ORLANDO, Fla. – Developer and lobbyist Christopher Dorworth has dismissed a federal defamation lawsuit he filed last year against former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, Greenberg’s family, and the family’s dentistry business, court records show.
Greenberg is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to child sex trafficking, aggravated identity theft, and other federal offenses.
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Dorworth, a former Republican state legislator, accused Greenberg and his family of conspiring with the child sex trafficking victim to falsely “frame” Dorworth and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-1, of sexual conduct with the minor in an attempt to mitigate Greenberg’s prison sentence.
Court papers filed by Dorworth’s lawyer Thursday do not specify why he voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit. An attorney representing one of the defendants, Greenberg Dental, said no money was paid by his client. Lawyers representing the other defendants either declined to comment or did not respond to emails from News 6.
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Last month Dorworth dismissed claims against the sex trafficking victim, who was originally named as a defendant in the defamation lawsuit under her initials “A.B.” The woman, who is now an adult, was 17 years old in 2017 when Greenberg admitted to having sex with her.
“Mr. Dorworth achieved a significant victory once A.B. agreed that she had no claims against Mr. Dorworth,” said Dorworth’s attorney, R. Alex Andrade. “While the federal case helped Mr. Dorworth achieve a measure of vindication for what the Greenbergs did to him, Mr. Dorworth is still considering other avenues still available to him to address the harm they’ve caused to him and his family.”
Dorworth filed a separate state court lawsuit in June accusing Greenberg and his parents of improperly transferring assets to shield family funds from liabilities arising from Greenberg’s criminal misconduct. The Greenbergs have not yet responded to the litigation, which remains ongoing.
Dorthworth dismissed the federal defamation lawsuit one day after more than 600 pages of deposition transcripts were publicly disclosed in a court filing.
Several current and former Seminole County elected leaders, judges and political consultants were mentioned during Dorworth’s deposition, which was taken over two days in early August.
Dorworth’s federal lawsuit accused Greenberg, Greenberg’s parents, and their family-owned dental business of paying A.B.’s legal bills to influence her testimony to federal law enforcement.
The defendants, which also included Greenberg’s ex-wife Abby, had sought to dismiss the lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Justice closed its investigation into A.B.’s allegations without filing criminal charges against Dorworth or Gaetz, and both men have adamantly denied wrongdoing.
“I have never met (A.B.), and I will litigate like hell if anyone says I have,” Dorworth told the defendants’ attorneys during his deposition.
Many of the questions posed to Dorworth involved a gathering that allegedly occurred at his Heathrow home in July 2017 while Dorworth’s wife was out of town.
There are conflicting witness accounts of who was present at the event, which Dorworth disputed was a “party.” A.B., who was 17 years old at the time, alleged she and Gaetz were there, court records show. The attorneys indicated A.B.’s name was found on a visitor log at the gated community’s security office.
Throughout his two-day deposition, Dorworth repeatedly asserted that he did not attend the gathering despite it taking place at his home.
“I was not there,” Dorworth said more than a dozen times in response to questions about the event.
Dorworth claimed he spent the evening with former Seminole County Commissioner Randy Morris at Morris’ waterfront home in Maitland.
As proof of his whereabouts, Dorworth submitted a photograph he reportedly took of Morris on a boat. Metadata on the digital image confirmed it was captured at 6:04 p.m., Dorworth said.
After boating on Lake Maitland, Dorworth claimed he hung out at Morris’s house for several hours drinking bourbon before returning to Heathrow late that night or early the next morning.
“I don’t think anybody was there,” Dorworth said when asked whether any visitors were still inside his home when he returned. “I don’t have any recollection of them at all. I didn’t have any interaction with people there.”
On the second day of his deposition, the defendants’ attorneys confronted Dorworth with AT&T cellular records that reportedly suggested his phone was traveling north from Maitland towards Lake Mary around 6:40 p.m. as Dorworth received a phone call from his wife.
According to the defendants’ attorneys, Dorworth’s phone connected to a cell tower near his Heathrow home when he received a text message from Greenberg at 7:52 p.m. Several other phone calls to Dorworth’s phone connected to the same tower throughout the evening, they alleged.
“How do you explain your phone pinging at a cell phone tower a half mile from your house if you weren’t there?” asked Katie Chomin, an attorney representing Greenberg Dental.
“I’m not an expert on that,” replied Dorworth. “I don’t know anything about that stuff, and I was not there.”
Dorworth’s attorney strongly denied that the cellular tower records played a role in his client’s decision to dismiss the federal defamation lawsuit.
“Mr. Dorworth was never accused of doing anything illegal or inappropriate on July 15,” Andrade told News 6. “Those questions were irrelevant.”
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