Contact 5 story featured on local blog

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As investigative journalists we are, often, tasked with reporting not the most popular story of the day, but the one that prompts debate.  What happened last night in Lake Worth was a perfect example.  In fact, a city blogger even wrote about it.  Check it out. 

Click here to read the blog post.

In “Lynn’s little bit of trivia,” Lynn featured me and my photographer, Eric Pasquarelli, waiting around Lake Worth City Hall to speak with Lake Worth City Commissioner, Andy Amoroso.  We wanted to ask Commissioner Amoroso about a campaign contribution he received last year from Dylan Harrison. Harrison was recently arrested during a nationwide raid against alleged makers and distributors of synthetic marijuana. 

As a station, we decided to pursue the story because we felt it was the public’s right to know when a politician’s campaign contribution reports list the name of a man, now accused of a nationwide crime.  It wasn’t the top story of the day, but it was newsworthy nonetheless.

I contacted Commissioner Amoroso about the story last week.  He didn’t seem to mind my phone call nor my questions.  In fact, when I asked him for an interview he said he would do it, but he wouldn’t be available until this week. 

So, Tuesday morning I called him, expecting him to talk without any issues.  The story was pretty basic, “local city commissioner answers questions about one of his political donors, now accused of being a drug kingpin.”  

Well, what I learned early on in my reporting career is that anything that seems simple enough, is anything but.  Amoroso didn’t return my calls or my email.  His assistant ended up calling me to cancel the interview, telling me, “He is not granting any interviews on the subject.”

I couldn’t understand why.  It was a legitimate question.  He had a legitimate answer.  Why not talk to us about it?  So we ventured off to City Hall to find out. See what happened next.