June 20th Jury Trial in William Rosenstock Case -- Retaliation by St. Augustine Beach for First Amendment Protected Activity?

Several of our local governments are acting like lawbreakers, once again, persecuting 73 year old First Amendment hero William Rosenstock, at the behest of one of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's henchmen, St. Augustine Beach Civic Association President WILLIAM JONES.

 A County Court jury will decide on this case in June.





BILL JONES (SAR)


St. Augustine Beach Civic Association (SABCA) President WILLIAM JONES, one of St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's henchmen (demoted to civil process server after misusing computers to research political opponents), tore up Mr. Rosenstock's picket sign in 2014 and was not prosecuted. In 2015, JONES procured retaliatory prosecution of former St. Augustine Beach Code Enforcement Board Chair William Rosenstock, whom I consider to be a First Amendment Hero.

St. Johns County Court Judge Charles Tinlin has set jury selection for June 20, 2016 in the misdemeanor "stalking" persecution of former St. Augustine Beach Code Enforcement Board Chairman William Rosenstock.

The misdemeanor case was filed by the St. Augustine Beach Police on advice of State's Attorney R.J LARIZZA and at the behest of the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association, which has attacked Mr. Rosenstock's First Amendment protected activity for years.



Mr. Rosenstock has opposed a no-bid $1/year lease for a City of St. Augustine Beach building to the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association, leading to a meltdown and nastiness from SABCA power ANDREA SAMUELS, Mayor of St. Augustine Beach from 2013-2015.

Run by WILLIAM JONES, Andrea Samuels, her husband Robert Samuels a de facto political action committee that wields political power, supports Republican candidates, opposes reformers, holds Wednesday night concerts and Wednesday morning farmer's markets and election year candidate forums, and gave $500 to support a half-penny sales tax increase.

When SABCA President WILLIAM JONES tore up a picket sign Mr. Rosenstock was holding in 2014, the State's Attorney dropped charges.

When SABCA wanted Mr. Rosenstock prosecuted, the State's Attorney did SABCA's bidding, bringing a textbook case of retaliation for First Amendment protected activity.

Mr. Rosenstock was arrested for "stalking" the same day he published a letter to the editor of the St. Augustine Record, thanking all five St. Johns County Commissioners for rejecting the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association's unconstitutional "First Amendment Zone" at Pier Park August 4th: Mr. Rosenstock was a hero. That same day, the heels in our local political and prosecutor establishment decided to make an example of Mr. Rosenstock.

At the behest of controversial St. Johns County Sherif DAVID SHOAR's civil process server WILLIAM JONES (President of the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association), St. Augustine Beach Police Department Commander James Parker targeted, threatened telephonically and investigated Mr. Rosenstock for making protected disclosures about a Farmer's Market vendor, concerning his licensure status and whether he was a convicted sex offender.

Commander Parker told me that he was given legal advice to file the stalking charge by the office of Republican State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, which was apparently unaware that "defamation" has not been a crime since the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, which abolished criminal libel.

This is par for the course for the maladroit mediocre 85-lawyer, four-county Seventh Circuit State's Attorney's office, which earned nationwide publicity for complicity in the coverup of the September 2, 2010 shooting death of Michelle O'Connell.

Commander Parker testified at a April 5, 2016 hearing before County Court Judge Charles Tinlin that he admitted in a discovery deposition that he was unaware of the First Amendment petition clause, allowing citizens to petition their government for a redress of grievances.


Sharing SABPD Commander Parker's insouciance toward or unawareness of the First Amendment is County Court Judge Charles Tinlin, who wrote an unscholarly unenlightened April 11, 2016 order refusing to dismiss the bogus charge, unadorned by any reference to the First Amendment right of Mr. Rosenstock to make disclosures to government agencies.

Mr. Rosenstock is represented by attorney Thomas Elijah Cushman, whose scholarly ten page motion had little evident effect on Judge Tinlin, who denied oral argument so that he could go to a doctor appointment on Anastasia Island, joking about heavily congested traffic in St. Augustine those days.

(However, Judge Tinlin did promise on the record that he would not sentence Mr. Rosenstock to jail if he were convicted of "stalking.")

Not writing about the First Amendment issues and cutting the hearing short, Judge Tinlin denied justice to a whistleblower, violating his First Amendment rights. Our local state court judges do not have law clerks or attorney-advisors. Why? Who benefits?

This leads some of them to follow the course of least resistance and rule for the more powerful party -- the prosecutor, the employer, the landlord, the bank or other large organizations.

Judge Tinlin is thus far unopposed for re-election this year. Will anyone run against him?

Local lawyers in Southern towns like St. Augustine, Florida are afraid to run for judge or prosecutor out of concern for their livelihoods and their life expectancy.  Most local lawyers practice in one or a few courthouses, and fear "making waves," preferring to make money.  Is justice served when lawyers and judges cower to power?

Meanwhile, State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA is appearing on radio station WSOS this week, but no calls are being taken.

Perhaps the host, former federal inmate Kevin Geddings, will ask LARIZZA about the immortal words of Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis in his epic 1928 dissenting opinion in Olmstead v. United States: "Decency, security and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperilled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."

The FBI Corruption Task Force (SA Dave Brown) in Daytona Beach is ready to take your information and ready to take corruption cases to a Federal Grand Jury.


BILL JONES (SAR)

CHRIS FRANCE (SAR)