Here is the affidavit written by computer programmer Clinton Curtis:

http://www.buzzflash.com/alerts/04/12/images/CC_Affidavit_120604.pdf.

Posted in the solid “Brad blog,” Curtis’s sworn statement alleges that in 2000 a Florida software company, Yang Enterprises (YEI), developed a prototype for vote fraud.  The project was developed, the affidavit states, at the specific request of Rep. Tom Feeney (R- Fla.).  Feeney, now beginning his second term in Congress, was lobbyist and counsel for YEI.

Curtis also narrates in his affidavit that after he left YEI and went to the Florida Department of Transportation, he found instances of over-billing by YEI, a Florida state contractor.  An IG investigator, Raymond C. Lemme, talked with him several times about YEI, and as the affidavit states, Mr. Lemme was found dead soon afterward in a Valdosta, Georgia, motel room.

To date, there has been little comment for attribution about Mr. Lemme’s death, considered a suicide.  The timing and the lack of discussion, along with the affidavit, have given rise to the worst possible suspicions that the death was foul play, and that it was connected to the investigation of YEI.  Suspicion is reinforced by the fact that no major media outlet has (apparently) examined a scheme to tamper with the vote in Florida – sworn allegations that one would think would have set off headlines. 

The Social Security Death Index gives Mr. Lemme’s date of death as July 1, 2003.  The Valdosta, Georgia, police department will not comment on specifics but considers the case closed. 

Lemme’s supervisor at the Florida DOT, Robert (Bob) Clift, says unequivocally that he and all the others who worked closely with Lemme support the conclusion of the Valdosta police that Lemme’s death was suicide.  Clift declines to speculate on motives, saying that the family has been through enough.  He is emphatic in saying, however, that the death was not related to Lemme’s job performance, which he calls “stellar.”

The August 2003 issue of Perspectives on Excellence, a Florida DOT newsletter, features the Inspector General’s Contract Fraud Investigation Team, including Lemme, which won an award on the job:

http://www.dot.state.fl.us/businessmodel/pdf/August%202003.pdf.

A photograph of the team is followed by paragraphs of praise:

“The Inspector General’s office executed Florida government’s most successful attack on vendor contract fraud, producing 15 criminal convictions and recovering $1.5 million. This team is responsible for placing 83% of individual and company names on the Department of Management Services’ list of convicted vendors who are no longer eligible to compete for state business.

            Governor Bush’s Inspector General recently presented this accomplishment as a best practice, at a national conference of Inspectors General.”

One of those vendors no longer eligible to compete for state business, of course, is Rep. Feeney’s former client, Yang Enterprises.

Clift, Lemme’s supervisor, confirms that Lemme was part of a team winning one of the awards and reiterates that his work was excellent.  “I worked with him probably for about18 months to two years,” Clift says, and Lemme was “an outstanding performer, one of the most thorough investigators that I’ve ever worked with” and reiterates that everyone who worked with him would say the same thing.  “Everyone here who worked with him would say the same thing; we would all say that.”

He also reiterates emphatically that “All of us who worked with him support the conclusions of the Valdosta, Georgia, police,” that the death was a suicide.  Calling it “unfortunate” that suspicions have been raised about the cause of death, Clift says emphatically that Lemme’s “assignment had absolutely nothing to do with voting machines.”  He says, “It was not anything secret.”  The IG unit investigates “employee misconduct and contract frauds as they impact  DOT,” he explains, giving as examples employees claiming more time than actually put in, or travel claimed that is not supported, etc.  “On the contractor perspective, [we investigate] contractors who billed us for work they did not do.”

Clift states emphatically that Lemme’s job was not in jeopardy.  In answer to a question regarding whether he was fired or going to be, Clift says emphatically, “Absolutely not.  I was his supervisor.  His job performance was stellar; other people under him and around him looked up to Ray and modeled their performance on his.”  It was Clift who nominated the contract fraud investigation team for a job award.  Whatever the cause of death, it was not job performance.

But in Clift’s opinion, “this voting machine stuff doesn’t square with the cause of death either.”  He reiterates that it is “unfortunate” that a cloud of suspicion has arisen about the death.  In response to questions, Clift states that he has read the Clinton Curtis affidavit.  He confirms that Curtis did report YEI’s over-billing to the Florida DOT.  Without going into specifics, he also states that Curtis says what he believed. “Every investigation has varying degrees” of accuracy in its leads, he says in general terms, with some facts or details more solid than others.  Referring to the public record, he also confirms that Yang Enterprises “doesn’t hold the contract any more.”

Questions to the Valdosta police are referred to their PR officer, who is out on vacation for the week.  The police department confirms that the incident report was filed on July 1, 2003, and that the case was inside Valdosta city limits.