Gondo's Greg Giles covers for Walia, picks up where Cynthia Crowe left off

Gondo's Giles, Venice Florida! dot com's Patten get in a tussle at Gondo's offices

Over on the message board on the main web site, a "Jayne" wrote the following in response to my article entitled How to write your own Walia scandal story:

Well, after printing about 2 inches worth of documents and writing a very well-written article, if I do say so myself, it seems that we are running up against a wall when it comes to the Tribune and the Gondolier. Got one response from Victor Hull at the Tribune saying he needed more info which I offered to send but haven't heard back from him yet. I went to the Venice building but evidently the reporting and editing staff are "hardly ever" there, according to the front desk. Armed with a completed article and a file of documents to support it, I spoke with Greg Giles at the Gondolier this morning and that seemed like a strange conversation. I will wait until I hear back from him before I comment further on that. I can't figure out the resistance to FACTS (sorry for shouting, JP) - this isn't a smear campaign about anyone, it's about presenting facts so that voters can make an informed decision. Why is that so abhorrent to the establishment media?

I responded with this post:

Giles and I had a confrontation over this matter where Giles wanted to come to blows. He deliberately blocked my way coming out between two desks at the Gondo offices as I was trying to leave. I said "You wanna move?" He responded, "You wanna make me?" What is this, high school?

So I tried to push past him. He gave me a shove that pushed me backwards onto his desk, then started screaming that I started it by pushing him (well, not entirely untrue) and that he wanted me to get up.

Great. Wonderful. I had every eye in the Gondo building on me and I knew if this went any further, I'm gonna be painted as the psycho loon who was trying to kill Giles.

I rolled off of his desk and backed away, saying, "Yeah, whatever, OK, yeah, sure, whatever you say."

That was this past Tuesday afternoon.

What led up to this was that I was sitting at Bob Mudge's desk and Giles kept coming over to try to goad me into an argument. I had gone in to give Mudge some of this same paperwork on Ahluwalia and the police reports, plus Ahluwalia's attorney's accusatory police affidavits that contained even more false information.  Giles walks into the conversation uninvited and stated that he views my articles on Walia as "character assassination." I responded that I cannot kill what never existed.

Giles walked away, then barged back into the conversation to call me an asshole and to accuse me of wanting sex with him in a bathroom (to understand that, you have to jump back to a prior council meeting: Giles overheard a conversation I was having with the Herald-Trib's Kim Hackett and he threw in his two-cents with a "F**k you" aimed at me. I responded "would you like to do that here or would the men's room be more private?" Giles got even more visibly pissed then and shook his fist at me; that image instantly made me think that I was the Red Baron to his Snoopy).

Giles walked away again. He came back to Mudge's desk again, the crap started again, Mudge told him to go away again, and Mudge chided me as well.

After he left this time, I joked with Mudge, "Aw c'mon, Bob, lemme ask him to step outside." Mudge didn't think it was funny, so I complained to him that he never let me have any fun. I was joking but I had no idea what was to come next. I truly didn't think Giles was that wacko. I knew he didn't like me, but I thought he would have more self-control.

So that leads up to Mudge making some copies and me getting up to leave and getting into a fracas with Giles.

Giles was visibly shaking with rage -- I mean just vibrating. I even commented on that just before I asked him to move out of my way: "Look at you, you're actually shaking."

I was a little pissed off about his behavior, but strangely, the biggest emotion I had at the time was humor. I found the whole thing to be funny and childish. I don't understand any of that. If Giles was so in Walia's camp -- OK. So what? Why get that personally pissed? I've been angry over a lot of crooked shenanigans over the years, but not angry enough to start swinging. I do not understand Giles' motivations at all here.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of it cuz after the Cynthia Crowe fracas, it all begins to look like I'm walking around looking for a fight. A friend of mine laughed and said I'm an idiot, I lead with my chin -- my "in your face" attitude with crooks and liars just begs for a punching from crooks and those with guilty consciences. "You just can't walk up to a crook and say 'hey, you're a crook!' -- the crook tends to get pissed and you are conveniently now the closest thing to him to release the piss on."

Make no mistake -- the Gondo is in Ahluwalia's camp. I give Ahluwalia two months in office before he is fighting ethics complaints. I will yell loud and clear that both the Herald-Trib and the Gondo knew about this man and deliberately fooled the voters by not doing that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news, but as to what that will affect, I don't know.

Giles and the Gondo have no intention of publishing any of this info on Walia, deeming it unimportant that you know nothing about the real man behind the names of Ahluwalia and Walia. Hopefully, after the election, they will reap the wind for their failure to do that which they are entrusted to do -- report the news.

As for Giles, if you don't like what the Gondo is doing, cancel your subs. If the paper wants to marginalize this election, marginalize the paper.