom" Casey Anthony last year -- has had enough of Greer as of late.

Chase and Greer have twice leaked information to a Tampa WTSP "investigative" reporter who seems more determined to file tendentious reports to show former Gov. Charlie Crist is gay rather than present facts in a basic, objective manner.

For instance, the station last week initially and utterly failed to mention that Crist made a witness-tampering complaint to state police after Chase threatened to depose him about his sexuality because Crist refused to change a sworn affidavit concerning the fraud charges against Greer.

Instead, the station just reported the allegations about Crist's sexuality -- and suggested that it came from a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report. Consider the online headline that read Report: Crist paid men to hide gay affair. You had to read to the fifth paragraph to find out that the allegations came from Greer's camp and Greer's camp alone. Until that point the "allegations" in the "report" were all rendered in the passive voice.?

The facts bear repeating: The defense wanted a witness to change sworn testimony. Crist refused. They then planned to embarrass him in a deposition. Crist complained this was witness tampering. And that witness-tampering complaint from a former governor was utterly lacking from the first "investigative" report. So the "investigative" reporter had to "update" his report to give the relevant other side. That's not a minor change or update. That's a big deal.

Now the "investigative" reporter is back with another charge: That Crist gave George LeMieux an interim U.S. Senate seat in 2009 because LeMieux made some veiled threats about making Crist's sexuality public. The headline on this one: "Allegations Charlie Crist appointed George LeMieux to Senate to cover gay rumors." Once again, you have to smash through the print story with a hammer to find out who made the "allegations." It becomes somewhat clear in the ninth -- that's right, the ninth -- paragraph.

Last month, we asked LeMieux (now a Senate candidate) about the "allegations." He denied them. Greer and Chase wouldn't go on record. Greer wasn't in the room when Crist met with LeMieux. So he didn't know what was said.

None of this is to say that the allegations by Greer aren't worth reporting. They are. But they should be reported fairly and accurately. It shouldn't be done to trick the viewer or the reader into thinking, say, that the allegations come from an actual police investigation. Last year's first "investigative" report about the Greer case was pretty one-sided as well. It had a small inaccuracy or two.

This latest WTSP report just isn't "investigative." It's more like stenography of public toilet-stall graffiti. Except it's being done with a camera. And when people hear this stuff on television, they have far less of a chance to understand who is making the "allegations." Heck, even if they go back and read the sloppy online copy, they'll have to do it with extreme caution and skepticism. It makes for complicated reading, like translating Aquinas's teleological argument from the original Latin -- sans the sound reasoning.

You can't blame Greer. What defendant wouldn't want a TV station to buy and broadcast whatever you said hook, line and sinker to advance your case?

Perhaps not shockingly, It's impossible to find a WTSP "investigative report" that Greer's criminal defense team is abandoning him.

It appears Greer wants to take the stand. And for seasoned criminal-defense lawyers like Mason, that could be a huge mistake.

Greer suggested he wanted more out of his criminal-defense team (like smearing people?).

"No more delays,continuances,postponements for any reason, while some may have hoped or assumed this case would not go to trial, I want my day in court, Damon Chase knows this case in and out, and he is ready to aggressively represent and defend my case,?? Greer wrote Wednesday night in an email to a Tampa Bay Times reporter.

Chase, in a separate email, said he is looking forward to taking sworn statements from witnesses who have been delaying his effort to put them under oath.

Chase said Greer is eager to tell his story to a jury and prove that those who have testified against him are liars.

?What kind of country do we live in that puts one of its citizens through this kind of torment despite the overwhelming evidence of his innocence? Politicians will clearly stop at nothing to retain their fleeting grasps of power. I feel bad for the prosecutors who will have to argue this case to the jury with a straight face, and I wouldn?t for the world miss being in the courtroom when the clerk reads the verdict, ?Not Guilty?. ?? Chase responded.
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An Orlando judge will consider the lawyers request Thursday.

---Marc Caputo with Lucy Morgan, Tampa Bay Times.

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