Since 2006, three Pinellas women have sought domestic violence protection orders against a candidate seeking to serve on the County Commission.
Anthony Ringelspaugh, 57, is a retired business owner looking to unseat fellow Republican and incumbent Dave Eggers in the Aug. 18 primary election to represent the northernmost part of the county as the District 4 commissioner. Ringelspaugh’s ex-wife and two former girlfriends sought protection against him.
The Tampa Bay Times is not naming the women because of the nature of the allegations.
Ringelspaugh’s former wife filed for a domestic violence injunction involving children in 2006. The case is closed, and documents are not available through the Pinellas clerk of court’s office. But according to a case log, a temporary injunction was denied and later dismissed.
A domestic violence injunction is a court ruling ordering the person accused to stay away from the person or people seeking protection.
Another woman, whom Ringelspaugh said he dated for nearly seven years, sought two protective orders against him.
She filed one in 2010. She was granted a temporary injunction, which was later dismissed. In 2011, she filed a second domestic violence injunction, which was granted.
In the woman’s petition for the 2011 injunction, she said Ringelspaugh yelled at her to give him money “to make him go away.” She also said Ringelspaugh told both of her sons that he would kill them.
“He is obsessed and I know he is watching me,” she wrote.
Ringelspaugh violated that order, court records say, and he was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor. He was found guilty and sentenced to a year of probation in 2012.
In 2021, a third woman, another girlfriend of Ringelspaugh, filed for domestic violence protection, which was granted. In her petition, she said Ringelspaugh put a GPS tracker on her car and told her son he was going to make her “go away.”
She also said he had put a gun in her face and at one point pushed her to the ground and kicked her stomach, according to court records. She also said he sexually assaulted her multiple times.
“I am in fear because I know what he is capable of,” she wrote.
Ringelspaugh was a bondsman for the woman when she was charged with prostitution in 2015 and possession of paraphernalia in 2014, according to court records.
In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Ringelspaugh said he holds a concealed weapon permit and is still “very good friends” with the woman. He told the Times he owned the car that he had placed a tracker on.
Ringelspaugh said all of the injunctions were dropped, and the two of the women were retaliating against him. He also denied the allegations in their petitions.
He referred a reporter to a lawyer, Curt Murtha, for documentation that the protective orders were dismissed. The Times has attempted to contact Murtha since Wednesday, but he did not respond to multiple emails, a voicemail or a message left at his office.
“Everything that I had was withheld adjudication because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Ringelspaugh said.
Ringelspaugh said he used to run a fiber optics company, through which he said he had clearance to work at U.S. Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. He would not have had that clearance, nor been approved for a concealed weapon license, if he was guilty, he said.
U.S. Central Command on Friday declined to confirm or deny Ringelspaugh’s security clearance.
