ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Regina Hill, the suspended Orlando commissioner who recently lost her seat to her rival, filed a lawsuit Friday claiming people connected to her rival’s campaign offered gift cards, services and gifts in an effort to influence voters.
The lawsuit against Shan Rose and the people who served on Orlando’s Canvassing Board continues a bruising and often personal campaign between two women, one facing seven felony charges and the other dogged by accusations she inappropriately mixed city and campaign business.
The gift card scheme alleged by the lawsuit was one of several violations Hill accused Rose and her associates of knowing about and – on the associates’ end – participating in.
According to the lawsuit and phone conversations with Hill allies who participated in the campaign-led investigation, Rose’s campaign distributed flyers throughout the district offering health screenings and gift cards.
One version of the flyers, which had Rose’s face and position as city commissioner listed, had a QR code linking to the health provider, the lawsuit said. The other version attached as an exhibit directed recipients to a website the lawsuit claimed advertised Rose’s campaign.
WFTV reviewed an archived version of the webpage Friday. It had information about “no cost” health screening locations and times. It also contained large text encouraging people to vote for Rose.
It’s not clear if any of those flyers were distributed to voters. Hill allies said they were made aware of the flyers because people called their campaign to report them, but said they knew little about how those people obtained those flyers.
The lawsuit claimed Rose was publicly made aware of the flyers on November 7, and the web page was deleted shortly after. As of Friday, the QR code for the health provider was working, but the second QR code to the alternate webpage was broken.
The lawsuit also accused Rose’s campaign of conducting ballot harvesting operations at nursing homes in the district. While a notarized letter attached to the lawsuit retold conversations with specific residents who could not remember key details about their votes and one resident who denied voting, it did not lay out specific evidence of an organized ballot harvesting operation.
Cameron Hope, who once ran to replace Hill but who worked on her re-election campaign, said he did much of the investigating, including conversations with nursing home residents and the man who set up the health screenings.
He said he was bothered that Rose tied her campaign so closely to her role as commissioner, referencing times city staff have been reprimanded for supporting Rose in a campaign capacity.
“She knows about it, and she still continues to do it,” Hope said. “Why were there two [brochure versions] set up?”
Rose sent WFTV’s call to voice mail.
The man who was named as the organizer of the health screenings and who allegedly set up the website supporting Rose’s campaign, Joneal Brunner, denied the accusations when he was called Friday afternoon.
“Those claims are totally false,” Brunner said.
It’s not clear why the Canvassing Board members were named in the lawsuit. One of the members, Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan, sounded confused when she was called Friday.
“Our role at the canvassing board is to review ballots. The allegations she was making that morning had nothing to do with that,” Sheehan said. “We did our due diligence as far as the Canvassing Board and the ballots were concerned.”
Hill’s lawsuit asks the judge to order the Canvassing Board to set aside the election results and either declare Hill the winner or set a new election date.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
