SEBASTIAN — City Council candidate Joseph Scozzari is trying to avoid any last-minute surprises by explaining why, 31 years ago, he became a convicted felon.

Scozzari said he was a 17-year-old single father who owned and operated pony rides in New York. He and a group of four others decided to take nine saddles from a vacant barn. The saddles belonged to some judges and attorneys and the young Scozzari and the others ended up arrested.

Scozzari said the others could afford lawyers, but he had a public defender who told me he was facing some time in prison if convicted of burglary.
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