ORLANDO, Fla. — Sandra Lewis’ application to work for the City of Orlando appeared to be routine. She passed her background check, came with prior experience and sailed past her interview with District 5 Commissioner Shan Rose, who was eyeing her for a position as a temporary aide making $17 per hour.
After Lewis was hired, records show she badged into City Hall three times between mid-July and early August of 2024. Even though she continued clocking hours and collecting paychecks through early 2025, she was never recorded inside the building again.
Forty percent of the hours she worked were on Saturdays and Sundays, when City Hall was closed, her time sheets show. Her Facebook page showed her taking pictures of Rose posing with constituents at a what appeared to be a holiday event, but the time sheets obtained by WFTV did not show any hours worked that matches the date of the post.
However, after being sworn in to testify during a deposition in the criminal case against suspended Orlando Commissioner Regina Hill, Lewis, one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, said her job was very different than the paperwork described.
“Did you work for Shan Rose at some point?” a transcription recorded Hill’s attorney, Fritz Scheller, asking.
“Last election, yes,” Lewis said. “Door-to-door canvassing.”
There’s just one issue: despite Lewis confirming it was a paid position, financial disclosures do not show any payments between Rose’s campaign and Lewis for that work.
Controversial witness
Lewis is at the center of a growing battle between prosecutors, who say Hill used her position as commissioner to spend $100,000 of a 96-year-old’s money on items like a facelift and IV treatments, and Hill’s team, who claim she’s innocent and caught up in a political conspiracy targeting her.
As part of their case, prosecutors need Lewis to testify that Hill faked documents that allowed Hill to gain power of attorney over the elderly woman. Lewis’ notary stamp appeared on those documents.
In a March 2024 interview at her home, Lewis denied any involvement with the documents and pointed to a series of discrepancies like misspelled names, mismatching dates and mysterious gaps in signature lines that she said wouldn’t have passed her check system.
Hill’s team, meanwhile, has been asking a judge to toss Lewis’ testimony from the trial. They say she has repeatedly obstructed them as they inquired about her work history and her beauty school, which is where much of the money for Lewis’ political work has been funneled through over the years. They say that obstruction has made it difficult to give Hill a fair trial.
If Lewis is dismissed from the case, prosecutors would have to work harder. Should Hill ultimately be found not guilty, her efforts to win re-election over Rose would gain a significant boost. Hill remains popular within her district, despite the charges, and would be favored to win without the cloud of the accusations hanging over her head.
That’s why Lewis’ work for both Rose and then-State Attorney Andrew Bain raised lawyers’ eyebrows, even though it’s still not clear why Rose hired Lewis and whether taxpayer money was used for political work because Rose has, as of the publication of this article, not responded to questions.
What the records show
The transcripts of the depositions given by Lewis show Hill’s attorneys circling what they believed to be other inconsistencies.
Lewis said in addition to canvassing, she helped the commissioner in her office “one to two” days per week, earning about $2,000 over her employment, according to her time sheets.
However, the time sheets examined during the deposition show Lewis clocked in more than that during a one-month period, and far less than that for the remainder of her employment. In fact, the lion’s share of the hours happened right after her hiring.
The lack of Lewis badging in for the later shifts was about as far as those attorneys were able to go before Lewis grew combative and forced the attorneys to stop the deposition.
A second deposition, held the next month, did not even get that far before Lewis again became defensive.
Lewis also refused to answer questions about her employment with Rose when WFTV stopped by her home last week.
Orlando city administrators confirmed it would be a violation of city policy for employees to campaign while on the clock, and said they weren’t aware of any violations of that policy when asked about Lewis’ work with Rose.
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