Monday, October 30, 2017

It's Morning in St. Augustine -- Change Comes to the St. Augustine Record Under GateHouse




The St. Augustine Record posted the full text of the indictment on Facebook after  TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN PAUL JOHN MANAFORT, JR. was taken into FBI custody today and served with an indictment for conspiracy against the United States, false statements, money laundering and tax fraud.

It's been only 28 days since GateHouse acquired the Record from MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS.  The Record was among only a few newspapers to endorse President* Asterisk DONALD JOHN TRUMP, the Russian dupe.  The WRecKord was the only newspaper in the Western world not to carry on its front page the election of President Barack Obama the day after the 2008 Presidential election.

I'm pleased as punch that GateHouse now owns our local newspapers.   I'm tickled pink that the those dull Republican crypto-fascist TRUMP-endorsing clowns at MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS no longer have a voice in editorial endorsements in St. Johns County.  The air is already cleaner.

It's morning in St. Augustine and St. Johns County!  

Three cheers for GateHouse!  Time to report the news without fear or favor, comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and finally win some Pulitzers, folks!

As Tennessee's late liberal lion United States Senator Albert Gore, Sr.,  said on Election Night in 1970, "The truth shall rise again!"

By the way, those four Medici lions at our historic Bridge of Lions are  liberal lions.  Check out their names:  Firm and Faithful (west end) and Peace and Happiness (east end), gracing what has been regarded since 1927 as "the most beautiful bridge in Dixie."






I've filed a civil rights complaint against State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA -- Justice for Rosetta Bailey!

I wrote our U.S. Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III FBI Director Christopser Wray, the Florida Supreme Court Inspector General, the Director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, et al. to investigate coverups by Seventh Circuit State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA.  

Seventh Circuit State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA with Sheriff DAVID SHOAR 


Here's the complaint:


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin
To: Voting.Section ; christopher.wray ; executiveinvestigationscomplaints ; Inspgenl ; bsimmons ; david.brown
Sent: Mon, Oct 30, 2017 4:40 pm
Subject: COVERUP, CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, BY STATES ATTORNEY RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA?

Dear Attorney General Sessions, FBI Director Wray, Special Agent Brown, Commissioner Swearingen, Inspectors General White and Bradley, et al.:

1. Please initiate civil, criminal and administrative investigations of our Florida Seventh Circuit State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA and his St. Johns County staff, including Messrs. VALERIY AVENESOV and CHRISTOPHER SCOTT FERREBEE, for possible civil rights violations, official oppression under color of law, obstruction of justice and prosecutorial misconduct in their October 27, 2017 Nolle Prosequi filing in the misdemeanor battery case of State of Florida v. LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA, Case No. 17000559MMMA.  
2. On Election Day (November 8, 2016) St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN's Campaign Manager (also his good friend and neighbor),  LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA, allegedly threatened and shoved Mayor O'BRIEN's only election opponent, Ms. Rosetta Bailey (twice according to one undisputed witness deposition), at the only polling place in the City of St. Augustine Beach, located at City Hall.  
3. St. Augustine Beach Police Chief Robert Hardwick and several of his officers did their jobs and honored their oaths, filing a misdemeanor battery charge against LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA with the office of the State's Attorney, RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA.  
4. Rather than prosecuting the simple misdemeanor battery case against St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager, LEONARD TRINCA, or negotiating an easy and routine misdemeanor plea bargain with former Assistant State's Attorney Patrick Canan, our Florida Seventh Circuit State's Attorney, RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, dismissed the case, apparently based on materially false statements expressed to Ms. Bailey by VALERIY AVENESOV and CHRISTOPHER SCOTT FERREBEE of his staff to Ms. Rosetta Bailey and her husband, Mr. Mark Bailey, about supposed "evidence" and claimed difficulties in proving the case "beyond a reasonable doubt."   The two SAO attorneys: 
(a) Relied on three (3) unreliable hearsay affidavits from rival politicians, which were procured by TRINCA's defense counsel (from Mayor O'BRIEN's, ex-Mayor ANDREA SAMUELS and her husband, ROBERT SAMUELS, all of whom were located far away, and not in a position to observe or hear what TRINCA did and said.  
(b) Materially misrepresented the deposition testimony of another witness, who was standing close to TRINCA and Ms. Bailey.    





5. Was this case "fixed?"  Prosecutor RALPH LARIZZA's actions brandish contempt for our democracy. 
6. State's Attorney LARIZZA'S lax law enforcement is a stench in the nostrils of our Nation.  That was established beyond peradventure in the wake of the September 2, 2010 shooting of Michelle O'Connell in the home of St. Johns County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Banks, with Banks' setvice weapon (which the world knows about thanks to indefatigable investigative reporting by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Bogdanich and The New York Times).  See, e.g.:
7. LARIZZA's Nolle Prosequi in State v. Trinca will only encourage violence.  It will empower politically-connected bullies to commit assaults and batteries upon political candidates and activists here in notoriously corrupt St. Johns County, Florida.  It is an invitation to commit torts and crimes and violate Americans' civil rights.   
8. Please investigate. Please read more, below. Ms. Bailey's telephone number is 561-929-4311.

Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-377-4998

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>

Sent: Mon, Oct 30, 2017 9:43 am
Subject: Re: CASE-FIXING, SEXISM AND INCIVILITY IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA STATE'S ATTORNEY'S OFFICE? -- State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute


Dear Mr. Larizza:
Please respond today.  


Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>
Sent: Sat, Oct 28, 2017 5:38 pm
Subject: Re: CASE-FIXING, SEXISM AND INCIVILITY IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA STATE'S ATTORNEY'S OFFICE? -- State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute















Dear Mr. Larizza:
1. You never contacted Ms. Rosetta Bailey, the alleged victim of LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA's (St. Augustine Beach Mayor Richard O'Brien's campaign manager) and  his alleged Election Day (November 8, 2016) battery at the St. Augustine Beach City Hall polling place.  Why did you refuse to meet with or speak with Ms. Bailey?
2. Instead, our Clerk of Court's online records reflect that our Seventh Circuit State's Attorney office yesterday (October 27, 2017) filed a Nolle Prosequi, dismissing this case without trial or plea bargain.  Why?
3. You ignored Ms. Bailey's request (below) to meet with you -- you neither met with the crime victim nor shared that Nolle Prosequi document with her.  Why?  
4. That document cannot yet be viewed on the Clerk's website, but I have requested that it be disclosed.  
5. Please explain yourself.  
6. Please apologize to Ms. Bailey and to her husband for your staff's behavior.  See below.
7. Please explain your refusal to follow NDAA's National Prosecution Standards.
8. You have the right to remain silent, but I wish you wouldn't.
9. Please call me to discuss this case and sexism, misogyny and corruption.
10. The appearance of favoritism, prejudice and case-fixing here in St. Johns County is indefensible, and must be ended at once.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>
Sent: Fri, Oct 27, 2017 12:55 pm
Subject: SEXISM AND INCIVILITY IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA STATE'S ATTORNEY'S OFFICE? -- State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute



Dear Mr. Larizza:
1. I am mystified by the manner in which your subordinates mishandled this misdemeanor battery case, 
where the St. Augustine Beach Mayor's campaign manager shoved his election opponent at the City Hall polling place on Election Day (November 8, 2016).  . See below.
2. If you have any sense of decency, sir, you will agree today to meet with Ms. Rosetta Bailey, who wrote you earlier.  See Ms. Rosetta Bailey's letter, and my e-mails, below.    
3. How would you feel if it were your mother (or your wife or your daughter or your sister) who was shoved by Defendant LEONARD TRINICA at her polling place on Election Day?   
4. How would you feel if your prosecutors behaved toward one of them as they did to Ms. Bailey -- 

A. Refusing to meet with her before her deposition, inexplicably rejecting her reasonable request? 


B. Forbidding her to tape her own deposition, agreeing with defense counsel, unsupported by any legal authority?
C. Making only one (1) objection during her entire deposition and adopting a passive attitude?

D. Keeping her in the dark about the status of her case? 

E. Dropping (of "fixing") the case as a result of straining to find "reasonable doubt" based on: (a) misreading of one deposition, and (b) three (3) unreliable inadmissible hearsay affidavits from three (3) rival politicians (provided by the zealous defense attorneys for the defendant millionaire businessman campaign manager, neighbor and friend of St. Augustine Beach Mayor Richard Burtt O'Brien)?

4. Our St. Johns County law enforcement is all too often sexist and misogynist, as was exemplified by your office's mishandling of the September 2, 2010 shooting death of Michelle O'Connell in the home of St. Johns County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Banks, with his service weapon, a case that will always live in infamy and remains a stench in the nostrils of our Nation (thanks to dogged investigative reporting by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Bogdanich and The New York Times).  See, e.g.:
5. Enough.  Early next week, before the November 3, 2017 docket call before Judge Christine, will you please meet with Ms. Rosetta Bailey, the crime victim you were elected and sworn to protect?
___ Yes
___ No
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: Rosetta V. Bailey <rvbailey@aol.com>
To: easlavin <easlavin@aol.com>; larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>
Sent: Fri, Oct 27, 2017 11:48 am
Subject: Re: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute

Mr. Larizzar, 
I would appreciate a meeting to discuss this matter that involved my physical encounter with Leonard Patrick Trinca on election day 11/8/2016 
Thank you for consideration. 

Rosetta Bailey


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>
Sent: Thu, Oct 26, 2017 10:17 am
Subject: Re: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute


Dear Mr. Larizza:
1. May I suggest that you kindly recuse yourself?  
2. Will you please ask Florida Governor Richard Scott to appoint a special prosecutor for this case, involving battery of a woman political candidate at a polling place by her opponent's campaign manager?  
3. That would help solve the problems created by your St. Augustine staff.
4. Please call me for an interview to discuss our State's Attorney office's behavior toward the battery victim, St. Augustine Beach City Commission candidate Ms. Rosetta Bailey.Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
To: larizzar <larizzar@sao7.org>
Sent: Wed, Oct 25, 2017 3:05 pm
Subject: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca, 17000559MMMA -- St. Augustine Beach Mayor O'Brien's Campaign Manager Allegedly Assaulted Candidate Rosetta Bailey and State Attorney Larizza Won't Prosecute




Dear Mr. Larizza:
1.Why does our Florida Seventh Circuit State's Attorney office say it is dropping charges against criminal Defendant Leonard Patrick Trinca, after apparently failing to consult the St. Augustine Beach Police Department? (See SABPD e-mail, below).

2. Criminal Defendant Leonard Patrick Trinca, who was St. Augustine Beach Mayor Richard Burtt O'Brien's campaign manager, allegedly assaulted Ms. Rosetta Bailey, who was Mayor O'Brien's opponent, on Election Day (November 8, 2016) at the St. Augustine Beach City Hall polling place.  SABPD brought charges. Yet your office is not even obtaining a plea bargain.  Why?
3. Your office failed to prepare the victim for her deposition, rejecting her request for a meeting. Why?
4. Your office assigned an inexperienced attorney who lacks empathy. Why?
5. He told the victim to "tear up" the paperwork on the November 3 docket call and not to attend a public hearing.  Why?
6. He relied on inadmissible unreliable affidavit hearsay from Mayor O'Brien, ex-Mayor Andrea Samuels, et ux in refusing to do its job.  Why?
7. Your office has sent a threatening message debasing our political process, empowering connected bullies like Leonard Patrick Trinca to throw their weight around and harass, intimidate, and terrorize our political candidates at polling places.  Why?
8. Please call me for an interview.  I left a message for you yesterday morning with the receptionist in your St. Augustine office (after your staff treated Mr. & Mrs. Bailey with disdain and disrespect, after making them wait for 30 minutes.)  
9. Please show cause to County Court Judge Alexander Christine for your desuetude of law enforcement in this case at the November 3, 2017 docket call, in open court, with time for Ms. Bailey to be heard. 
10. Kindly consider reversing your St. Augustine office staff's repeated errors and prosecute this case personally.
11. The stain of corruption in St. Johns County is indefensible, and must be ended at once.  The whole world is watching us as a result of the Michelle O'Connell case.  See, e.g.:
12. From this day forward, will you please agree to comply with the National Prosecution Standards adopted by the National District Attorneys Association?
___ Yes
___ No
13. You've repeatedly stated in e-mails to me that you don't have a copy and won't follow NDAA's National Prosecution Standards.  Why?
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998


-----Original Message-----
From: Kathi Harrell <harrellkm@sabpd.org>
To: Ed Slavin <easlavin@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, Oct 25, 2017 11:54 am
Subject: RE: Request No. 2017-601: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca

After a reasonable review, the St. Augustine Beach Police department has found no records responsive to your request.
Kathi M. Harrell
Administrative Lieutenant
St. Augustine Beach Police Department
2300 A1A South
St. Augustine Beach, Fl 32080
904-471-3600 Fax 904-471-0737
accreditation artwork
LEGAL NOTIFICATION: Florida Sunshine Statutes entail very broad public records
requirements (F. S. 119). As required by law, all e-mails to and from the St. Augustine Beach Police Department are subject to public record. Your e-mail
communications, including your e-mail address may be disclosed to the public and media at any time. If you have received this communication in error, do not
distribute it. Please notify the sender immediately by electronic mail and delete.
From: Robert Hardwick
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 4:41 PM
To: Kathi Harrell <harrellkm@sabpd.org>
Cc: Thomas Ashlock <ashlocktl@sabpd.org>
Subject: FW: Request No. 2017-601: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca
From: Ed Slavin [mailto:easlavin@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2017 3:10 PM
To: Robert Hardwick <hardwickra@sabpd.org>
Cc: rvbailey@aol.comthomasfreynolds@yahoo.comwaltbog@nytimes.com
Subject: Request No. 2017-601: State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca
Dear Chief Hardwick:
Please send me any documents on any SABPD contacts with the Seventh Circuit State's Attorney office on its questionable decision to drop the case of State of Florida v. Leonard Patrick Trinca (assault on City Commission candidate Rosetta Bailey on Election  Day, November 8, 2016 at St. Augustine Beach City Hall.  Were you consulted?
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998

"No criminal charges in St. Pete's 1 billion gallon sewage crisis" -- despite 89 felonies & 103 misdemeanors, over 13 months (Tampa Bay Times)

States' Attorney Bernie McCabe's refusal to prosecute any St. Petersburg, Florida city managers stinks on ice.

Pusillanimous state and federal prosecutors always go soft and squishy whenever governments commit environmental crimes.

On July 11, 1983, I was the only witness testifying in a hearing before then-Representative Albert Gore, Jr  to call for criminal prosecution of Union Carbide and Department of Energy federal managers for 4.2 million pounds of mercury dumped into East Fork Poplar Creek in East Tennessee without permits or warnings (and into workers lungs and brains without respirators, at 30-60 times the then-prevailing standard for mercury pollution in the air), at the Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

No one was ever prosecuted there, or at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Colorado,  where FBI Special Agent Jonathan Lipsky executed a search warrant establishing massive illegal pollution. (The Rocky Flats Grand Jury was prevented from indicting anyone there.


No criminal charges in St. Pete's 1 billion gallon sewage crisis

ST. PETERSBURG — No city employees will face criminal charges as a result of the massive sewage discharges of 2015-16, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe announced on Friday.
But that doesn't mean no crimes were committed. In fact, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators said they found evidence that 89 felonies and 103 misdemeanors were committed as the city befouled itself over 13 months.
Its overwhelmed sewage system released up to 200 million gallons of waste into neighborhoods and waterways. Tens of millions more were pumped underground.
The FWC report said the city pumped 700 to 800 millions gallons underground, the first time that tally has been reported. That means St. Petersburg released a total of up to 1 billion gallons during the sewage crisis.
"The scale of this illegal wastewater discharge is unprecedented in state history," FWC investigator Ammon Fisher wrote in the report.
FWC blamed the long-term problem on the city's two-decade failure to invest in and maintain its sewage system. But in the short-term, the report blamed the decisions made by the administration of Mayor Rick Kriseman leading up to and during the crisis.
The state launched the investigation on Oct. 23, 2016 and finished the report last week on Oct. 19. McCabe's office received it the next day.
He said the final report — largely the same as the draft he received in July — does not identify individuals who may be responsible for the discharges. Thus there is no one to prosecute.
"There's a where. There's a when. There's no who," McCabe said. "It would totally be a waste of time and resources to hold the city criminally accountable."
Further, the county's top prosecutor said, a consent decree the city reached over the summer with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to spend $326 million to fix the sewage system should remedy the problem. The city has already spent $70 million on repairs.
The FWC delivered the report to McCabe's office a week ago, amidst an intense and expensive mayoral race. Former Mayor Rick Baker has wielded the sewage mess like a cudgel against Kriseman. The report was made public Friday, the day before early voting starts Saturday and 11 days before Election Day.
"On November 7th voters have an opportunity to hold Rick Kriseman accountable for his grossly incompetent leadership," Baker campaign director Nick Hansen said in a statement.
The Kriseman campaign did not return a request for comment.

TAMPA BAY TIMES COVERAGE: ST. PETERSBURG SEWAGE WOES


St. Petersburg City Council member Charlie Gerdes, a Kriseman supporter, said he thought the flurry of recent bad news for the city had been designed to hurt the incumbent's re-election hopes. FWC declined to comment on timing of the report's release.
"Too much has happened in too much of a contracted period of time," Gerdes said.
The Tampa Bay Times this week also reported that the city pumped 15.5 million gallons of partially-treated sewage underground last month as a result of Hurricane Irma. It was the biggest discharge since the 2015-16 mess — one the city did not disclose until recently. The Times also reported the city is losing millions of gallons of water from its system, but officials aren't sure why.
Gerdes also applauded McCabe's decision: "I firmly believe there were errors in judgment that were definitely made. I don't think anybody had any intent to break the law. Nobody made a conscious decision to break the law."
The Florida Democratic Party, which has campaigned heavily for Kriseman, also issued a statement accusing Gov. Rick Scott of manipulating state agencies for political advantage. Kriseman has highlighted partisanship in this officially non-partisan race, while Baker has received substantial financial support from GOP donors.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find the political motivation here," the statement said.
State Rep. Kathleen Peters, a South Pasadena Republican, who called for a state investigation at the height of last year's spills, said Friday that the report's conclusions were damning.
"I was absolutely infuriated," Peters said.
The final FWC report expands on the earlier version's blistering assessment of the city's maintenance and decision-making related to its sewer system over 20 years (which would include Baker's tenure in City Hall) but focused mainly on the recent discharges.
The report specifically criticized Kriseman's decision not reopen the shuttered Albert Whitted sewage plant after the initial spills in 2015. The City Council voted in 2011 to close it and the Kriseman administration carried out that plan in 2015, leaving the city with three sewage plants.
"What is not contestable, is the fact that an operational (Albert Whitted) would have significantly mitigated the discharges from (Southwest) and (Albert Whitted)," the report said.
In addition to the 100 million or so gallons of controlled discharges made into Tampa Bay, the city also spilled nearly 100 million more gallons in the neighborhoods and streets around the Northwest sewage plant in west St. Petersburg and at its Southwest plant near Eckerd College.
The up to 800 million gallons that was pumped underground was done so using injection wells throughout the city, at the Northeast, Northwest and Southwest plants.
"The continual disregard for compliance with the Clean Water Act has put the ground water at risk," the report concluded.
Contact Charlie Frago at cfrago@tampabay.com. Follow @CharlieFrago.
No criminal charges in St. Pete's 1 billion gallon sewage crisis 10/27/17 [Last modified: Saturday, October 28, 2017 1:01am] 
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