Former Manatee administrator, AeroVanti CEO facing new charges

After serving just shy of a two-year stint as the Manatee County administrator, Scott Hopes resigned in February 2023 and was charged a year later with notary fraud, grand theft and fraudulent use of public records.

On April 17, the State of Florida tweaked and expanded those charges.

The notary charge was dropped and a petit theft charge was added. As for the grand theft and fraudulent use of public records charges, those were expanded to include three charges each.

Hopes now faces a total of seven charges, instead of three.

All the charges stem from the allegation he doctored time sheets to collect overtime pay from the county.

Hopes has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Hopes, who in addition to serving as county administrator and school board member, is the former CEO of the private air service company AeroVanti.

He joined the company, then facing serious financial issues and several lawsuits from disgruntled former employees, customers and vendors, in June 2023. He was removed about five months later, though, after funding to turn the company around never materialized.

Todd Britton-Harr, the brother of the company’s founder Patrick Britton-Harr and the person who replaced Hopes as CEO for three days before stepping down himself after being insnared in the business' trouble, has publicly accused Hopes of trying to bankrupt AeroVanti for his own benefit.

The charges in the Manatee case were amended after Hopes’ legal team argued that the state had not been specific enough in its charges, according to the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer. The state responded April 17 by attaching dates to each charge.

The grand theft charge is now broken down into three separate pay periods, and the fraudulent use of public records charges are tied to specific dates.

The charges only provide a monetary range of what Hopes is alleged to have taken, not specific amounts. The petit theft is alleged to be between $100 and $750. The first count of grand theft ranges between $5,000 and $20,000, and the other two grand theft charges range between $750 and $5,000.

After dates were attached to the charges, Hopes’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss three out of the seven charges based on the statute of limitations, which is two years for a first degree misdemeanor and three years for a second or third degree felony.

The charges included in the motion to dismiss — petite theft, grand theft between $750 and $5,000 and fraudulent use of public records for falsifying a time sheet — are alleged to have occurred between April 1, 2021 and June 3, 2022.

Attorney Andrea Flynn Mogensen argued those charges are “time-barred,” or no longer valid.

The remaining charges are alleged to have occurred between Sept. 24, 2022 and Nov. 18, 2022.

Hopes’ next court appearance is scheduled June 26 for case management.

Mogensen did not return a request for comment, and the State Attorney’s Office does not comment on active litigation.

Mogensen has had past dealings with Hopes — but from the other side of the courtroom. Mogensen represented the Florida Center for Government Accountability in 2022 when it sued Manatee County, alleging it wasn’t properly capturing and archiving text messages.

When deposed, Deborah Scaccianoce, former public records manager for the county, said Hopes refused to allow her to examine his phone for public records. The county settled the lawsuit by paying the center $75,000 and implementing SMARSH software that will automatically capture and archive all county communications.

Scaccianoce will also be deposed in Hopes’ case June 24.