Second man accused of filing false affidavit
By LARRY DOUGHERTY
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 16, 1999
TAMPA — Federal prosecutors have charged a second paralegal with trying to force a
federal judge off a Fort Myers criminal case by falsely claiming the judge had met
improperly with the case prosecutor at a local restaurant.
Dana Corum, 61, of Lake Worth, helped prepare a false affidavit about the meeting, which
alleged that the judge and prosecutor met at Plum’s Cafe near Fort Myers in February 1997
to discuss the case and exchange documents, an indictment states.
Corum, the co-owner of a private investigation agency, also obtained records of long
distance calls from the judge’s home telephone, the indictment said.
Corum’s indictment follows the arrest in January of Michael A. Barfield, a 36-year-old
Sarasota paralegal, on the same allegation. The judge in the case, Senior U.S. District
Judge Lee Gagliardi, died late last year after an illness.
The allegation of the meeting had forced a federal grand jury investigation of Gagliardi
and the federal prosecutor, Kathleen Haley. In 1997, Haley was the lead prosecutor on an
embezzlement case involving Cape Coral Hospital. One of the defendants was Carl A. Bailey.
Bailey hired Barfield, who in turn hired Corum, court records show. Corum and the woman
with whom she co-owns Panther Investigations Inc., Deana Scapaccino, worked out the
details of the false meeting that Scapaccino claimed to have witnessed, Corum’s indictment
states. They cooperated on an affidavit Scapaccino signed and had lunch together at Plum’s
Cafe to gather additional details, the indictment states.
In concert with unnamed others, Corum is charged with conspiracy, two counts of
obstruction of justice and being an accessory to perjury after the fact. She was arrested
in South Florida last month.
Corum entered pleas of not guilty in front of a magistrate in Tampa on Tuesday. Corum is
free on a $100,000 bond secured by her roommate’s house.