Prosecutors have dropped criminal charges against former state Rep. Carolina Amesty, a Windermere Republican whose District 45 also includes Celebration, Champions Gate and the far northwestern portion of Osceola County.
She faced allegations including forgery, according to a document posted on the Orange County clerk of court’s website. The document, filed on Sunday, did not detail reasons for prosecutors deciding to stop pursuing four charges against Amesty, who was indicted by a grand jury in August.
The filing came a little more than a month after Amesty lost a re-election bid Nov. 5 to Democrat Leonard Spencer.
Amesty was indicted on felony charges of forgery, uttering a forgery, false acknowledgement or certification by a notary public and notarizing your own signature. She faced allegations related to her actions as administrator of the family-run Central Christian University in Orange County. In March, a man who had served as a principal of the adjacent K-12 school run by Amesty’s family said he’d never signed a form notarized by Amesty claiming he was an employee at the university.
Once charged, Amesty immediately pleaded not guilty to all of the third-degree felony charges.
The state attorney in Orange and Osceola counties is Andrew Bain, who was appointed to the job last year after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell. Worrell won back the job in the Nov. 5 election, though Bain will remain in the position until next month.
