Under two successive elected officials, this office adamantly refused to prosecute white collar crime and corruption, refusing to prosecute former St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS for dumping 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated solid waste in our Old City Reservoir, refusing to prosecute Sunshine and Open Records violations, including irrefragable, videotaped Sunshine violations by of the Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County Chair Barbara Bosanko (spouse of the former County Attorney Daniel Bosanko) and another Mosquito Control Commissioner, Charles Crist political appointee Linda Wampler. SAO's estimable and ungracious Deputy Bennett Ford once advised me to "call the Sheriff" about county government lawbreaking. Cute. Voters rightly rejected this smarmy smart-aleck when he ran for Public Defender.
The discretion to choose to prosecute or not to prosecute alleged crimes rests with an elected State's Attorney and his hired attorneys. Except in West Virginia, this discretion is absolute.
Not every technical crime is prosecuted.
So when I read yesterday of the prosecution of Michel Pawlowski, the father of a St. Augustine Beach Ciy Commissioner Undine Pawlwski, for registering to vote here for his daughter, I had to wonder -- why? Is this payback? Is this how Ralph Joseph Larizza and his henchmen choose to celebrate Father's Day?
Based upon the Michel Pawlowski prosecution, I seriously question the priorities, ethics, values and morality of the State's Attorney's office and Ralph Joseph Larizza.
Was this payback for Commissioner Undine Pawlowski winning a $10,000 judgment against former Commissioner Frank Charles for a client?
Was this payback for Commissioner Pawlowski winning unanimous adoption of both Fair Housing and employment nondiscrimination ordinances for St. Augustine Beach, including protection for GLBT people?
Was this prosecution requested by KKK and St. Augustine Rod & Gun Club members to keep GLBT people "in line" and discourage us from being "out" and active in politics?
I wonder.
St. Johns County was long run by racist, sexist homophobes, leading the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to call it the "most lawless" place in America, leading to the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, on June 18, 1964.
Our overpaid St. Johns County Commissioners refused in 2008 to protect GLBT people in the proposed County Charter (we defeated the charter twice).
Our overpaid St. Johns County Commissioners have not yet ever even debated a Human Rights ordinance. The cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach, the Anastasia Mosquito Control District and Sheriff David Shoar are light years ahead of these lugubrious goobers (all known Republicans).
Our overpaid Republican State's Attorney Ralph Jospeh Larizza owes his election to the entrenched local political machine, and thus to KKK and Tea Party intolerance.
One need only read the homophobic reader remarks directed against Commissioner Undine Pawlowski on the St. Augustine Record website to ask the question -- is this a prosecution or a persecution?
We need an open public debate about the nature, structure and performance of our State's Attorney's office, its refusing to prosecute white collar crme and corrupon, and its now possibly being used as a bullet in the gun of racists, homophobes, political dirty tricksters and retaliators.
What policies, practices and procedures does the SAO have to prevent retaliatory prosecutions?
Does SAO have a nondiscrimination policy based on sexual orientation and gender identity?
If not, why not?
What do you reckon?
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