No True Bill: Exoneration and Vindication Part I

Tuesday of this past week I was fully and completely exonerated of doing anything illegal associated with the news articles and allegations surrounding the stolen and improperly released county files and text messages that had been used as some sort of "evidence" I violated the Florida Sunshine Law.  

I was investigated for months and months over allegations I did things I did not do--- and accusations that I committed crimes I did not commit. 

Of course I knew I was innocent.  I follow the law.

This past Tuesday an 18 member Grand Jury looked over all of this and declined to prosecute due to the fact there was no evidence I committed a crime.  They issued a "No True Bill."  I have requested this public record from the clerk and she and her attorney have refused to send a signed copy of it to me.  Instead, I have obtained the above copy in the interim from the office of the State Attorney.

So how did this happen? 

Back in December several false accusations were made about me very publicly in an orchestrated "hit"  designed to effectively ruin my reputation and destroy me politically.  Reckless, Irresponsible, and reprehensible.   

Making matters worse--these histrionics were perpetuated by a then employee of the county, Steve Stroberger, and his boss, sitting county commissioner Mike Kohler.  

Sure, everyone saw it for what it was.....It was a set up job from the get go, played to maximum effect at what was supposed to be our jovial and festive Christmas meeting, the last meeting of the year somewhere before Santa Clause Spoke and then again after the Grinch gave the BCC cookies and a proclamation.  Stroberger's cringe-worthy antics can be viewed in minute 13:53 of this video. Then his boss, Mike Kohler, piled on with this garbage at minute 12:40 of this video.

These two, the commissioner and the secretary, took their best shot at me, writing letters and emails to the Governor demanding I be removed from office and simultaneously demanding an investigation of me by the State's Attorney over what these two geniuses decided unilaterally was a "Sunshine Law Violation" and a "clear case of Gerrymandering!" (of course they were dead wrong, but I digress...)

This was the conclusion these brainiacs reached after they read a PNJ hatchet job and some stolen county text messages that had been manipulated.

"You should resign!"  Said the commissioner's secretary. (He was hoping I would to make his run for my seat all the easier.  Not going to happen)

The real reason this happened was that Steve Stroberger wants to win my seat so He and his boss together can run the west side of Pensacola--and like Doug Underhill and Jonathan Owens in 2020--they want D2 to run D1.  So they took a kill shot at me with baseless allegations I committed a sunshine violation based on stolen messages that were manipulated.  Truth?  Who cares about that!  They just want to win an election!

Ain't going to happen.

So, within a week of that ugly spectacle of a meeting  right before Christmas-- the Office of the State Attorney committed to looking into the matter and issued a press release stating this.  Multiple news articles covered their announcement.  And they did investigate.  And they subpoenaed my unadulterated copy of my iPhone backup. And they referred the issue to the Grand Jury.

Meanwhile, I cooperated every step of the way and understood that everything on my iphone's backup that had been stolen (60,000 + text messages and more than 1,600 color photographs) was subject to inspection for evidence of any crime.  

I had actually already signed an unconditional writen release allowing for this unfettered search of these files six months earlier (nearly a full year ago now) when Law Enforcement met me and the County Administrator in my office on June 11th of last year.  They were there with the FBI confiscating county servers and files after it was learned that someone at the county stole confidential, privileged and personal identification information from the county's IT office and disseminated it inappropriately and unlawfully, unredacted, to multiple persons over state lines and to multiple lawyers at multiple firms actively involved in litigation against the county.  And yes--you guessed it--some of the data in the stolen files was protected attorney-client privileged information related to that particular litigation.  (That is the reason former D2 Secretary Jonathan Owens is now facing a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge and as much as a $20,000.00 sanction at the Florida Division of Ethics because in their opinion probable cause exists that he violated Florida Statute 112.213(8).)

 Much more interesting and current information on this weird and surreal situation in part II.