A run down looking Dale Massad walked into courtroom 3-A at the Pasco County Courthouse in a jail jumpsuit.
It’s a fall from grace for the former Port Richey mayor removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deputies went to his home in February to arrest him for practicing medicine without a license, they said.
While there, they claim he opened fire.
“He never shot at any officers,” said attorney Bjorn Brunvand. “There were never officers in the path of any bullets. Did he fire bullets? Yes. But not toward anyone,” he said outside the courthouse.
That landed Massad in jail.
Then this week, more charges were added because authorities explained that Massad made a call from jail to acting Port Richey major Terrance Rowe.
In court, the judge said the men appeared to conspire to intimidate a police officer at the center of Massad’s February arrest.
He said something along the line of “anything you can do is good,” Judge Mary Handsel said.
“Do you think anything sinister was intended in that [call]?” reporter Ryan Hughes asked his attorneys.
“Absolutely not! Absolutely not! When she told me to stop yelling at her, that’s what I was saying,” attorney Dennis deVleming said about his exchange with the judge.
Massad is now facing two new charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, and because of that, he’s being held without bond.
His attorneys tried to get Handsel to set a bond, but she refused.
During the Thursday hearing, the attorneys also mentioned that Massad is in declining health. The judge said he has been moved to the medical ward of the jail in Land O’ Lakes.
