Prosecutor May Expand Charges Against Carroll Aide

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) – The feud between Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll and a disgruntled aide is escalating.

The state attorney who charged former aide Carletha Cole last October with giving an illegally taped conversation to a reporter is now considering additional charges against her for illegally recording a conversation she had with Carroll's chief of staff.

Last week Cole's attorney filed documents in court alleging she caught Carroll and a female travel aide Beatriz Ramos in a compromising position.

Carroll, a former Navy officer and a married mother of three, said last week the allegations are "totally false and absurd" and an effort by Cole to get her criminal charges dropped.

"Unfortunately, as an elected official character deformation that is totally fabricated can occur like this and there is not much I can do," Carroll responded to a couple who sent her an email expressing their support.

Cole, who was fired from her job as a senior program analyst last September about a month before she was arrested, also contends Ramos, a special assistant to the lieutenant governor, was living at Carroll's home. Cole claims that at one point she was ordered to find adjoining hotel rooms for Carroll and Ramos when they traveled.

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