The following portions of a letter from Steve Leighton's attorney was received by Ira Robins and Salvatore Rastrelli. We have removed irrelevant information regarding un-involved parties that the attorney appears to have deliberately inserted in his letter without verifying the facts before hand. Additionally, we removed the names of the attorney's partners and their certifications because they are irrelevant to this message and we don't care about them anyway.
Attorney Grazi has apparently taken Leighton's word as the truth and ends his letter with "PLEASE GOVERN YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY." in all capitol letters! Please read the attorney's letter and our response. Especially, the last three lines. We have also sent a copy of our response letter to Martin County Sheriff Snyder to inform him that Leighton may be opening him, and others, to deposition and the revealing of more evidence of their misconduct. Stay tuned!
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Attorneys at Law
A Partnership of Attorneys
Including Professional Association
217 E. Ocean Boulevard
P.O. Drawer 2846
Stuart, Florida 34995-2846
Phone (772) 286-0200
Fax (772) 2864789
December 19,2013
Ira B. Robins Certified Mail-Return Receipt Requested
P.o. Box 302 #7011 1570000346173556
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
Salvatore Rastrelli Certified Mail-Return Receipt Requested
P.o. Box 302 #7011 1570000346173556
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
Salvatore Rastrelli Certified Mail-Return Receipt Requested
3110 SE Slater Street # 7013 1090000225395786
Stuart, FL 34997
Gentlemen:
Please be advised that this office represents Stephen G. Leighton. This correspondence is being sent to you pursuant to §770.01 Florida Statutes, which provides as follows:
"Notice condition precedent to action or prosecution for libel or slander. -
Before any civil action is brought for publication or broadcast, in a newspaper,
periodical, or other medium, of a libel or slander, the plaintiff shall, at least
5 days before instituting such action, serve notice in writing on the
defendant, specifying the article or broadcast and the statements therein
which he or she alleges to be false and defamatory."
Your attention is all directed to §770.02 Florida Statutes that provides you with the ability to make a full and fair correction, apology, or retraction.
Mr. Leighton has been advised that there have been a number of posts on the irarobins.blog.com
Website that claim to have been authored by Ira B. Robins and Salvatore Rastrelli. In particular, I am specifying and referencing the blog dated December 3,2013, as well as the blog from December 15, 2013. Printouts of both of those are enclosed herein for your convenience. With regards to the blog dated December 3, 2013, the following statements are incorrect and need to be retracted and or corrected.
(1) As you well know from your request for records from the Martin County Sheriffs Office,
the base salary of Steve Leighton is not $90,000.00 per year.
(2) Mr. Leighton does not receive the $500.00 per month bonus that is paid to executives within a department.
(3) Leighton does not own and operate Leighton Security, having previously sold the security
business known as Leighton Security Management, Inc. to Deacon 10 LLC that now operates as
Leighton Security pursuant to registering a fictitious name with the Division of Corporations known as Leighton Security Management, Inc.
You suggest that because Leighton is the President of Leighton Security that it constitutes a "direct violation of MCSO policies, ethically a conflict for the Sheriff and Leighton, and may be a violation of criminal law." Since Mr. Leighton is not currently operating Leighton Security Management, Inc., and has no involvement with Leighton Security, this statement is absolutely incorrect. In addition, you state that Mr. Leighton "diverts to his own company private assignments from various businesses that are meant for off-duty Deputies. It sounds as if he fills his own pockets to the detriment of those MCSO Deputies seeking to earn additional money to supplement their County wages. And, Leighton appears to run his security business while on duty and while being paid his exorbitant County salary." Again, Mr. Leighton divested himself of the security company well before your blog. To verify, please seecorporate records for Deacon 10, LLC which operates under the fictitious name of Leighton Security, copies of which are enclosed for your convenience.
All of these statements in the December 3, 2013 posting are untrue and defamatory, and demand for retraction of those statements is hereby made.
The December 15, 2013 blog is relatively short, and again suggests that there is some misconduct
related to Steve Leighton being a Deputy Sheriff, and suggesting that Sheriff William Snyder should "know that the misconduct that he has allowed has already gotten out of hand .... (and) Does the Sheriff know that just getting rid of Steve Leighton will not return him to good standing in the hearts of the community?" Although the reference to "misconduct" is less offensive, it is still untrue. It also is a tortious interference with Mr. Leighton's contractual rights, and should be withdrawn and a correction issued.
Thank you all in advance for your anticipated cooperation in printing the requested and required
retractions and corrections within a timely fashion.
PLEASE GOVERN YOUR ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY
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Ira B. Robins
Salvatore
E. Rastrelli
Post Office Box 302 3110 South East Slater Street
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
53201 Stuart, Florida 34997
414-305-8832 772-215-1162
December 23, 2013
Attorney
Lief J. Grazi
Grazi
& Gianino, LLP
217
East Ocean Boulevard Sent
by: CERTIFIED MAIL
P.O.
Drawer 2846 RETURN
RECEIPT REQUESTED
Stuart,
Florida 34995-2486
Re: Leighton Security
Management
Mr. Grazi,
We are in receipt of
your letter concerning Leighton Security Management and its owners Mr. Leighton
and Mr. Pitt. Before you continue to threaten us with future prosecution/civil
suits of libel or slander action, we wish to make this clear. As an attorney of
your caliber, you are required to verify everything your client tells you,
before threatening action. It is apparent
that you have not done so. We are not associated with Investigative Experts,
Inc. We are however, investigative
experts, consultants, or investigators with a combined total in excess of 80
years of experience. If you actually verified the information your client told
you beforehand, you would know he hasn’t told you everything. We on the other
hand, have verified all information before posting it to the blog.
The information that we
have posted is neither libel nor slanderous. We possess overwhelming evidence supporting
the posts. If you take another look at what we stated, and your client informs
of the true facts, we are confident you will advise him to stop wasting all of our
time.
If you proceed with
legal action against us, our attorneys look forward to thoroughly deposing Mr.
Leighton, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, and other witnesses. This will
facilitate our cause of justice, which will enable us to expose more corruption
in a court of law.
Ira B. Robins Salvatore
E. Rastrelli
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QUESTIONS: Do you think that Attorney Grazi should have had Steve Leighton produce his pay stubs, corporate records and documents before he sent us his letter? Do you think he knows that we filed public records requests and obtained the supporting evidence prior to reporting our findings to the public? Do you think that Attorney Grazi should GOVERN HIS ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY!
TAGS: Martin County Sheriff Snyder, Steve Leighton, Attorney Lief J. Grazi.
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QUESTIONS: Do you think that Attorney Grazi should have had Steve Leighton produce his pay stubs, corporate records and documents before he sent us his letter? Do you think he knows that we filed public records requests and obtained the supporting evidence prior to reporting our findings to the public? Do you think that Attorney Grazi should GOVERN HIS ACTIONS ACCORDINGLY!
Authored by: Ira B. Robins Salvatore Rastrelli
www.salvatorerastrelli.comTAGS: Martin County Sheriff Snyder, Steve Leighton, Attorney Lief J. Grazi.
Happy Holidays!
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