ORLANDO, Fla. — During his time as Seminole County’s tax collector, Joel Greenberg used a confidential database to look up the personal information of fellow elected officials, political rivals, county employees, family members and even celebrities — including Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake — newly released records show.
The names of hundreds that Greenberg pried into — ranging from U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, his friend who is reportedly the target of a sex-trafficking investigation, to his mother and even the elderly father of a rival county commissioner — reveals the extent to which the former tax collector apparently abused his access to the Driver and Vehicle Information Database beginning in August 2017 and continuing until just days before he was arrested and resigned from office in mid-June 2020.
“I am stunned that he did that,” said Seminole Commissioner Bob Dallari after learning that Greenberg in April 2018 looked up the private information of his now-91-year-old father, Albert Dallari, along with his mother, Dolores Dallari, who died more than 10 years ago. “I don’t get why he would do that. ... I don’t have an answer.”
A spreadsheet of Greenberg’s more-than-700 name searches, some of which he looked up more than once, was obtained by the Orlando Sentinel and the Florida Center for Government Accountability, a government watchdog group, through public record requests.
Greenberg is currently awaiting sentencing Nov. 18 in federal court after pleading guilty to six crimes, including sex trafficking of a child, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. He originally faced 33 federal charges, but prosecutors dropped the other 27 counts against him in return for him cooperating with investigators, who reportedly have since taken aim at Gaetz and others.
More commonly referred to as DAVID, access to the database system Greenberg used is mostly limited to criminal justice and law enforcement officials, including police officers and deputy sheriffs while on patrol. It allows users to quickly look up a person’s information, such as Social Security number, birth date, addresses, signatures, and medical and disability information.
In Greenberg’s plea deal, he admitted to using the system to “investigate his sexual partners,” including the 17-year-old girl who is the victim in the sex trafficking count. He claimed that he looked the girl up through DAVID in September 2017 “because he had reason to believe” she was underage.
Greenberg and his employees had access to the DAVID system because the county Tax Collector’s offices provide residents with motor vehicle licenses and identity cards.
Lake County Tax Collector David Jordan and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph said only a limited few of their employees are allowed access to the database. Both Jordan and Randolph said they did not give themselves access to DAVID because of the large amount of personal information stored on the database.
J.R. Kroll, Seminole’s current tax collector after being elected last November, said he also does not have access to DAVID, telling the Sentinel last month that “there’s no reason why I would need to access anyone’s information or use the system at all in the scope of this job. ... We have a very capable team of professionals.”
But Greenberg gave himself access and used it to search information on his political rivals, such as former Seminole Commissioner Brenda Carey and her husband, Fairley Carey, in August 2017.
That same month, Greenberg issued a trespass warning to Carey, who was a commissioner at the time, forbidding her from entering any Tax Collector’s office properties after accusing her of using foul language at a branch office in Sanford while she was with her husband.
Other individuals he searched for include retired Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Paul “Spike” Hopkins, who ran for Seminole sheriff last year against incumbent Dennis Lemma; former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris King; and former Democratic candidate for Tax Collector and radio personality Lynn “Moira” Dictor.
“I feel violated. I don’t know what he did with that information,” said Dictor on Tuesday, after learning Greenberg delved into her background. “Nothing you could say would surprise me about the depths to which Joel Greenberg would sink to.”
Greenberg also searched several notable Central Florida residents, including former state legislator and River Cross developer Chris Dorworth, his former friend and ally; former deputy county Manager Bruce McMenemy; director of community relations for the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando Ben Friedman; and Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell.
But Greenberg also delved into the private information of family members including, wife, Abby Greenberg; mother, Susan Greenberg; brother Martin Greenberg and former uncle Richard Sierra, who also worked under Joel Greenberg as the attorney for the Tax Collector’s Office.
Greenberg pried into two of the candidates who ran for Orange County sheriff in 2018: Darryl Sheppard and Joe Lopez, both of whom lost to John Mina.
Sheppard, a political newcomer with a history of legal and financial trouble, came close to winning that race as the only Democrat on the ballot in a deeply blue county because Mina and Lopez, both former Republicans, missed a deadline to switch parties and were forced to run as independents.
Behind the scenes, Greenberg told others in local politics that he was behind Sheppard’s campaign, even claiming to one associate that he would “control” the Orange County Sheriff’s Office once Sheppard was elected.
Meanwhile, one of Greenberg’s top political advisors — political consultant Mike Shirley, who got a lucrative Tax Collector’s Office contract after Greenberg was elected — ran Lopez’s campaign in that race. Lopez now says he believes that Shirley and Greenberg were intentionally sabotaging his campaign in hopes of creating a path for Sheppard.
Shirley did not respond to a request for comment.
Informed Tuesday that he was on the list of people Greenberg looked up, Lopez, a retired Florida Highway Patrol chief, noted that as a former law enforcement officer his personal information is exempt from public disclosure. He called Greenberg’s “trail of nefarious acts” during his time in office “disturbing and alarming.”
“These are the types [of] people I used to put in jail,” he added.
Greenberg also looked up Megan Zalonka, who The Daily Beast has reported was a paid escort for Gaetz.
Greenberg gave Zalonka a $3,500-a-month contract, though others at the Tax Collector’s Office later told auditors they had no idea whether she did any work. Zalonka also had a job at the time at the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, the company owned by Orlando hand doctor and close Gaetz friend Jason Pirozzolo. He has reportedly also been swept up in the trafficking-and-corruption probe because of a trip to The Bahamas Pirozzolo took with Gaetz, former state Rep. Halsey Beshears and several young women.
Gaetz has adamantly denied any wrongdoing. Pirozzolo through his attorney has repeatedly declined to comment on the investigation. Beshears and Zalonka have not responded to the Sentinel’s requests for comment.
Officials at the Tax Collectors discovered last month that Greenberg made the hundreds of searches after receiving a public records request from the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
An agency spokesperson said Greenberg’s activity was “not condoned” by the DAVID system, while adding that some of Greenberg’s searches could have been legitimate, for example, if someone had asked him to check the validity of their driver’s license or state-issued ID card.
Currently, about two dozen employees — mostly managers — of the Seminole Tax Collector’s Office have access to DAVID and they all are required to review and sign a statement laying out the acceptable uses of the system and other private databases that contain residents’ confidential information. The Tax Collector’s Office also now conducts an audit every three months that shows employees’ use of the database.
