Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect that while a Sarasota Police spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the rape investigation was still active, the department’s press release confirms it cleared Ziegler of that allegation.
Ousted Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler won’t face a rape charge in connection with allegations from a threesome partner of him and his wife, but Sarasota cops have referred a video voyeurism case to the state attorney’s office, according to a new report.
On Friday, the Florida Trident—which broke the story of one woman’s sexual assault accusations against Ziegler—reported that the Sarasota Police Department closed their rape investigation.
Ziegler, husband of Moms for Liberty co-founder Bridget Ziegler, did not return messages.
His attorney Derek Byrd, in a statement, told The Daily Beast:
“I can confirm that the Sarasota Police Department has concluded its criminal investigation into Mr. Ziegler. After a very thorough investigation, law enforcement concluded that there is no probable cause, a very low standard, that Mr. Ziegler perpetrated a sexual assault on the accuser. It has been difficult to stay quiet knowing Mr. Ziegler was innocent, but we did so in order for law enforcement to conduct its due diligence.”
“Since day one, we have been confident Mr. Ziegler would be exonerated from these baseless allegations. He has been completely honest, forthright, and has been fully cooperative with law enforcement at every stage of this investigation.”
Meanwhile, the police department also issued a press release on Thursday announcing that “investigators prepared a probable cause affidavit for the felony crime of Video Voyeurism against Christian Ziegler. This affidavit was subsequently sent to the State Attorney’s Office for further review. As with all cases, Sarasota Police detectives handled this case with the utmost diligence and impartiality.”
“Ziegler has cooperated with Sarasota Police throughout the investigation,” it added.
Police launched an investigation into Christian Ziegler in October, after one of his longtime female friends said he sexually assaulted her at her apartment.
The accuser, a ménage à trois partner of Christian and his wife, told cops that on the day Ziegler allegedly raped her, she was supposed to have a threesome with the couple.
But when Bridget backed out of the plans, the woman told Christian she was no longer interested. “Sorry I was mostly in for her,” the woman texted Christian, according to a search warrant affidavit.
The affidavit states that Bridget “confirmed that she knew the victim through her husband” and “confirmed having a sexual encounter with the victim and Christian over a year ago and that it only happened one time.”
Christian denies the woman’s claims and said their encounter was consensual.
During a police interview with his lawyer present, Christian said he took video of the encounter with the victim and uploaded it to his Google Drive, the affidavit says.
Earlier this month, another search warrant affidavit revealed cops were also investigating Christian for video voyeurism, a third-degree felony that carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.
The affidavit says Christian “showed detectives the 2.5-minute-long video of the sexual encounter” and that “Byrd made mention of a message (on Instagram vanish mode) between the victim and Ziegler where the victim asked him if he showed his wife the video.”
Both the accuser and Bridget told police they hadn’t seen the footage.
“The victim did not give Ziegler consent to take this video of them having sex,” the affidavit says.
The sex scandal involving the Zieglers—once a MAGA power couple in Sarasota and beyond—led to Christian losing his $120,000-a-year gig as state party chair and Bridget’s termination from the conservative Leadership Institute.
Bridget has resisted calls to resign from the Sarasota school board.
Byrd said that the police probe and media attention “has caused irreparable harm” to the Zieglers.
“At the beginning of the investigation, we asked and warned the public to withhold judgment of criminal wrongdoing until a thorough investigation of the facts was complete,” Byrd said. “Sadly, many people and media outlets refused to give Mr. Ziegler that courtesy. That was unfair and unfortunate and has caused irreparable harm to Mr. Ziegler’s reputation, his personal life, professional life, and his family.”
He added that his client was disappointed that Sarasota police “punted” the rest of their case to prosecutors and they “strongly believe that the State Attorney will not prosecute Mr. Ziegler for any crime.”
“As we did with the Sarasota Police Department, we will allow the State to conduct its investigation with full cooperation from Mr. Ziegler. We will also not comment on the ongoing investigation until it is completed.”
Reached by The Daily Beast on Friday, police spokeswoman Cynthia McLaughlin seemed to cast doubt on the Florida Trident’s report and suggested the rape investigation into Ziegler was still active. “This reporter has not confirmed any of his reporting with our agency,” she wrote in an email. “I will let you know when the case status changes. It is still active at this time.”
The reporter, Michael Barfield, said: “We thoroughly vet all information published. This story was corroborated by multiple sources, including the police department’s own web page for media releases.We are puzzled why SPD’s public information officer would contradict its own press release.”
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