A.J. Matthews is the Republican state committeeman representing Hillsborough County. But in 1983, he was a Tampa police officer. And — as he related on Rob Lorei's Florida This Week show this past weekend — Matthews was the officer who busted Joe Redner in the only felony criminal case ever successfully brought against the strip-club owner.
Matthews gave these details of Redner's arrest on cocaine charges on the show, which aired Friday night and Sunday afternoon on WEDU Channel 3:
Matthews was working game-day duty at the Big Sombrero for a Bucs game, and two Tampa police detectives were camped out with binoculars in the skyboxes to keep an eye on Redner, who by 1983 was already well known for his ownership of several strip clubs. After the detectives saw Redner snort white powder on two occasions, they radio'ed Matthews to arrest him. Matthews took Redner into custody and booked him into jail.
While the arrest that day is widely known, the fact that Redner was targeted by eagle-eyed detectives is not. When told of the story, Redner said he found out after his arrest that he was being watched, but he added that he has no one to blame but himself.
"It's nobody’s fault but my own," the Tampa City Council candidate said. "That taught me a lesson. I stopped doing everything. It is a 25-year-old lesson. They can watch me if I want to. If I’m going to be a public figure, I cannot do stuff like that."
Redner credits that arrest with bringing about his sobriety and the healthy, vegan lifestyle that he practices today.
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2007.