ORLANDO, Florida — Wearing a black corrections shirt and a mask, disgraced former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to a variety of misdeeds, including admitting to having sex with a minor.
During the approximately 45-minute hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Leslie Hoffman, neither Greenberg nor attorneys involved in the case mentioned U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, whom Greenberg has implicated as having also had sex with a 17-year-old girl. But one of the charges to which Greenberg pleaded guilty states that he introduced the girl to several other men who also had sex with her.
Gaetz, a one-time friend of the former tax collector, has denied any wrongdoing.
Greenberg, a 36-year-old husband and father, pleaded guilty to six of the 33 counts on which he'd been indicted. They include:
sex trafficking of children;
production of a false identification document;
aggravated identity theft;
wire fraud;
stalking;
conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States.
In the plea agreement, Greenberg committed to cooperating with authorities investigating other crimes of which he might have knowledge, including the sex trafficking. The agreement lists minimum sentences for some of the crimes totaling 12 years in prison, but with his cooperation, that sentence could be reduced by three levels. That means he could get fewer than 12 years in prison, Greenberg's attorney, Fritz Scheller of Orlando, said Monday.
During the hearing, Hoffman asked Greenberg dozens of yes or no questions pertaining to his understanding of the agreement, the facts of the case and his competency. She went through each of the six counts, and each time, Greenberg responded, "Guilty."
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