A Florida city’s former attorney gives up his law license. He abused a friend’s daughter

The former city attorney for Jacksonville Beach has been essentially disbarred while on probation for child abuse. The victim: the daughter of a family who considered Christopher Ambrosio “a brother, an uncle, a best friend.”

That’s from the victim’s family’s letter to Duval Circuit Court before Ambrosio, 51, received a five-year probation in September after being convicted of willful child abuse. Ambrosio’s probation runs until Sept. 8, 2027, a few months before he can apply for readmission to the Florida Bar.

Before the Bar could fire up a disciplinary case against Ambrosio over his criminal conviction, he applied for disciplinary revocation. As the state Supreme Court says, that’s “tantamount to disbarment” and kills the professional discipline cases pending against the attorney. It has no effect on any civil or criminal cases arising from the attorney’s actions.

The disciplinary revocation goes into effect Dec. 12.

READ MORE: Wine, women and texts: bad behavior that got a Florida attorney suspended

‘Ambro is making me very uncomfortable’

The arrest form by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office investigators says Ambrosio had been a friend of the family for 30 years on Feb. 19, 2021. When Ambrosio and the daughter, who was between 12 and 16, texted each other and set up a hangout at which they would go to the gym and eat pizza, the family dropped the girl off with Ambrosio at a Whole Foods Market parking lot.

After going to Planet Fitness, the arrest form said, Ambrosio and the girl went to Publix, where investigators say video surveillance and a receipt show Ambrosio bought White Claw hard seltzer and Smirnoff.

The girl said once back at Ambrosio’s place, she hopped into the bathtub. Ambrosio told her to keep a door unlocked. Uneasy with this, she said, she wore a bikini into the tub. Ambrosio gave her an open White Claw and sat on the toilet to talk to her. She said when she got up to leave, he asked her to try on another bathing suit and show it to him.

She said thought she thought this was weird, she did it. When she returned, the lights were out, Ambrosio’s clothes were off and he was in the bathtub. She told police he tried to pull her bikini bottom down over her physical objections. He eventually succeeded, she said, and touched her inappropriately for several seconds.

She said she got out of the bathroom and texted one of her parents from the bedroom. The detective writing the arrest report claimed to have seen the text and that it said:

“Ambro is making me very uncomfortable and it’s scaring me. Can you please come pick me up? I was in the bath then I got out and Ambro completely took his pants off and got in and then made me put on my bathing suit and started touching me in inappropriate places. Can you come pick me up?”

Once read his Miranda rights (“You have the right to remain silent, etc...”) after being brought in by investigators, the arrest report says Ambrosio “immediately told us that he’s the city attorney for the City of Jacksonville Beach and that he knows lots of police. He continued to mention how he knows the Police Chiefs and works closely with them.”

The arrest form says Ambrosio “changed his version of events several times” to investigators. He denied requesting the modeling of the bikini, the push-pull of the bottom and any inappropriate touching.

When asked why she’d make such an accusation, the report says Ambrosio told the detective, “she is very manipulative and that she has been manipulating him for two years.”

He also told investigators “numerous times” he thought the girl had a crush on him and fantasized about him.