Police won’t charge ex-Florida GOP chair with sexual battery, forward voyeurism allegations to prosecutors

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Christian Ziegler will not face sexual battery charges, but prosecutors will consider whether to charge him with video voyeurism stemming from a months-long investigation, according to a statement from the Sarasota Police Department.

The investigation started after an Oct. 2 sexual encounter between Ziegler and an unnamed woman, who later alleged to police in a complaint that Ziegler “raped” her. After interviewing dozens of people and reviewing surveillance footage, the police department in Sarasota, where Ziegler lives, determined it was "unable to develop probable cause" for a charge of sexual battery.

Police did, however, send a probable cause affidavit to prosecutors for video voyeurism, a felony crime, because Ziegler allegedly taped the sexual encounter without the woman’s knowledge, the Sarasota police said.

“After conducting an additional follow-up interview with the victim and after showing the victim the video recording of the sex act, the victim advised Sarasota Police detectives that she was unaware and did not consent to being video recorded,” according to the statement issued Friday by the Sarasota Police Department.

Ziegler attorney Derek Boyd said that since “day one, we have been confident Mr. Ziegler would be exonerated,” and he said the police “punted” to prosecutors the portion of the case that alleges unlawful videotaping of a sexual act.

“While we are disappointed that the Sarasota Police Department ‘punted’ the decision on the remaining portion of the case of the state attorney’s office, we strongly believe that the state attorney will not prosecute Mr. Ziegler for any crime,” Byrd said in a statement.

The investigation, which was