What was a Manatee commissioner doing before possible DUI crash? Here’s what records show
Evidence gathered by investigators and a prosecutor reveal where Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse was in the hours before crashing into a tree and totaling his pickup truck.
Kruse is charged with one misdemeanor, driving under the influence, in connection to an April 20 crash just inside his subdivision. The first-term commissioner was not given a sobriety test or arrested on the day of the crash, because Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputies said he was no longer behind the wheel by the time they arrived.
Audio recordings of several people who met with or saw Kruse in the four-hour time-span leading up to the crash were obtained by the Bradenton Herald through a public record request by the Florida Center for Government Accountability.
Those recorded “pre-filing” interviews were part of the State Attorney’s Office and Manatee County Sheriff’s investigation prior to formal charges being filed against Kruse in June.
At about 4 p.m., on the day of the crash, Kruse and his wife went to the Parrish home of local real estate developer Carlos Beruff, founder of Medallion Homes and the developer behind Aqua by the Bay. Kruse was there to meet his political consultant, Anthony Pedicini.
Pedicini’s consulting firm, Strategic Image Management SIMWINS, has worked closely with candidates backed financially by Beruff.
The firm worked with Kruse, Kevin Van Ostenbridge, Vanessa Baugh and James Satcher on their successful 2020 campaigns for the Manatee County Commission, according to campaign finance records. And SIMWINS is listed on campaign records for three 2022 candidates: primary winners Jason Bearden and Mike Rahn as well as Republican Amanda Ballard who is running against incumbent Democrat Reggie Bellamy.
If Ballard wins in November, that would make Pedicini a consultant for all seven commissioners. His company has also worked on campaigns for three 2022 school board candidates, Bradenton Mayor Gene Brown and city council candidates.
The night of Kruse’s crash, Pedicini said they were meeting to talk after disagreeing over politics.
“So George and I had a fight and were trying to make up,” Pedicini said. “George loves affordable housing. It’s not a really great political issue. You know, we are very passionate Italian people and I tend to stick to my guns and we got into an argument.”
“Jess (Kruse’s wife, Jessica) called and said, ‘Why don’t we get together?’”
Since he was scheduled to have dinner at Beruff’s home anyway that evening, Pedicini said he asked Beruff if they could meet at his home.
Beruff — who has a history of backing many local Republican candidates — said he didn’t know what their meeting was about and after exchanging pleasantries left them in his family room .
“I just offered my house because it was a meeting place and I wanted Anthony not to be late for our dinner because it was with my family and my children with me to eat at 6 p.m.,” he explained.
Beruff — who referred to both Pedicini and Kruse as social acquaintances — joined them around 5 p.m. after finishing working on his home desktop computer with a computer technician.
The small group was sharing a bottle of wine, both Pedicini and Beruff told investigators.
“It seemed like everybody had a glass,” Beruff said.
Pedicini, however, distinctly remembered pouring himself a rum on the rocks. Beruff, who said he doesn’t drink much, had less than a glass of wine, he said.
Neither man could remember exactly how much Kruse drank but estimated it was a glass or glass and a half of wine. Following the crash, however, Kruse was adamant in public statements that he had not been drinking.
Beruff’s home has a fully stocked bar in the family room and a climate-controlled wine chiller elsewhere in the house, so the developer said he didn’t think a second bottle was opened.
Just before 6 p.m., the Kruses left and Pedicini stayed behind for dinner with Beruff and his family.
Before heading home, the couple went to Sixty East Italian Cucina & Martini Bar, near the Ellenton Premium Outlets mall. The couple sat at a bar, a restaurant receipt revealed during the investigation. Investigators also spoke to another couple that Jessica Kruse recalled seeing that night and the bartender who served them.
Douglas Walters, a local accountant who knows the couple from his time as president of a hockey league that one Kruse child played on, walked into the restaurant with his wife that night and spotted the couple at the bar.
“We said hello to them. My wife talked to Jessica,” he said. The bar was busy, however, so the couple got a table on the other side of the restaurant where they could no longer see the Kruses.
His wife, Kimberly Walters, detailed her brief conversation at the bar.
“So I always look to see who’s sitting over there or how empty it was or if we could have sat there with our friends, but it was busy,” she said. “I just happen to notice Jessica.”
The two women exchanged phone numbers so they could make dinner plans for another day, she said. But at the end of the interview, she explained that it was Jessica Kruse who asked for her number initiating dinner plans but the two were really more acquaintances than friends.
“That’s so like, out of character,” she said. “Like, we would not go to dinner with them.”
Sgt. Ben Main with the sheriff’s office questioned the oddness that Kruse did not turn around when someone spoke to his wife saying, “I would turn around if someone was talking to my wife.”
“My husband would do that, too. But, I mean, at the time, I didn’t really think much of it,” she said.
The next pre-trial hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 11. Kruse will not be present because his attorney has waived his need to appear at any pre-trial conferences, a common practice.
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 5:50 AM.
