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| In the iconic opening credits sequence of 1977's Saturday Night Fever, John Travolta "struts" down the New York street, carrying a can of paint. |
I'm not a lawyer but I know several of them and I can read.
So when I read the letter sent to law enforcement by the County Attorney in the aftermath of the recent data breach/theft of county records from the IT department-----I paid close attention to it. The letter was sent to the State Attorney's Office in June, and a certain statute referenced in there piqued my interest. § 817.5685.
This theft of information from the county which prompted the letter-- which breach subsequently led to confidential, private, privileged information being unlawfully possessed and disseminated by former county employee Jonathan Owens, a fact that he himself has admitted on the radio and in the news paper and a fact the attorneys for Rayme Edler have also confirmed --this theft is now being investigated by law enforcement.
And I am confident the authorities will find the guilty party who stole this protected, exempt information--whoever it was.
But even if someone other than Jonathan Owens actually stole the information and records (which I do not believe), and simply provided them to Jonathan while he was an employee of the county, as he, Jonathan, has publicly stated--it does not absolve Jonathan of any wrongdoing under this statute--because according to this statute--the operative word is "possessed". Jonathan admitted to the PNJ in this article and on the radio on Tallman McKay's show that he not only read the text file and continues to possess it--- he's also subsequently given it to others un-redacted.
Because he read it--Jonathan knew or should have known it contained exempt and personal identification information that should not only never be released--it should never even be possessed by anyone not specifically authorized to have it. Jonathan is not authorized to have it--and he knows it.
A thorough review of this file that Jonathan Owens unlawfully possessed, read, and then released un-redacted has now been completed--- and it has been revealed that this file contains more than 100 lines of exempt information. (social security numbers of multiple persons, bank account numbers of multiple persons, loan numbers of multiple persons, medical conditions, diagnoses and prognoses records of at least a dozen local citizens, security codes, access codes for premises, medical records and diagnoses on dependents on the county's medical plan as well as confidential medical information on citizens unaffiliated with the county that live out of state, privileged attorney client conversations, and other sensitive information that would NEVER be released under any public records request, ever.).
So why would someone who has handled a literal ton of public records requests (Owens, who was disgraced former D2 commissioner Doug Underhill's personal secretary and office manager) and who purportedly knows the rules and laws on this topic--supposedly------why would he release such information unredacted in contravention to Florida law? Who knows, but he seems awfully proud about it. Super proud and confident. Almost as if he's strutting about it, like John Travolta in the opening scenes of "Saturday Night Fever."
So What Does Fla. Stat. § 817.5685 Say, and What Does it Mean, and what penalties does it describe for violation, anyway?
Here is the relevant portion of the statute, verbatim
"817.5685 Unlawful possession of the personal identification information of another person.—
6 comments:
Jonathan himself is about the least important component of all this, and the easiest part of it to solve.
He has already admitted to committing a crime, publicly, in multiple media sources. The crimes of possessing stolen materials and transmitting them rather than turning them into the authorities is easily investigated and prosecuted; it does not need any special tech expertise.
That it hasn't happened yet means whoever is handling it isn't pressing it or taking it seriously enough. If I were you I would have already been talking with the Sheriff's Department about it, early and often. Nobody in Escambia County is going to pursue a crime that nobody seems all that interested in having solved. You have to look out for yourself, Commissioner Bergosh, and not trust that the SAO or CA are going to get this taken care of for you if you're not invested yourself in making that happen.
The private stolen messages aren't even really the purview of the County once Jonathan transmits them, other than he was an (absentee) employee at the time he *claims* he received them. (If he claims he needs representation under the County ethics blah blah, this falls under the "egregious" category that doesn't require representation better than anything.)
Remember, you have no idea whether he actually obtained the messages as he says he did; he's already changed his story about the thumb drive once, and you can bank on it he's not telling the truth, as the past D2's m.o. is always to yell the opposite of what's true at the tops of their lungs. He, personally, is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, however, with the exception that he has admitted to a crime and that needs to be pursued, as all crimes do.
con.
The bigger problem is your IT department--that is a long standing, serious, and perhaps ongoing issue that is way more important than Jonathan's place in this. Of course he was going to do what he does; in many people's opinion including mine, he's nothing more than a low life scumbag. It doesn't take the feds to figure that out, and his transmission of stolen property doesn't even need a tech investigation. He already admitted to it; he's using that worn-out MAGA ploy of screaming the crime from the mountaintops as a defense. If nobody takes this more seriously on a local level than has happened already--meaning, you need to file a report yourself if you haven't already done so and start working with the Sheriff's Department--he'll get away with it, just as he and Doug have gotten away with so much else over the decades of their twisted union. Doug is laughing up his sleeve and enjoying the hell out of convincing Jonathan to be the standard bearer. So make him bear it--that's not difficult.
What is more important is that you guys finally get your IT department under control. The guy who went down in affidavit needs to be pressed under deposition; Bart Siders needs to be deposed, also. You still have ZERO idea how that came out of somebody's hands or came off a server. You've got the affidavit of one guy, which is geared to basically blame Debbie (what a crock). That IT side issue is (and has been) a *screaming* liability for the Board. So does the continued ineptitude of outside counsel. For my (taxpayer) money, I can't support any tax dollars going towards dragging Owens into civil court *unless* the other avenues are being more seriously pursued than they apparently are.
Commissioner Bergosh, I can tell you from hard experience that nobody is your friend in these matters once it hits the public. People may comfort you behind the scenes, but don't believe for one moment that anybody but the guy looking back at you in the mirror is really for you, other than your family. Escambia isn't stacked with brave souls and wherewithal when it comes to crimes committed by politicians or bureaucrats; I don't think it's really necessary to provide any examples of the failure to prosecute in such cases, going back many, many years. You've got to start dividing the different level categories and scenarios up in your own head and pursuing it as strongly as you can. Trust me, you can't just sit back and assume or hope that justice will be served, on any level of this. That's just not the way it rolls. Sadly.
Tonight's meeting was another embarrassing circus.
8:32--I disagree. Quite productive. But I can see why someone like you would think it was an "embarrassing circus" We had one odd looking clown in the back of the room with a nervous grin on his face. Looked like a clown, now he's going to face a court date. Wonder if this clown will have that grin on his face in the courtroom, too?
Commissioner, my comment had nothing to do with your beef with Jonathan Owens. I tuned in to see a citizen upset with a drainage issue in Bellview and he couldn't get one answer. You commissioners were making jokes, Wes Moreno gave him various times to speak and chastised him for getting off topic although Ms. Pino was given unlimited time to say whatever she wanted. She's the clown in that circus.
12:01 the citizen upset with drainage issues has a long history of stalking and harassing staff and has been trespassed off 221 Palafox Place at least once for good reason. Mr. Moreno rearranged the speaking to let staff who chose to do so go home early because of his presence. He once appeared in my backyard demanding an audience on a boat ramp issue; when I informed him that he had no right to pursue me onto my private property to discuss MAC business, he told me that was okay, since he had to hurry off for a lunch meeting with WD Childers, Mike Bass, and Larry Newsom (God rest the last two).
When you have zero knowledge of County politics and who the personalities are, combined with a stunning lack of perception and zero emotional intelligence, it's understandable that you would come to such conclusions.
I about fell off my chair laughing when somebody sent me a post of Keith Bowe talking about how your citizen was discriminated against and tagging Flood Defenders on it. Kudos to Chris Curb for informing the Clueless Club that Mr. Blewer has "not played nice in the sandbox." And also for linking to the project for drainage in his neighborhood that Commissioner Bergosh has gotten on the books but still needs some more funding. What you actually witnessed without understanding last night was the BCC handling a serial stalker and harasser of County staff in a manner that allowed him to still speak his (confused) grievances.
After the meeting he kept asking me who my attorney was in Alison Rogers's office and said he needed her name and number to sue the County. I attempted to clear up his confusion, but got nowhere, as usual. Nor did staff get anywhere with him during his numerous harangues of them prior to the meeting.
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