Having worked in law enforcement, specifically investigative work, it is very frustrating to present a case and have the prosecutor (State Attorney’s Office/SAO, or in this case the grand jury) refuse to take it. My experience was in the 20th Judicial Circuit, but the principle remains the same regardless of location. As a homicide investigator, at one point the SAO told me there was no case law to support a felony murder charge, so I found case law, and from that point on included it in my reports. What I got then was not to put case law in reports since it gave defense attorneys an advantage. 🙂

Another time I worked a fraud case involving a pregnant suspect in another county. I obtained a taped confession post-Miranda warning from her and they refused to prosecute. I obtained an arrest warrant to close the case and they actually tried to complain about me doing that. Before I retired, I joked about having to make a case against the SAO and the suspect. Things got so bad we had to get a stamped receipt for every piece of paper we sent to them, otherwise they would claim to never have received it. 🙁

In this case, as I noted, the law was/is very clear. It’s unfortunate ordinary people can understand the law was violated and where the buck stops, but those few on a GJ could not (also agree with your voter comment below). Having sat on one myself, I know they are composed of all levels of legal & general knowledge. It was frustrating to have to explain in one case how since someone was shot, that even though no gun was recovered, the person they had indicted for the shooting (a convicted felon) also violated the law re: possession of a gun by a felon. Lawyers will tell you a jury is unpredictable, and a grand jury is no different.

I do agree with you that it may have been better to have another agency investigate due to the perception of improper influence, but ultimately for an elected official, the GJ makes the decision regardless of who investigates.

P.S.

Fortunately voters got it where the grand jury fell short.

I have to disagree with you because Sheriff McNeil was too close to the people being investigated and had conflicts galore.

So it was tainted from the get go. I stand by my statement that Gillum and Daniels misused City funds and should have been held accountable.

“I guess you missed Andrew Gillum’s antics, Dustin Daniels antics, Sheriff McNeil doing a slanted investigation of Gillum and Daniels, and the other Non-Stop corruption self-promoting and nonsense.”

As the one that filed the criminal complaint against the former Mayor, I disagree with your conclusions regarding the LCSO in this incident. I met with a competent investigator, the complaint was fully investigated, and then presented to the grand jury as I had requested. It was there that the ball was dropped IMO. As an example, despite clear evidence that Mr. Gillum had used personal funds to buy the software before holding office (this is knowledge that it was not OK to use tax dollars for it), the grand jury decided to give him a pass. They were also confused by the lack of accountability inherent in the City of Tallahassee’s purchasing process. I saw that firsthand when I had filed a public records request for red light camera data in 2014. My request was cut from several items to just a couple of items w/o explanation or the name of the person that did it.

Nice try, Jon, but I don’t see it and you didn’t critique them sufficiently.

This column has Maddox written all over it … you can’t even write a column without being the mouthpiece for Maddox.

Mr. Dobson has his work cut out for him and luckily for him Maddox had to use campaign funds to pay for his services..

I don’t think Maddox is going to wiggle out of this one even with Mr Dobson.

Thank you News Maven for the post. I wrote this article last week. I think Mr. Dobson on behalf Mr. Maddox may prevail on the extortion allegations. Note that this motion does not address the charges listed in my paragraph above that begins “Where the greater…”.

Hope,

Apparently you failed to do a simple google search using both of our names. I have in the past critiqued three Florida Democratic Party Chairs, an Executive Director of the same, and, a pair of Mayors.

I been public on my critiques. Frankly, to return the favor back to you, I never say you at my side when I did.

Your comment is unjustified and betrays an lack of awareness.

Jon M. Ausman