Ferrante-Spence feud at heart of Scott scrap

Charlie Ferrante and **** Spence share a mutual dislike for each other.

Maybe it's their New York City upbringing that puts them at odds.
The relationship between Ferrante, Sheriff Mike Scott's former chief deputy, and Spence, the sheriff's friend and confidant, started poorly and got worse.
"We're both from the Bronx, and I was immediately suspicious of him," Ferrante, 42, says of a 2004 meeting after Scott was elected. "I told Mike I didn't trust the guy."
Likewise, Spence, a retired firefighter who manages Alva Village Market, despises Ferrante. Spence says Ferrante is jealous of Spence's friendship with the sheriff.
"I always told Mike, from day one, that Charlie was no good," Spence, 51, told The News-Press last month. "Charlie can't stand me because I tell the truth; if something happened or if I heard something happened, I would call Mike and tell him.
"Charlie had that small man's ego. Everybody disliked him."
But Ferrante's premonition was dead on. Four years later, he discovered Spence served three years in federal prison for a 1995 conviction in New York for money laundering $100 million for the notorious Colombian Cali Cartel drug-smuggling operation.
He told the sheriff.
"I thought Mike would fall off his chair," Ferrante says. "but he was benign."
Spence was livid.
"Charlie stuck a dagger between Mike and me," he says. "If this whole thing with Charlie hadn't happened, (my past) would have never come out."
The sheriff's office has a policy against associating with felons. Scott says when Ferrante brought Spence's crimes to his attention Aug. 8, 2008, he disassociated himself.
Ferrante says by then Spence already had his hooks in the sheriff.
"Spence was bragging how influential he was with the sheriff," he says. "He met with deputies at his store and discussed things. Spence wanted to be the godfather of the sheriff's office."
Spence and Ferrante didn't want to share the sheriff. One had to go.

The rivalry escalated after Scott took office. Spence told Scott there was a compromising photograph of Ferrante that could hurt the sheriff politically. Scott told Ferrante to deal with it. He and Spence met at R.J. Gators in Fort Myers. Ferrante denied the picture existed and Spence couldn't produce it.

"He was trying to get me to be indebted to him," Ferrante says. "I said, 'I'm wise to your game, and I know what you're trying to do.' He wanted some sort of control over me, because he's a con man, and I said, 'Don't you ever try to back cut me again, because nobody owns me and nobody ever will.'"
Ferrante was aware of rumors before Scott's re-election in 2008 his job may be in jeopardy. In a May 16, 2008, interview, I asked Scott if he was going to replace his chief deputy.
"I don't anticipate that," said Scott, 46. "Charlie has been as loyal as loyal can be. Very focused and committed. I have to have somebody that is watching the wheels. I need Charlie and I need the folks around him."
Despite Scott's reassurances, Ferrante felt insecure and last November, Spence lobbied Scott to remove the chief deputy and his brother, Capt. Dominick Ferrante, head of special investigations.
Louis St. Laurent, former legal council for the sheriff's office, told The News-Press he was at the Alva store for lunch when Spence began criticizing the Ferrantes. Spence said he would push Scott that night to dump them.
St. Laurent says he confronted Spence for spreading what he believed were inaccurate allegations.
"He immediately became cold toward me," St. Laurent says. "He then called the sheriff and said, 'Louis is going senile.'"
Spence believes the Ferrantes managed by fear and intimidation.
"The problem with Charlie and Dominick was they were trying to manipulate the whole staff," Spence says. "Those two (Ferrantes) are very, very bad people."
Five months later, Ferrante says Scott closed a corruption investigation into Spence's activities and forced out the Ferrantes - Dominick on March 5 and Charlie on March 6. Dominick resigned and Charlie retired while on medical leave.
Charlie Ferrante was out, but he wasn't down. He concedes Spence won the battle but may not win the war.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating Scott after several former employees filed a complaint in May.
If FDLE finds grounds, Gov. Charlie Crist would direct the investigation.
"Obviously, I'm not there anymore. My brother Dominick's not there anymore," Ferrante says. "It's not a coincidence that Spence tells Louis St. Laurent he's going to get rid of us and five months later we're gone."
Spence says he pushed Scott to run off the Ferrantes because it was best for the agency.
"I ran into (Scott) at Groove Street one night, when I was tending bar there," Spence says. "He says, 'You were 100 percent right about Charlie.'"

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