Special prosecutor files charges against former Sheriff’s Office finance director (SAR)

By Jared Keever
Posted Dec 12, 2018 at 5:46 PM
Updated Dec 13, 2018 at 6:01 AM
St. Augustine Record

A special prosecutor on Friday filed charges in circuit court against the former finance director from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office as the agency’s financial scandal continues to unfold.

Raye A. Brutnell is now facing 11 felony charges stemming from the fraud and embezzlement investigation that culminated with her arrest in mid-November.

If convicted on all charges and sentenced consecutively, she could face up to 150 years in prison.

The investigation into Brutnell’s handling of the Sheriff’s Office’s finances began around Nov. 14 when St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar enlisted the aid of investigators from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office after he said two employees raised concerns about a handful of vendor accounts being paid through agency’s finance department.

Within days those investigators had secured a warrant for Brutnell’s arrest on 163 charges including grand theft, organized scheme to defraud in excess of $50,000, various counts of criminal use of personal identification, and 52 counts each of forgery of bank checks, uttering a forged check, and official misconduct.

She turned herself in at the Flagler County jail on Nov. 20 and was released later that day after posting bonds totaling $265,000.

The warrant affidavit for her arrest asserted that Brutnell, over about a 5-year period, stole more than $700,000 from the Sheriff’s Office and its employee benevolence fund by creating at least four fraudulent vendor accounts and issuing checks to them.

According to information in the affidavit, the investigators found that the names and information related to those accounts were often slight variations of names or addresses of Brutnell’s close family members and that “several” of the checks written to those accounts had been deposited into Brutnell’s bank account.

Because of Brutnell’s position within the agency and because her husband is an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who once worked in St. Johns County, 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza requested Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor saying that the couple is known to him personally and professionally.


Scott appointed 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brian Haas to handle the case.

Assistant State Attorney Jake Orr, the spokesman for that office, said Wednesday that the consolidation from 163 charges down to 11 is not a sign that the 47-year-old Brutnell is getting special treatment but was a judgment call made by prosecutors to pursue charges of “strong, very serious crimes given the underlying facts of the case.”

“We filed the charges that we felt were appropriate to get us where we need to be,” he said.

Orr, whose wife Nicole Orr filed the 11-count information, cited the 150 years of prison time that Brutnell is currently exposed to and pointed out that one count of criminal use of personal identification that she is facing carries a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence. A similar charge in the information carries a five-year mandatory minimum.

In all, Brutnell is charged with one count of grand theft in excess of $100,000 for money she is said to have stolen from the Sheriff’s Office as well as a single count of grand theft in excess of $20,000 for money believed to have been taken from the benevolence fund.

Other charges include executing a scheme to defraud a financial institution, two counts of criminal use of personal identification, and single counts each of fraudulently creating or using counterfeit or fictitious personal identification information, official misconduct, forging a bank bill, uttering a forged bill, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and failure to apply solicited charitable contributions.

Brutnell is scheduled to appear in court in St. Johns County for arraignment on Jan. 7.