Waiting on responses to interview and document requests:
(two typos corrected)
Dear Ms. Dixon, Messrs. Komando Garrison and Bradley, General Gleason, General McVay, General Weilhammer, St. Johns County and Leon County State's Attorneys Larizza and Campbell,Mr. Patty, Ms. Gonzalez et al.:
A. Our St. Johns County Attorney, Mr. RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO, is a corporate lawyer. His corporate law firm represents corporate criminal defendants and corporations doing business with Florida governments. I object. KOMANDO's law partners include the incoming Florida Speaker of the House and the Chair of the St. Johns River Water Management District, a former State Senator, who is married to a current State Senator.
B. BRADLEY, GARRISON & KOMANDO, P.A. partner RICHARD CHRISTIAN KOMANDO is our County Attorney. In 2024, KOMANDO refused to answer questions or provide his client list to elected St. Johns County Commissioner Ann Taylor, who is now our County Commission Vice Chair. KOMANDO's clients include two roofers, the Slaughter Brothers, convicted of federal income tax fraud, wire fraud, and workers' compensation fraud. https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/nov/27/jacksonville-roofers-plead-guilty-to-wire-mail-and-tax-fraud/
C. Would you please be so kind as to e-mail me today:
1. the complete list of every single one BRADLEY, GARRRISON & KOMANDO, P.A. law firm and OAK STRATEGIES lobbying clients?
2. any and all verbal or written performance ethics opinions, conflicts checks, complaints, legal research and investigations by St. Johns County, Clerk of Courts, Florida Attorney General, Florida and St. Johns County Inspectors General, State's Attorneys, Florida Attorney General, and BGK and OAK STRATEGIES?
D. I wrote our St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners on March 17, 2025 (items renumbered):
1. Conflicts of interest must be scrupulously guarded against. See, e.g., United States v. Mississippi Valley Generating Co., 364 U.S. 520, 548 (1961)("the 'Dixon-Yates' case," involving TVA rivals' conflicts of interest in a proposed Memphis, Tennessee government-owned coal-fired powerplant), citing Matthew 6:24 -- "no [person] can serve two masters," holding that laws and rules preventing conflicts of interest are aimed "not only at dishonor but at conduct that tempts dishonor."
2. All conflict of interest laws are based upon Matthew 6:24 ("A man cannot serve two masters"), which the unanimous Supreme Court decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren deemed to be both a "moral principle" and a "maxim which is especially pertinent if one of the masters happens to be economic self-interest."
3. {Speaker-elect SAM GARRISON's law partner] Mr. [RICHARD CHRISTIAN] KOMANDO unilaterally refuses to disclose the identity of his law firm clients, not client confidences. His overbearing assertion of privilege is unadorned by any citation to any court or ethics opinions on lawyers who are government employees. This flunks the "laugh test." It also flunks the "smell test." Mr. KOMANDO said he would not apply for the permanent County attorney position. Now, aving applied for the permanent position, Mr. KOMANDO is in no position to withhold information that is materially relevant to his suitability to be our St. Johns County Attorney. Mr. KOMANDO is acting as if he were the judge in his own case. This is so wrong.
4. James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 10: "No [person] is allowed to be a judge in [his/her] own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity. With equal, nay with greater reason, a body of men are unfit to be both judges and parties at the same time . . . ."
5. The United States Supreme Court held in In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 136 (1955) (Black, J.), "[O]ur system of law has always endeavored to prevent even the probability of unfairness. To this end no man can be a judge in his own case and no man is permitted to try cases where he has an interest in the outcome." See also TWA v. Civil Aeronautics Board, 102U.S. App. D.C. 391, 392, 254 F.2d 90, 91 (1958). Spencer v. Lapsley, 20 How. 264, 266 (1858); Publius Syrus, Moral Sayings 51 (D. Lyman transl. 1856) ("No one should be judge in his own cause."); Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, Letters and Opuscules 182 (Wight transl. 1859) ("It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in his own cause."). As William Blackstone wrote, "[I]t is unreasonable that any man should determine his own quarrel," 1 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 91 citing Dr. Bonham's Case, 8 Rep. 114a (C.P. 1610); see also City of London v. Wood, 12 Mod. 669, 687 (1701)(Lord Holt)(invalidating fine for refusal to serve as sheriff recovered by the city in its own court of Mayor and Aldermen). See also Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Lavoie, 475 U.S. 813 (1986)(overruling case where Chief Justice of Alabama Supreme Court wrongfully sat in judgment of case that would set precedent for his own pending case); Ward v. Village of Monroeville, 409 U.S. 57 (1972); Gibson v. Berryhill, 411 U.S. 564 (1973); Withrow v. Larkin, 421 U.S. 35 (1975); Cinderella Career and Finishing Schools, Inc. v. FTC, 425 F.2d 583 (D.C. Cir. 1970); American Cyanamid Co. v. FTC, 363 F.2d 757 (6th Cir. 1966); SCA Services, Inc. v. Morgan, 557 F.2d 110 (7th Cir.1977).
6. Being a secretive developer "team player" is not a bona fide occupational qualification in hiring a County Attorney.
E. By copy of this e-mail, I repeat my repeated requests for all five (5) County Commiioner to provide verbal and written performance perfrormance evaulations of the County Attorney. Mr. KOMANDO has encumbered the position for some 640 days -- one year, nine months and one day (first as Interim, with no other candidates considered, and no public performance evaluation.
Thank you.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed Slavin
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
(904) 377-4998
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