Charges dropped in bizarre Clearwater RV kidnapping case

Prosecutors have dropped charges against two men who were accused in a bizarre kidnapping scheme.

Fred S. Jung and Edwin "Carey" Hilz were charged with kidnapping in May. They were accused of setting up an elaborate scheme to lure a Sarasota investment broker into a recreational vehicle parked in the shadow of the Memorial Causeway bridge.

The victim, Rick St. George, told TBO.com in June that a woman passing herself off as an heiress interested in investing money lured him first to a swank hotel overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and then to the parked RV.

St. George said when he got to the RV he grew suspicious and ran off, offering motorists on the causeway money to drive him to police. None took him up on his offer, but he eventually found a police officer.

The RV was found in another part of the city, and in it were Jung and Hilz, Clearwater police said. Each was charged with kidnapping.

But the charges were dropped because, among other things, there was nothing in the RV to suggest St. George would have been kidnapped had he actually gone inside, Assistant State Attorney Bill Loughery said.

Furthermore, Jung and Hilz had evidence to back up their claim that all they wanted to do was talk with St. George, Loughery said. Jung had lost a considerable amount of money due to advice St. George had given him, and St. George wasn't returning his telephone calls. So Jung admitted he hatched a plan to get some face-to-face time with the broker.

In June, St. George told TBO.com he knew Jung, a sometimes-television producer, because Jung is close friends with St. George's estranged wife, Tamie Sheffield. Hilz is Jung's right-hand man at Jung's television production company, Greenlight Entertainment.

Sheffield played a bailiff in the television show "Trailer Court Justice," which was produced by Jung.

The kidnapping charges were dropped last month.