Attorneys for suspended Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill want a key prosecution witness in her elder exploitation case removed from the proceedings, saying her “contradictory and false answers” in pretrial depositions make her unreliable.

The 17-page motion filed Friday by Hill’s defense team seeks to remove Sandra Lewis from the case against Hill, who was indicted last year. Hill is accused of exploiting a 96-year-old woman by draining her savings of more than $100,000 after getting control of her finances. Prosecutors say Hill used a document notarized by Lewis to purchase a west Orlando home in her own name, with the elderly woman as a co-signer.

Lewis is expected to testify against Hill in the trial, which is for now slated for the fall, though could be delayed further.

Hill’s attorney Fritz Scheller said in the Friday filing that his team had a difficult time interviewing Lewis over the course of two depositions, finding her answers evasive and at times dishonest. The defense attorneys asked Lewis about her political activity and her work for the City of Orlando in the past year.

Central to the motion’s claims are questions about Lewis’ time as a canvasser for former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain, who held the post when Hill was indicted. Bain’s political committee paid Lewis more than $41,000 for “outreach services” in his failed campaign last year to keep the job.

She also evaded questions about working for Hill’s replacement, interim City Commissioner Shan Rose. Lewis worked for Rose as a temporary employee following her special election win.

The filing further targets Lewis’ work with Eboni Beauty Academy, a nonprofit that apparently doubles as a political strategy firm.

“In her depositions, Lewis demonstrated both a willful and blatant disregard for her obligations as a state witness – a witness who was under subpoena and oath,” Scheller wrote. “She intentionally avoided questions and provided contradictory and false answers throughout her depositions. The notion that the State would proceed with this witness is disturbing.”

The Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office led by Monique Worrell, which is prosecuting Hill along with the Office of Statewide Prosecution, did not immediately respond to questions about the motion. Lewis declined to comment.

The charges against Hill go beyond what Lewis is expected to have relevant testimony about, so it is not clear how much damage Lewis’ removal would do if a judge agrees with the defense attorneys.

The case against Hill is expansive, charging she used the older woman’s money on expenses like rental cars, hotel rooms and vitamin injections, none of which benefited the woman.

At the time Hill was indicted in 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis had removed Worrell from office and had appointed Bain as state attorney. Worrell, a Democrat, returned to the job in January after defeating Bain, running as an independent.

Rose didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Beauty school or political firm?

Records obtained and reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel appear to lend credence to some of the arguments made in the filing regarding the activities involving Eboni Beauty Academy.

First formed as a for-profit business in 1989, it was later reorganized as a nonprofit in 1992 only to fold and restart on-and-off in the ensuing years, state business filings show. The school’s most recent reinstatement was in 2017, based out of a house on Lenox Boulevard near Lake Mann.

Despite its existence as an active nonprofit in both state and federal records, Eboni Beauty Academy is not licensed to operate as a cosmetology school — and it never was, according to a database from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Records confirm Lewis had a cosmetology license that expired in October 2017.

In her depositions described in the filing, she testified that Eboni is a “mobile beauty school” that hosts students at her residence while also traveling to clients’ homes and sometimes operating out of beauty salons. Lewis refused to answer which salons were used, stating: “That’s not your business.”

The filing also claims Lewis couldn’t recall “the name of any student that graduated from Eboni,” nor the names of the company’s board members.

Additionally, in her application to work for the City of Orlando, which was obtained by the Sentinel, “Eboni” is listed as part of her job experience without reference to it being a beauty school. That business — based out of the same Lenox Boulevard residence as the alleged school — is instead described as a political strategy firm where she worked from 2010 to 2021 advising elected officials and candidates as a field coordinator.

Among the candidates she consulted, according to the depositions described by Hill’s legal team, are Bain and Rose. Neither the beauty school nor the firm appear to have a website nor any other online presence, nor does the latter appear to exist in state or federal databases.

Furthermore, campaign finance reports don’t show Rose having paid Eboni or Lewis for canvassing, though Bain’s campaign paid Lewis $41,095 for “outreach services” between August and November. No payments were made to Eboni, an entity through which she said she paid other canvassers.

Those payments came months after Hill’s indictment.

Hill’s lawyers characterized her testimony regarding Eboni as “suffused with falsehoods.”

“First, it was a beauty school with students she could not remember, then it was a canvassing company for Bain and Rose, and then it was both,” according to their filing.

A questionable donation

The questions of Eboni Beauty Academy’s legitimacy didn’t stop it from receiving a $3,200 donation from Insomniac Cares on Feb. 10, the result of a years-old agreement between the city and the nonprofit tied to the organizers of the Electric Daisy Carnival.

Every year, Insomniac Cares donates tens of thousands of dollars to organizations in District 5 as a way to help the community following the annual rave, which often draws complaints of booming noise and other disruptions. The donations, disbursed by city-run nonprofit Strengthen Orlando, primarily go to surrounding neighborhood associations, which this year received $45,000.

The rest, totaling $30,000, went to local community organizations with the stipulation that the money be used “to benefit the entire neighborhood in the form of building improvements, landscaping projects and other community needs.”

The address for Eboni Beauty Academy falls outside of the city limits, according to city property records.

In response to questions about the protocols for distributing the donations, city spokesperson Andrea Otero said that is determined by the district commissioner, which is now Rose.

“The intent of the monies are to those neighborhoods directly affected by the EDC event. However, there are no requirements,” she added.

That detail, Hill’s attorneys said, is one Lewis claimed she didn’t know despite the donation appearing to have been granted while working for Rose’s office, where Otero said she remains employed “in a temporary status.”

Lewis denied knowing where the $3,200 came from in her sworn testimony, even though a document confirming the donation appears to contain her signature. Hill’s legal team called her denial “ludicrous.”

“It is likely Lewis’ answer was designed to evade the inconvenient fact that Eboni improperly received money that was intended for entities in District Five where the EDC was held,” their filing argued.

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