TAMPA With a criminal investigation hanging over him, former Public Transportation Commission chief Kyle Cockream repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a deposition Monday into whether public records were deleted from agency cell phones. <\/p>\n
A judge ordered Cockream to appear at the deposition as part of a public records lawsuit filed against the agency that regulates for-hire transportation in Hillsborough County. He turned up, but on advice from his attorney Michael Carey, refused to answer questions from Andrea Mogensen, a Sarasota lawyer who sued the PTC to obtain copies of text messages that Cockream sent to owners of taxicab and limousine-rental firms. <\/p>\n
\"He pled the Fifth to basically every question that I asked,\" Mogensen said. \"Obviously that's very disappointing. Our objective is to recover the public records.\" <\/p>\n
The Fifth Amendment privilege allows a witness to decline to answer questions if the answers might incriminate him. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened a criminal investigation into whether PTC officials deliberately deleted public records, a misdemeanor under state law. <\/p>\n
A forensic investigator hired to extract text messages for the public records lawsuit found that seven agency phones and Cockream's personal cell phone were reset on Oct. 8, a process that wipes them clean. A PTC invoice shows that the agency on Oct. 12 paid $2,994 to Valrico tech firm Data Specialist Group for work they did on the phones that was detailed as \"Mobile device data recovery.\" <\/p>\n
Cockream, who stepped down as executive director in December, could not be reached for comment. In a recent hearing, his attorney said Cockream was not trying to hide records but hired the tech firm to back up the data on the phones. <\/p>\n
The mising data may shed light on a controversial period during which the PTC was accused of colluding with the cab industry against the rideshare companies Uber and Lyft. <\/p>\n
Contact Christopher O'Donnell at codonnell@tampabay.com<\/a> or (813) 226-3446. Follow @codonnell_Times. <\/p>\n Former PTC chief Cockream pleads the Fifth Amendment over missing public records 02\/14\/17 [Last modified: Monday, February 13, 2017 9:22pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more from the original source: <\/p>\n Former PTC chief Cockream pleads the Fifth Amendment over missing public records - Tampabay.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TAMPA With a criminal investigation hanging over him, former Public Transportation Commission chief Kyle Cockream repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during a deposition Monday into whether public records were deleted from agency cell phones. A judge ordered Cockream to appear at the deposition as part of a public records lawsuit filed against the agency that regulates for-hire transportation in Hillsborough County Continue reading