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Highlands Today

Rep. Troutman Sues Sen. Alexander

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 30, 2008

The Lakeland Ledger is reporting that State Rep. Baxter Troutman has sued Sen. J.D. Alexander, taking their feud into court.

The men are first cousins and the grandsons of citrus baron Ben Hill Griffin Jr., and both represent Highlands County in the Florida Legislature.

The suit was filed Oct. 23 by Baxter G. Troutman, R-Winter Haven, against J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, and Alexander's father, John R. Alexander.

The lawsuit claims Alico Inc., based in LaBelle, lost more than $1 million because of mismanagement, and that the Alexanders "negligently, carelessly, and intentionally failed to perform their duties." Money recovered from the Alexanders would go back to Alico shareholders.

"This lawsuit is a transparent - and very disappointing - ploy by my cousin, Baxter Troutman, to harass the company to force it to buy his stock for more favorable terms than he agreed to when the families re-organized our business in 2004," said Alexander in a written statement. "This misguided and frivolous attempt to try to force other shareholders to pay him more than the parties agreed upon will not be successful. We will vigorously defend this wasteful lawsuit and look forward to telling the whole story in court. Our court system does not need to be cluttered with this type of frivolous lawsuit."

Troutman was reached in Hawaii, where he and his bride-to-be, Becky Carney, a Highlands County teacher for 10 years, were taking a pre-honeymoon vacation.

"It's regrettable that I have to do this," Troutman said. "But I've tried for months and months and months and keep getting stonewalled, so I've had to resort to pretty extreme measures. These egregious actions of theirs will be made clear to the public."

Troutman wants to keep much of the land in agricultural use, while the Alexanders have pushed for more intensive development.

This is not the first time Griffin family members have sued each other. Atlanticblue Inc., a real estate management and development company privately owned by the heirs of the citrus baron, who died in 1990, owns a majority share in Alico Inc., an agribusiness based in LaBelle with interests in citrus, cattle, sugarcane, sod production and forestry.

As of Aug. 31, Alico owned 135,466 acres in five South Florida counties, including the 65,000-acre Blue Head Ranch in Highlands County; and Tri-County Grove, which has 3,600 acres of citrus grove in Highlands and DeSoto counties. J.D. Alexander has pushed to build a new city at Blue Head.

Atlanticblue's business was built on assets from the Griffin estate, according to a second article published by the Lakeland Ledger. Those assets came from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by the families of Ben Hill Griffin Jr.'s four daughters against Ben Hill Griffin III, the only male heir of the estate.

The sisters charged Ben Hill Griffin III had mismanaged the estate's assets. The settlement gave the sisters a 60 percent share of the family trust, which included Alico and Blue Head, and Griffin III a 40 percent share.

The family of one sister, Harriett Griffin Harris, made a separate settlement with the other sisters' families. Included in that undisclosed settlement was Katherine Harris, the former Florida Secretary of State and congresswoman from Sarasota. She is also a first cousin of J.D. Alexander and Troutman.

The Atlanticblue board of directors included other Griffin heirs, including Troutman and Laura Grace Alexander, the senator's sister. In January, Troutman was voted off the board of Alico.

- GARY PINNELL

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