Human resources ran a state background search, but didn’t check local records.
By Alice Herman/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: April 23, 2025
Host: Many staff and faculty at New College had not heard the name of Fredrick Piccolo Jr. when he was arrested last week by Manatee County Sheriff’s deputies and subsequently fired as marketing director for the public college. Suncoast Searchlight’s Alice Herman sheds some light on how Piccolo, a politically connected figure, was hired. This story was produced jointly by Suncoast Searchlight and WUSF.
Alice Herman: When New College of Florida hired Fredrick Piccolo Jr. as communications director in December, he had already been charged three times with indecent exposure. But the school’s background check failed to uncover this history, records obtained by Suncoast Searchlight and WUSF show.
The background check, run on January 8 through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Criminal History Services, came back clean, stating there were “no relevant criminal records.”
But public records show that Piccolo had been charged three separate times with first-degree misdemeanors for “exposure of sexual organs.”
The charges stemmed from incidents in August and September at the University Town Center Mall, where female employees at Banana Republic and Dillard’s alleged that Piccolo exposed himself and, in one case, was seen masturbating in a fitting room.
Rather than arresting Piccolo, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office filed non-arrest affidavits. Because those charges did not involve arrests or fingerprints, the FDLE background search did not pick them up. FDLE acknowledges this limitation on its website, which states that results may return “no record” if the person “has never been arrested or fingerprinted for a serious offense in Florida.”
In an email, a spokesperson for FDLE wrote that “Florida criminal history reports include fingerprint-based arrests that are reported to FDLE by the local and state arresting agencies.”
A basic search of Sarasota County’s clerk of court records, however, would have turned up all three cases. Nothing in Piccolo’s personnel file suggests New College checked that source.
Manatee County Sheriff’s booking photo of Fred Piccolo Jr. via Suncoast Searchlight.
Piccolo pleaded not guilty to the three misdemeanor charges and requested a jury trial, which has been scheduled for May.
New College told the news organizations that it performed the FDLE search using accurate information but did not respond to a question about why it did not also search the Sarasota County Court system.
Piccolo applied for the position of Director of Marketing & Media, Strategic Communications at New College in early November. He offered several references, including Florida State University System Chancellor Ray Rodriguez and New College President Richard Corcoran.
Piccolo had served as spokesperson for Corcoran when Corcoran was the Florida Speaker of the House from 2016 to 2018.
In 2020, Gov. Ron DeSantis hired Piccolo to run his communications operation.
After DeSantis removed elected Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren in August 2022 following his refusal to enforce bans on abortion and transgender healthcare, the governor tapped Piccolo to handle public relations for his replacement, Susan Lopez.
Photo via Suncoast Searchlight.
On December 2, New College offered Piccolo the job at a salary of $75,000 a year—$10,000 less than he had requested—with a start date of December 9. The offer was contingent on a background check, which was submitted a month later.
Piccolo was fired from New College on April 16, one day after his arrest by the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly exposing himself to a woman in the Lakewood Ranch neighborhood.
After Piccolo’s arrest, his attorney, Eric Reisinger, stated that Piccolo takes medications to treat Parkinson’s Disease that cause compulsive behavior and hypersexuality and have caused Piccolo to “behave in a manner inconsistent with his established character.”
Reporting for Suncoast Searchlight, this has been Alice Herman.
To read the full article, go to suncoastsearchlight.org/new-college-background-check-exposure-piccolo.
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