Orlando City Commissioner Regina Hill has been arrested and booked in jail, facing charges of exploitation of an elderly/disabled person, mortgage fraud, scheme to defraud, and impersonation after a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation.
Earlier this week, the West Orlando News called on Regina Hill to resign immediately, and if she did not, WON called on Governor Ron DeSantis to remove her from office. It now appears that will be likely, as the Republican Governor previously said that a suspension from office would follow an official indictment.
This is also another embarrassment for Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who likely enabled the troubled Commissioner’s behavior and actions by protecting her and standing by her over the years while refusing to have his administration look into serious complaints made by city employees. He has claimed over the years to be a strong-arm mayor who controls and knows everything going on in the city, yet he pretends to have been powerless against a career criminal like Regina Hill.
58-year-old Regina Hill has also added another mugshot to her collection. According to documents posted by Orange County Incarcerations, Orlando Commissioner Hill is facing charges by FDLE with three counts of exploitation of elderly/disabled (>= $50,000), two counts of fraud-impersonation, scheme to defraud (>= $50,000), and mortgage fraud.
The charges are connected to a civil complaint that was also made against Commissioner Regina Hill. The civil case revolves around exploitation of a vulnerable adult senior, with accusations that the Orlando City Commissioner stole money from the victim she was exploiting. The subject of the case is Annie Mae Curtis and the petitioner is listed as Adriane Alexander, represented by attorney John Martino.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, who is also a Democrat and consistently defends and endorses Regina Hill, told West Orlando News he had no involvement or information in anything related to Commissioner Hill’s legal issues. But he and his administration knew about complaints and concerns for years. “Elected officials are held accountable by those who elect them,” Mayor Dyer’s office told WON. “The city does not have any authority to take disciplinary actions against an elected official.” Talk about a weak Mayor.
Regina Hill has reportedly retained Warren Lindsey and Nicole Benjamin as her legal representation.
West Orlando News has investigated the Orlando Mayor and Orlando Commissioners for years, and we will continue to do so. If you have any information about wrongdoing in the City of Orlando, please contact us and we will protect your confidentiality while exposing the truth.
In addition to being a failure by Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Democrat like Hill, it is also a failure of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), who did not call on Hill to resign despite being an embarrassment to her community and to her political party in a year as important as 2024. The FDP needs to send a strong message that Democrats like Regina Hill do not belong in office.
Commissioner Hill has been a chaotic representative in office. Regina Hill was arrested out-of-state for public intoxication and disorderly conduct/disturbing the peace, a previously unknown and unreported arrest. It turns out she was using Orlando tax dollars during her out-of-state trip when she was arrested too. Back in 2016, Regina Hill shockingly admitted that the home she owned at 1790 Baywood Avenue, located outside of the city limits and facing foreclosure, was her “primary home.” Since then, multiple City of Orlando staffers have claimed that the Commissioner continued to live out of the district as recent as this year. Another complaint in 2017 detailed affordable housing fraud committed by Commissioner Regina Hill.
As the official embarrassment of the City of Orlando, Commissioner Hill has also appeared intoxicated while recording herself on social media. She also targeted an Orlando firefighter who saved her life because he recorded her during a dramatic incident. “It was cursing, cursing, cursing, ‘I hate you. You’re trying to get me in trouble,’” the firefighter told local media at the time. “‘I hate all of you firemen,’ and that’s what I heard and I swear to you, I still didn’t know who she was.” He recorded her to protect himself, and her attempted retaliation failed as local hero Joshua Granada was reinstated with back pay after he was wrongfully terminated for recording audio of Commissioner Regina Hill. Mayor Dyer also refused to stand up and defend his local firefighters over Hill’s accusations.
Those are just a fraction of the scandals involving Hill in recent years, with many reporting public drunkenness on a regular basis. The complaints from residents and City of Orlando employees are too many to list and continue to stream in against the troubled Commissioner.
