Guidelines

I am one member of a five person board. The opinions I express on this forum are mine only, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Escambia County Staff, Administrators, Employees, or anyone else associated with Escambia County Florida. I am interested in establishing this blog as a means of additional transparency to the public, outreach to the community, and information dissemination to all who choose to look. Feedback is welcome, but because public participation is equally encouraged, appropriate language and decorum is mandatory. Although this is not my campaign site for re-election--sometimes campaign related information will be discussed, therefore in an abundance of caution I add the following :








Monday, May 27, 2024

No True Bill : Exoneration and Vindication Part II

 

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 What is Happening Currently? 

As of Tuesday of last week all investigations by the State Attorney's office over allegations I violated the Sunshine Law are concluded and over.  No charges will be brought, no indictments are "forthcoming."

The reason I put the airquotes around "forthcoming," above,  is that there have been a lot of lies told about me and other commissioners and private citizens lately stemming from stolen county files that included 60,000 text messages and 1,600 color photographs from my phone.  

Sadly, I've recently learned that someone who ought to know better and is privy to some very sensitive, confidential scheduling of the Escambia County 2024 Grand Jury has been making public statements about when this Grand Jury would be meeting, what issues they were considering, and sadly, this same individual publicly stated "Watch for the first week in May when the Grand Jury will be deliberating on county commissioners and indicting county commissioners--it is forthcoming"  This was stated at a fundraiser at the home of former county commissioner Gene Valentino in the presence of multiple individuals--one of whom immediately reached out to me with this incredible information.  At the time this witness told me--I wasn't even aware I was going to be asked to testify before the grand jury.

Obviously this individual who made these improper pronouncements about what the grand jury would decide was dead wrong about what the outcome of the grand jury's deliberations would produce.  But this individual correctly identified both the topic the grand jury was going to deliberate and also the correct timeframe for these deliberations------ which she should not have known and if she did know---she should NEVER have shared.

Why divulge this when it is secret information??----It's deliberately, statutorily kept confidential to protect the integrity of investigations and ALSO to protect the safety of the grand jurors themselves.

I spoke about this and multiple other things with Assistant State Attorney Greg Marcille on Friday of last week.  During our conversation we obviously discussed my particular case as I had been notified Tuesday by an attorney I retained that the investigation by the grand jury concluded and "No True Bill" was rendered and the matter was closed out.  This did not surprise me--- as again--I know I did not violate any law because I am a rule following, law obeying responsible citizen. People may not like what I do, what I say, or my straightforward style.  But none of that's illegal. 

As I continued my discussion with Mr. Marcille, he let me know that the Grand Jury typically deals only with very serious cases like homicide.  He went on to let me know that any impropriety alleged against an elected official locally will likely be handed off to the grand jury--- to remove the appearance of any political influence in decisions to indict or not to indict such a sitting elected official.  

This obviously makes sense.

So next I moved our conversation to three other, emergent and important issues.  

1.)  I told him the name of the individual that divulged the correct scheduling information and topic the Grand Jury had handled.  I also told him the name of the individual who was present that let me know this had happened.  Astonishingly--Marcille said he had already been made aware of those statements at that gathering.  I am hopeful that is now being investigated.  It was improper, it was potentially an attempt to influence the grand jury, and I believe it is clearly unlawful at worst (905.27), a definite ethics violation of 112.313(8) at best. Jonathan Owens knows that one, maybe he should have discussed it with her?

Either way--it needs to be looked into and properly investigated.  And I'm confident it now will be--either by the SAO's office and/or the Florida Commission on Ethics----or both.

2.)  Next I asked him why the alleged sunshine violation from which I had been vindicated (a 2nd degree misdemeanor) had been so vigorously and publicly pursued, complete with a press release from the SAO's office?  I asked if there would similarly  be a press release on the news of the "No True Bill" which would serve as vindication?  I did not receive a direct answer to that question but I was told by Mr. Marcille that I could disclose publicly that the matter was concluded and no charges were brought.  Which I am doing here now and which I did on Friday.which I did on Friday.

3.)  Next I asked why a Felony Violation of 817.5685 by Jonathan Owens and others that illegally possess stolen county files containing protected, confidential, and personal identification information had apparently been "jumped over" to instead, apparently, vigorously investigate this alleged 2nd degree misdemeanor some had alleged I committed?  Jonathan Owens admits in the media he has possession of personal identification information from improperly conveyed (stolen) county files.  He further stated he has read them, and "held onto them" improperly once he left county employment in 2022.  This is information he admits he possesses on more than a dozen Escambia County Citizens. He took this from the county and divulged unredacted to multiple entities.  He admits this on radio and in the PNJ and it is clearly a Felony------- so why is this not yet prosecuted?  3 members of my family have now had fraud on their accounts over the last 8 months--this should be investigated!  That was my question.

Much more on all of this to come, beginning at 7:00 AM tomorrow when I appear as the lead off guest on Real News with Rick Outzen on AM 1370 WCOA.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who was publicly divulging information about grand jury proceedings?

Anonymous said...

Total and complete cluster $&ck of a county commission

Mel Pino said...

I'll repost what I replied to Rick's blog this morning, after listening to your interview, Commissioner Bergosh.
----------------

Doug Underhill didn’t fail to turn over hundreds of public records, FYI. It was *thousands*. Around 13 thousand failures to fulfill public record, if memory serves. All in black and white, on the federal docket, in front of God and everybody.

No indictment.

So maybe now that a bunch of people in the SAO have investigating a nothing burger off their hands, they could find a little time to prosecute the crime-ridden past D2 office?

Again, A FEDERAL JUDGE HAS RULED DOUG UNDERHILL INTENTIONALLY WITHELD THOUSANDS OF PUBLIC RECORDS. Jonathan Owens has bragged about his crimes to multiple media outlets. Seriously, what gives?

I personally turned over a half dozen public record requests to the SAO that Doug outright refused to fill–they even had my requests logged in their PRR database as “zero” importance. Larry Downs and I sat and discussed this with two separate prosecutors, first Greg Marcille and then Tom Williams. Over and over, they put us off on why they couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything about it.

WHY aren’t these blatant crimes prosecuted when brought to the SAO on a silver platter? Why allow your office to be led by the nose by a bunch of deranged local Facebook lunatics?

Maybe this is why Mike Kohler refuses to fulfill my public records request with him, and leaves it to the County Attorney. Because when we don’t vigorously uphold our laws of transparency, and instead treat Sunshine and public record statutes as political baubles to either bat around for the enjoyment of social media cranks, or let gather camouflage under the dust of years in the corner, bad actors chip away at our rule of law little by little. And along with that war of attrition against our rule of law goes not just their accountability, but the public’s trust.

Boy would it be nice to get a little of that trust back.