ConnectWise co-founder David Bellini's name has been cleared, and no charges related to his February 11 arrest will be filed, according to a statement from Bellini's attorney, Todd Foster of Todd Foster Law Group.
According to a statement from Foster to ChannelE2E:
The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office declined to file any charges against David Bellini, absolving him of all charges. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement Crime Laboratory confirmed that details relating to Mr. Bellini's arrest were inaccurately reported by the arresting officer. The arrest of David Bellini for drug trafficking was wrong and damaging to his reputation and business.
Unfortunately, as a matter of public record, the information that allegedly supported Mr. Bellini's arrest was picked up by multiple news organizations and incorporated into their published articles beginning on Monday with severe and dire consequences to Mr. Bellini personally and his family. The impact of this error cannot be understated, or sadly, easily undone.
David was unjustly charged as a drug trafficker and was subject to significant public humiliation. He is a father and long standing, local area businessman, whose attempt at relief from chronic pain had turned into a dependency problem - he is among millions in the country looking to address similar issues with expert help. Now that David has been rightly cleared of any crimes, he can focus on restoring his health and family relations and work to restore his reputation, sullied by this egregious error.
We would very much like to thank the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office for their prompt and fair attention to David's situation.
Signed,
Todd Foster
Todd Foster Law Group
Deeper details about the case, including potential police errors, surfaced on TampaBay.com. Amid that backdrop, David Bellini is taking an indefinite leave from ConnectWise to address his use of prescription and non-prescription pain medications, according to a February 12 statement from the company. "David has been suffering chronic pain for several years and has unfortunately fallen prey to overuse of these substances," the company said at the time.
David Bellini had overseen ConnectWise's international business. Gregg Lalle, VP of International Sales, essentially takes on that role and reports to CEO Arnie Bellini.
David and brother Arnie Bellini co-founded ConnectWise in 1982 as an IT consulting firm. The company spun-off a software business — focused on IT automation — in the 1990s. More recently, the software business has acquired and built a suite of tools to help MSPs and technology solutions providers automate their businesses and manage customers’ IT systems.
