It’s been more than eight years since Ryan Modell was shot and killed at a Lee County apartment complex. In the near-decade since, his father, Sandy Modell, pursued closure through proper courtroom channels and then through a publicity campaign.
But the grieving father said politics repeatedly thrust itself in the way of justice. He believed prosecutor Amira Fox deemed the murder a “stand your ground” self-defense case to earn an endorsement from the National Rifle Association. He said Fox later pressured him into providing information on a political opponent in exchange for reconsidering prosecution, though that never happened.
“This is a clear murder,” Sandy Modell said. “The only person who doesn’t see a murder is the State Attorney down there, Amira Fox. And she can’t explain her position.”
He sees Fox’s actions as corrupt. However, he believes that political favoritism between Fox and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and loyalties between Bondi and current Attorney General Ashley Moody prevent any consequence of prosecutorial misconduct.
Eight years after a fateful step into the wrong apartment cost a 32-year-old his life, Bondi awaits confirmation to become President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General. Moody appears to be the odds-on favorite for a U.S. Senate seat appointment. Fox won the election for State Attorney, and some allies hope she runs to succeed Moody for State Attorney (though many expect her to run for her local seat again).
But Ryan Modell is still dead, and his shooter remains free.
Ryan Modell, a native of Winter Park, died on March 20, 2016. Official reports show the 32-year-old entered the home of James Steven Taylor, whose apartment looked similar to that of Ryan Modell’s girlfriend. Taylor pushed the man out of his home as his wife called 911. Then Taylor grabbed a handgun and went outside, where he found Modell, shot and killed him after an apparent altercation.
Fox at the time served as Chief State Attorney and handled the case when it came in from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. She worked then for State Attorney Steve Russell, but her boss had already announced his retirement and Fox was running for his position. She ultimately determined Taylor should not be charged, citing the state’s “stand your ground” law that authorized deadly force by individuals who feel they or others around them face a physical threat.
Sandy Modell doesn’t believe the law applies, especially since police on the phone advised against Taylor leaving his home.
“Fox didn’t want to have a large crime to deal with during the election,” he said. “And she was courting the NRA.”
The powerful gun lobby has pushed for Florida to pass its expansive “stand your ground” law in the first place, and Modell believes the desire to win the endorsement of that group, which she did obtain, played a role in her decision not pursue charges. Modell ultimately provided support for Chris Crowley, a former prosecutor also running for State Attorney in 2018. He funded billboards in Lee County criticizing Fox as “nice to murderers” as the election unfolded. But Fox beat Crowley in a Republican Primary in August that year with more than 57% of the vote.
Two years later, Sandy Modell said he tried to reach Fox and see if she would reconsider now that she had won the State Attorney job. He reached out through a mutual acquaintance, Ralph Singer. Through the connection, Modell said he was told he should withdraw his support of Crowley in future bids. He did so in an email to Crowley that was forwarded to Singer, one which Singer forwarded to Fox’s official email.
Singer’s email also makes mention of a flyer published in the 2018 attacking Fox, which has been at the center of a Florida Bar complaint against Crowley that called Fox “corrupt” and attacking the fact her father has written a book supportive of Palestinian violence against Israel.
“They talked about Amira’s Muslim background. That’s true, and that’s factual,” Sandy Modell said. “But I had nothing to do with it. I’ve never seen it. I’ve asked people, ‘do you have any of those pamphlets, I’d like to see one.’ I’ve never seen it.”
Singer in his email to Fox said Modell acknowledged funding from a political committee likely helped pay for the pamphlets but he had nothing to do with production. Fox in an email to Singer said she assigned Sheriff Carmine Marceno “to make sure this happens” but does not explicitly agree to reopen the case. To this date, she never has.
Modell ultimately detailed all of this in both a complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics and further in a short book, Murder and Corruption in Florida.
But the complaints at the state level ultimately went nowhere, leaving Sandy Modell frustrated both with the Ethics Commission and Attorney General’s Office. In a chapter of his book entitled “The Dirty Girls Club,” one opened with an illustration of pigs with the names “Pam,” “Ashley” and “Amira,” he details how he feels political favors protected Fox’s office from scrutiny.
Bondi, the Attorney General at the time of Ryan Modell’s 2016 death, had come under fire for allegations she dropped an investigation of Donald Trump’s around the same time she accepted a $25,000 campaign donation from the future president.
California and New York attorneys general had pursued litigation over Trump University and reached multimillion-dollar settlements, but because Florida opted against participating in the case, the state received nothing. When complaints were filed to the state about the decision, then-Gov. Rick Scott referred the matter to Fort Myers prosecutors, but Fox had deemed there was no inappropriate action on Bondi’s behalf.
Sandy Modell thinks that ensured the state would not step in when Fox’s office decided not to pursue charges on Taylor. Even after Bondi left office, he thinks attorneys for the state, most notably Chief Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Miller, continued to protect Fox for years over the matter. Miller stayed on after Moody won election to succeed Bondi as Attorney General in 2018.
When Sandy Modell filed an Ethics complaint against Fox in 2020, he hoped the Commission would at least investigate. But Miller, serving in her role as Advocate for Ethics Commission, submitted a nine-page report that there was no probable cause to believe Fox had solicited or received a favor in exchange for an action in her public capacity.
“I recommend that the Commission find no probable cause” that Fox violated the law, Miller wrote.
The Commission took that advice and determined in March 2022 and determined there was no evidence Fox had “considered initiation of prosecution in a homicide case in return for a promise not to support, financially or otherwise, a political opponent.”
Since then, Miller resigned her position with the Attorney General’s Office amid a probe that she misused the state’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database to look up information on an individual. Details were reported by the Florida Bulldog earlier this year. Miller did not return an email about the Modell case. The Ethics Commission provided all reports on the handling of its case.
Modell has tried in every way he can think to urge some prosecutor to take up the case. He donated money to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ gubernatorial campaign in 2018 and said he spoke to him about moving the case to another jurisdiction if he won, but said the Governor hasn’t returned calls since winning election. Modell even funded a billboard in New Hampshire while DeSantis campaigned for President hoping to draw attention to the inattention to the case.
The Governor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office have not responded to inquiries about the case.
Sandy Modell notes his son died barely more than a year after his own wife died.
“I spent 35 years raising a family and lost two out of three in 14 months,” he said, “and that’s bad. But what’s worse is the government saying it’s not convenient for us to do anything about it for things that have nothing to do with the crime.”
Post Views: 0