Former Port Richey Councilman Receives Probation

PORT RICHEY, FL — A former Port Richey city councilman has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty in December to conspiring with the former Port Richey mayor.

Terrence Rowe, 65, received two years of probation, 50 hours of community service and was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation.

Rowe was charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice after a March 3 jailhouse phone call with former Mayor Dale Massad was recorded. During the phone call, the two men discussed retaliating against an undercover Port Richey Police officer who posed as a patient needing Massad's medical services. At the time, Massad had been stripped of his duties as mayor and Rowe had been appointed acting mayor of the city.

Both men were later suspended from office by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

A former medical doctor who gave up his license to practice after the death of a patient, Massad, 69, was under investigation for practicing medicine without a license. He was accused of performing surgical procedures at his home and ordering drugs over the Internet.

In the early-morning hours of Feb. 21, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office SWAT Team went to Massad's Port Richey home to serve him with a warrant from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. When SWAT Team members knocked on Massad's front door, they said Massad fired on them.

Massad remains in the Land O' Lakes Detention Center awaiting trial on attempted murder charges. In June, he was found guilty of conspiracy to corrupt justice and misusing a two-way communications devices. The date of his trial on attempted murder charges has not been set.

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