Trash snooper must avoid Semblers

St. Petersburg Times/January 18, 2007
By Leonora LaPeter

St. Petersburg -- A man who dug through the trash of former Italian Ambassador Mel Sembler can never do it again.

A judge has ruled that Richard Bradbury, who retrieved a penile pump from Sembler's trash and posted it for sale on eBay, must forever steer clear of Mel and Betty Sembler and their trash.

The dispute dates to the 1980s when Bradbury was a client at Straight, a now-defunct Pinellas Park drug treatment center that the Semblers co-founded.

Bradbury charged that abuse was rampant there, and tried to bring attention to the issue by picketing at Sembler's business and home He took it further when he advertised Sembler's discarded penile pump, which was prescribed for the developer during prostate cancer more than a decade ago.

The Semblers sought the injunction to keep Bradbury away.