The case of Kristen Hentchel v. Jeffrey Pitts, McNicholas & Associates, National Public Radio (NPR), and Floodlight continues to work its way through the Hillsborough Court system.
On March 14, 2025, McNicholas & Associates filed a Motion to Dismiss. The claim being asserted is that the complaint filed by Ms. Hentschel cannot state a claim.
Basically, he is saying that she cannot claim she was defamed by him and file for tortious interference simultaneously.
The 10-page filing also states that the case should be dismissed using the argument that “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.”
It is not an uncommon argument in today’s world and the court is expected to rule on this motion on May 22, 2025, at 11am. The hearing will be held via Zoom.
Ms. Hentschel’s Amended Complaint
On February 27, 2025, Ms. Hentschel’s attorneys filed an amended complaint with the Hillsborough Clerk of Courts.
Ms. Hentschel is the former TV news producer who, in 2018, was working on a story about the dead gopher tortoises found on the construction site of what is now the Cleveland Clinic office located on the northeast corner of Indian Street and Kanner Highway.
As previously reported, she was hired by Matrix LLC, an Alabama-based political consulting firm, who was later shown to be hired by Florida Power & Light (FPL). Named defendant Jeffrey Pitts was the CEO of Matrix LLC.
Toby Overdorf, then working for Engineering, Design, and Construction, which has since become a division of Haley Ward, stated as far as he knew there were no dead tortoises.
The complaint filed by Ms. Hentschel alleges that on July 31, 2018, Ms. Hentschel sent a video file of the tortoise story to Mr. Pitts and Tom McNicholas (McNicholas & Associates).
She states she was never informed that the video was going to be posted online. Ms. Hentschel alleges that the video was posted without her knowledge or consent on The Center for Sustainability and Conservation’s public website.
Additionally, the City of Stuart said they found no evidence of tortoises and there wasn’t even any evidence of tortoises ever existing on the site despite a memo dated 3/16.2018 from Ed Weinberg at EW Consultants stating gopher tortoises on site will be required to be relocated.
However, the amended complaint filed February 27, 2025, has significant details not previously available including identifying where the tip of the dead tortoises came from and the coverup by the City of Stuart.
The Amended Complaint
The 49-page amended complaint is seemingly rife with proof of complicity by all parties mentioned in the lawsuit. It also possibly implicates those mentioned in the lawsuit but not expressly named as defendants, specifically Toby Overdorf and the City of Stuart.
NOTE: All italicized items specific to the complaint are copied from the amended complaint.
These are the entries specific to the City of Stuart.
Page 7 – Item 22
In the late spring of 2018, the Martin Memorial Hospital (Cleveland Clinic) expansion project (“SB-10”), a commercial real estate development, was ongoing in Stuart, Florida. The area surrounding the SB-10 site has a large population of protected gopher tortoises as documented by numerous public sources stemming back to 2018 and up until present day. Toby Overdorf, a Florida House of Representatives member, was hired to work as the environmental consultant on the project.
Page 7 – Item 23
On July 16, 2018 City of Stuart Senior Planner, Stephen Mayer emailed Ed Weinberg of EW Consultants and detailed a “terrible report” he received about 20 dead gopher tortoises.
The complaint goes on to read:
Page 8 – Item 24
Stephen Mayer alerted Overdorf about the “tip” and requested his assistance.
Page 8 – Item 25
This “tip” was very concerning to Stuart city officials as documented in dozens of email exchanges since the area is home to the protected gopher tortoises and back in May of 2018, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”) observer documented a gopher tortoise carcass near the SB- 10 site that had been hit by a car. Around the same time, FWC excavated a gopher tortoise burrow on the SB-10 site (Martin Memorial Expansion Project). This information was attached to the gopher tortoise removal permit for SB-10 that Overdorf and his company had pulled on behalf of Martin Memorial.
Page 10 of the amended complaint states McNicholas’ ties to the efforts to change the story from the killing of the gopher tortoises and the destruction of the gopher tortoise burrows to what was eventually posted as the story shared by NPR and Floodlight removing the accountability of Toby Overdorf while positioning him for his run for office.
Page 10 – Item 27
Pitts, working with McNicholas, asked Plaintiff to investigate the gopher tortoise issue because disrupting the SB- IO project would have ultimately impacted Overdorfs re-election at that time, which benefited Pitts and McNicholas’ shared client FPL. At the time, neither Pitts nor McNicholas disclosed to Hentschel which Matrix client they were acting on behalf of.
The complaint continues:
Page 11 – Item 29
Pitts and McNicholas identified Overdorf as a key individual to be questioned regarding the protected gopher tortoises because of his company EDC, Inc.’s role as the environmental consultant for the SB-IO project.
Page 11 – Item 30
On July 30 2018, McNicholas met Plaintiff and her videographer in Stuart, Florida, and showed them specific sites to film. Hentschel asked McNicholas if he had video footage of the horrific scene of 20 dead tortoises and McNicholas said he was “working to get it.”
Page 11 – Item 31
On July 30, 2018, following the “shot list” instructions, Plaintiff visited the City of Stuart offices and asked city officials on camera if they had any information regarding the tortoise deaths. Plaintiff was advised that Overdorf, in his capacity as the environmental consultant on the project, would have pertinent information regarding the gopher tortoises and was aware of the “tip.” Plaintiff was told that Overdorf would be at city hall for a public debate scheduled for later that evening.
It is not until page 13 of the complaint that we learn the tip was generated by the girlfriend of City of Stuart employee Stephen Mayer.
Page 13 – Item 36
Contrary to the statements in the NPR/Floodlight article, the “tortoise tipster” was publicly identified in 2018 and the NPR/Floodlight reporters knew this information at the time of publication. The tortoise “tip” originated from City Planner Stephen Mayer’s girlfriend Kim Field, who said she observed the 20 dead tortoises and even watched another resident carry a tortoise carcass across the road.
Page 14 – Item 37
Stuart City officials were never able to determine how McNicholas received a copy of the original tortoise “tip” email. The public records that contained all of this information were available to NPR and Floodlight at the time of publication, but they failed to review or consider this material and intentionally omitted these facts. NPR/Floodlight reporters intentionally made no mention of McNicholas and his public relations firm’s involvement with the tortoise incident. McNicholas, acting as a “source” for the NPR/Floodlight article, intentionally shifted all the blame on Plaintiff and falsely stated Plaintiff posted the tortoise video.
Allegations of leaked documents and a hit piece
The complaint details the allegedly false statements made by Toby Overdorf to Ms. Hentschel in 2018 and later to NPR / Floodlight Media in 2022.
The complaint also goes on to discuss the leaked Matrix documents as reported by The Orlando Sentinel, The Florida Times-Union, The Guardian, The Miami Herald, and Floodlight.
The original article that brought all of this to the public’s view was published on December 21, 2022. It was published by NPR’s David Folkenflik in collaboration with Floodlight’s reporters Mario Ariza and Amanda Green in an article titled “She was an ABC News Producer. She was also a corporate operative.”
In an NPR link, there is an email that was uploaded as part of support of their article.
There is an email on July 18, 2018 at 8:57am from Stephen Mayer to City of Stuart staff in response to an inquiry from a news reporter asking about the alleged incident:
“I have a phone call in to EDC, the environmental consultant. I spoke with the project manager, and said as a matter of routine in the total clearing of sites with a known gopher tortoise burrow, I asked to see their relocation report. He said he wasn’t familiar with it, but would have Toby Overdorf give me a call. I have yet to receive a follow up to that request.”
Stefano Nicolosi, former Building Official with the City of Stuart, replied basically stating he didn’t see any evidence of any tortoises.
The environmental history of the Cleveland Clinic parcel
In 2007, the City of Stuart Commission approved the Shoppes at Gateway CPUD. This is the same parcel that became the Cleveland Clinic site.
The project was being developed by Amadi Management. Toby Overdorf was the environmental consultant for the Shoppes at Gateway CPUD.
On April 4, 2007, SFWMD staff conducted a site inspection of the property.
On April 11, 2007, a notice of violation was issued by South Florida Water Management District to Amadi Management stating that alterations to a wetland were made without a permit.
As noted on the memo, Mr. Overdorf was the environmental consultant.
On September 7, 2007, the Amadi Companies agreed to committing the violations and to the fines being assessed. Again, as noted on the memo, Mr. Overdorf was the environmental consultant.
The fine is confirmed in a SFWMD memo which includes a Finding of Fact.
It was stated in a pre-litigation response that the applicant, Amadi Companies, was putting in a “passive recreation conservation easement.”
By definition, a passive recreation conservation easement is defined as a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a conservation organization or government entity that restricts certain types of land development, subdivision, and use in perpetuity.
This conservation easement was part of an ordinance by the City of Stuart. According to a memo dated 8/11/2008 from the City of Stuart to Terry McCarthy, counsel for Amadi, the conservation mitigation parcel was approved to on US1, though it’s unclear if the easement exists or where it is.
Most interesting is that while these reports of violations with Amadi were being filed with the City, there is correspondence from Milcor to SFWMD and Martin County. Milcor was the engineering firm assigned to the project.
This is of interest because Tim Voelker was the VP at Milcor during the application process for the Shoppes at Gateway. He was later hired to be the engineer at the City of Stuart coincidentally when the application was submitted by Cleveland Clinic to develop this same parcel.
Regardless, accessing any of these reports would have guaranteed the City of Stuart staff, especially those familiar with the parcel due to their private work prior to joining City Staff, would have been aware of the wetlands on site as well as any plants and animals, including gopher tortoises and other protected species.
Fast forward to 2018
In response to Mr. Weinberg’s aforementioned 3/16/2018 memo to the City of Stuart, Mr. Overdorf submitted a 5-page memo dated 3/27/2018 which included the following statement confirming the presence of gopher tortoises on the parcel:
“EDC, Inc. conducted a pedestrian survey throughout the property to investigate for the presence of any listed plant or animal species in accordance with City of Stuart requirements. No Federally listed species were observed on the parcel. However, during the January 2018 another gopher tortoise survey was conducted and documented one gopher tortoise burrow on the site.”
Yet, specific to the Cleveland Clinic project, Mr. Overdorf said there were never any gopher tortoises on the site.
So he is clearly stating there was no evidence of gopher tortoises on the parcel, yet referenced on his resume that he performed “gopher tortoise survey & relocation” at this exact site.
The with the scope of work for what would become the Cleveland Clinic site was shared by Martin County Watchdog on Facebook as part of a January 6, 2023, post.
There are some questions that need to be answered
There are some questions that need to be answered:
- Why would the girlfriend of a city employee send him a message expressing a concern about dead gopher tortoises and later deny any recollection of the situation?
- Why would a city employee share the tip if there was any chance it wasn’t true?
- Why was a report registered with FWC if it didn’t happen?
- Who sent the email to McNicholas & Associates specific to the accusation against his client?
- Why would McNicholas advise Ms. Hentschel and her videographer about the video of the dead tortoises that he was “working to get it” if it didn’t exist?
- Is there any documentation on file at the City of Stuart for this parcel that hasn’t been made public?
- Did any City staff bother to check for environmental infractions that would have contradicted the reports specific to the ones submitted for the Cleveland Clinic project when the same environmental consultant was used?
- Knowing there had been reported and conceded to violations, should the City of Stuart have done a better job of due diligence to inspect the parcel prior to allowing it to be developed?
It’s been proven that this area, specifically the stretch along Kanner Highway that includes the Cleveland Clinic site and the Kanner CPUD (Costco site) have endangered and threatened animal and plant species. We only have the word of the developer-paid environmental consultants stating they don’t exist. Yet it has been repeatedly documented to be the opposite of that.
Across the street at the Bridgeview site (now called Indigo of Stuart) at the base of the Veterans Bridge, Mr. Weinberg of EW Consultants stated there were no native plants that needed to be protected prior to development for the Bridgeview project. The City of Stuart comprehensive plan has very specific verbiage about the protection required of native plants and vegetation, as well as wetlands and scrub areas. Mr. Weinberg said no plants of concern existed. However, the Native Plant Society found literally hundreds. They were given permission to retrieve them prior to the land clearing. If the environmental consultant and the City of Stuart did their jobs, there wouldn’t have been a 24-hour rush of activity by the Native Plants Society to save what they could.
It was documented in their July-August 2021 newsletter.
On January 2, 2022, there was a photo of a gopher tortoise on the Kanner CPUD (Costco site) that was shared with the City of Stuart. This was one of many photos of undocumented plants and animals on the parcel.
It was “investigated” by the City of Stuart. Ultimately no penalties were imposed, meaning no meaningful action was taken.
Ultimately, the environment is not profitable for the City or County.
Again, we often only have the word of the developer-paid environmental consultants stating these important and often endangered and threatened species don’t exist.
When it is reported, regardless of photographic and video evidence presented, by the time someone from an agency gets out to a site to view the activity for themselves, the animals have moved on, or worse.
If there is evidence found that there were violations, often there is only a minimal fine – or sometimes no fine – assessed. There are little to no ramifications.
But more often than not, there is a concerted PR optics to remove the focus from the original subject, in this case the focus on the alleged demise of gopher tortoises and the destruction of their burrows on a specific site in Stuart that was overseen by a person running for state office contributing to claim of tortious interference with business relationships, defamation, and invasion of privacy of the person working to report the story.
That is what is scheduled to be litigated in Hillsborough County in May.