Wednesday, November 04, 2026

ANNALS OF DeSANTI$TAN: Charges refiled for accused creator, distributors in fake voter guide case in St. Johns County. (First Coast News,

From First Coast News:


Charges refiled for accused creator, distributors in fake voter guide case in St. Johns County

The five defendants in the St. Johns County fraudulent voter guide scandal will now face charges in county court.
The authentic 2024 voter guide is on the left. The phony voter guide is on the right.
Credit: Jessica Clark
The authentic 2024 voter guide is on the left. The phony voter guide is on the right.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Five people, including two elected officials, are once again facing charges related to a fake voter guide scandal in 2024 in St. Johns County, according to court records.

On Monday, Nov. 2, the State of Florida refiled charges in the case against current county commissioners Sarah Arnold and Christian Arnold, former St. Augustine mayor Dylan Rumrell, Jamie Johnson, and Brianna Jordan.

The five are once again facing two misdemeanor counts of criminal conspiracy and unauthorized voter guides.

The initial charges against the five defendants were filed in civil court. 

(Ed's note: WRONG -- Monopolistic GANNETT has know-nothings running its newspapers.  They meant to say Circuit Court and not "civil court."  What lugubrious goobers.)

However, because all misdemeanor charges were dismissed without prejudice, they could be refiled in county court.

Jordan, the woman accused of creating the falsified guide, had also faced a felony charge of tampering with evidence, but that charge was dismissed with prejudice.

Arnold, Whitehurst, and Rumrell saw their charges dismissed in early October, while Jordan's charges were dropped at the end of the month.






Read text of refiled FDLE Fraudulent Voter Guide Criminal Case Against Three Elected Officials and Their Apparatchiks

Here is full text:




IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT

IN AND FOR ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA

| |

STATE OF FLORIDA, CASE NO.:

FDLE Case #: EI-32-0288 |

Vv. I

, BRIANA MAUREEN JORDAN |

| JAMIE LYNN JOHNSON

CHRISTIAN GERARD WHITEHURST

: SARAH SALLEY ARNOLD |

DYLAN ANDREW RUMRELL,

Defendants. |

ee |

| SWORN AFFIDAVIT |

| COUNT 1: TAMPERING WITH PHYSICAL EVIDENCE |

FLA. STAT, §918.13(2)(A) |

THIRD DEGREE FELONY

COUNT 2: UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES - |

FLA, STAT. §106,1436 |

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COUNT 3: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY |

| FLA. STAT. §777.04

| SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COMES NOW, Your Affiant, Special Agent Supervisor Adam Graff of the Florida Department |

| of Law Enforcement, who, being duly sworn makes the following statements under oath: |

BACKGROUND

Your Affiant, Special Agent Supervisor (SAS) Adam Graff, has been a sworn law enforcement |

officer for over 25 years and has received training for and/or conducted investigations related to |

election crimes, public corruption, burglary, narcotics, vice activities, property crimes, financial |

crimes, fraud, fencing operations, money laundering, racketeering violations, and violent crimes. |

Page 1 of 13 :

Filed 07/06/2026 03:37 PM with the Clerk of the Circuit Court, St. Johns County, Florida, DIN: 6

Filed 11/02/2026 04:37 PM with the Clerk of the Circuit Court, St. Johns County, Florida, DIN: 7

Your Affiant is currently employed as a Special Agent Supervisor with the Florida Department

| of Law Enforcement and is currently assigned to the Election Crimes Unit of the Office of |

Executive Investigations. |

Your Affiant is empowered to conduct investigations of violations of the criminal laws of the |

State of Florida, including those enumerated in Chapters 106, pertaining to violation of election }

laws. Your Affiant believes that the laws of the State of Florida have been violated, specifically |

those laws enumerated in Florida Statutes Section 918.13(2)(a), Tampering With Physical |

Evidence, Florida Statutes Section 106.1436, Unauthorized Voter Guides, and Florida Statutes |

Section 777.04, Conspiracy.

In investigating this case, Your Affiant has participated in this investigation and/or has |

personally interviewed those whose information is set forth herein, and/or has reviewed reports !

of interviews or other investigative information prepared by others appearing in this affidavit. |

As a result of Your Affiant’s participation in this investigation and/or reports, oral and written, |

given by other law enforcement officers, and Your Affiant’s review of relevant records, Your |

Affiant is familiar with the circumstances of the offenses described in this affidavit.

Your Affiant has probable cause to believe and does believe that the laws of the State of Florida |

relative to: Tampering with Physical Evidence, Section 817.568(2)(a), Florida Statutes, Third |

Degree Felony, Unauthorized Voter Guides Section 106.1436, Florida Statutes, First Degree |

Misdemeanor, and Criminal Conspiracy, Section 774.04, Florida Statutes, Second Degree |

Misdemeanor have been violated by the above-named suspects. Your Affiant's reasons for so |

believing are as follows:

STATEMENT OF PROBABLE CAUSE |

Investigation revealed that between August 1, 2024 and August 15 2024, Brianna Jordan |

coordinated and conspired with Jamie Johnson, Christian Whitehurst, Sarah Arnold, Dylan |

Rumrell, and others create fraudulent voter guides using the name, logo, and likeness of the St.

Johns County Republican Executive Committee (SJREC) without permission, The fraudulent |

guides portrayed candidates for the 2024 Republican primary as being endorsed by the SJREC, |

Page 2 of 13

when they were not actually endorsed. At a campaign house, located at 1351 Grant St, St. |

Augustine, FL, the aforementioned defendants placed the fraudulent voter guides into envelopes, !

without return addresses, and sent them to thousands of registered republican “super voters” in |

St. Johns County, FL. Upon learning that the fraudulent voter guides had been reported to law |

enforcement for investigation, Brianna Jordan destroyed evidence of the incident by burning the |

fraudulent voter guides in the backyard of campaign house on Grant St. |

On August 12, 2024, the Florida Department of State, Office of Election Crimes and Security |

(OECS) received an election complaint in reference to fraudulent voter guides in St. Johns |

| County, FL. The complaint, which had been forwarded via the Republican Party of Florida |

(RPOF), was on behalf of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee, The !

complaint provided the following:

e On June 6, 2024, the SJREC held a meeting for the purpose of voting on the endorsement !

of political candidates for the 2024 Republican Primary Election to be held on August 20, |

2024, (Note that early voting for the 2024 Primary Election was scheduled to take place |

between August 9, 2024 and August 17, 2024). As a result of that meeting, the SIREC |

chose to endorse the following candidates for political office:

o Mara Macie, US House of Representatives, District 5

a Gerry James, Florida Senate, District 7 |

o Kim Kendall, Florida House, District 18 |

o Ann-Marie Evans, St. Johns County Commissioner, District |

o Clay Murphy, St. Johns County Commissioner, District 3 |

o Ann Taylor, St. Johns County Commissioner, District 5 |

o Francis Cummings, St. Johns County School Board, District 2 |

o Linda Thomsom, St. Johns County School Board, District 5 |

* Upon selection of the candidates to receive the SJREC’s official endorsement, the SIREC |

created an official voter guide. The official voter guide listed the officially endorsed |

candidates, as well as the statutorily required disclaimers and the St. Johns County |

“GOP” logo. The SJREC printed out 20,000 voter guides, which were delivered to voters |

by SJREC related personnel during neighborhood outreach events. |

Page 3 of 13 |

* On August 9, 2024, the SJREC began receiving complaints from citizens that had |

received fraudulent voter guides. The fraudulent voter guides listed that they were from |

the St Johns County GOP, however there were no statutorily required disclaimers as to |

who had paid/or created for the guides. The guides also displayed the St Johns County |

GOP logo, except that the logo was a reverse color scheme from the official logo. The |

fraudulent voter guide listed the following Candidates, all of whom were not endorsed by |

: the SJREC: |

| o Tom Leek, Florida Senate, District 7 .

| o Nick Primrose, Florida House, District 18

o Darryl Boyer, Florida House, District 19 |

o Jim Priester, St Johns County Sheriff |

o Brandon Patty, St Johns County Clerk and Comptroller

o Christian Whitehurst, St Johns County Commissioner, District | |

o Roy Alaimo, St Johns County Commissioner, District 3 |

o Henry Dean, St Johns County Commissioner, District 5 |

o Lynn Straughan, St. Johns County School Board, District 5

o Tamara Renuart, State Committeewoman |

¢ On August 12, 2024, an interview was conducted with Denver Cook, Chairman of the |

SJREC. Mr. Cook provided the same information contained in the initial complaint. Mr. |

Cook further advised that no one outside the SJREC had been authorized to use the St. |

Johns County GOP logo. Mr. Cook provided Your Affiant with four of the fraudulent |

voter guides, which were not in any envelopes, as well as 26 envelopes containing :

fraudulent voter guides that had been mailed to citizens registered as Republicans in St |

Johns County, FL. A review of the envelopes showed that the items had been mailed |

from a post office in Jacksonville, FL (Duval County) and Orlando, FL (Orange County).

Mr. Cook did not know who had created or mailed the fraudulent voter guides. Mr. Cook |

also provided a copy of the SJREC press release concerning the fraudulent voter guides, |

which was made due to the confusion created by them. |

e Approximately 135 houscholds in St. Johns County made complaints to the SJREC and |

provided the SJREC with the fraudulent voter guides and associated envelopes. |

Page 4 of 13 |

On August 12, 2024, an additional complaint was made by Nick Primrose, candidate for Florida |

| House of Representatives.

Investigation revealed that between February of 2023 and August of 2024, numerous individuals |

conducted political campaigns for elected offices in St. Johns County, FL. Some of the

candidates employed either Front Street Consulting, LLC or Saint Strategies, LLC to assist with

| the operations of their political campaigns. Front Street Consulting and Saint Strategies were |

| shown on Sunbiz.org to be owned/operated by Brianna Jordan. The following political

candidates utilized Jordan’s companies: |

| «Tom Leek, Florida Senate, District 7 |

e Nick Primrose, Florida House, District 18 |

. e Darryl Boyer, Florida House, District 19 |

e Jim Priester, St Johns County Sheriff

e Brandon Patty, St Johns County Clerk and Comptroller |

. © Christian Whitehurst, St Johns County Commissioner, District 1

| e Roy Alaimo, St Johns County Commissioner, District 3

e Henry Dean, St Johns County Commissioner, District 5 |

During the course of the campaigns, the SJREC Executive Board made a decision to endorse |

: candidates for the 2024 Primary Election, to be held on August 20, 2024. On June 6, 2024, the |

| SJREC held meeting for its membership to vote on which candidates to endorse for the primary |

| election. That vote resulted in the SJREC endorsing candidates not represented by Jordan, |

| Between the SJREC vote, on June 6, 2024, and August 1, 2024, Jordan developed a scheme to |

| negate the SJREC’s endorsement of the opposing candidates. Jordan’s scheme consisted of |

7 creating a voter guide that mimicked the SJREC official voter guide. Jordan used the same logo

as the SJREC: however, she reversed the color from white lettering on a red background to red |

lettering on a white background, Jordan did not include any of the statutorily required language |

to identify who created or paid for the production of the voter guide. :

Page 5 of 13

On August |, 2024, Jordan conducted a “Secret Envelope Stuffing” operation at 1351 Grant St,

St. Augustine, FL. This location was a residence, rented by Jordan, to be used as a campaign |

| headquarters. The operation consisted of individuals, under the direction of Jordan, placing the

| fraudulent voter guides into envelopes. Pre-printed labels, with the addresses of registered |

Republican voters in St. Johns County, were then placed on the envelopes. Jordan then used US |

postage stamps on the envelopes, instead of metered postage, in an attempt to conceal the origin |

of the fraudulent voter guides. The envelopes were then mailed from post offices in Orlando, FL |

and Jacksonville, FL in a further attempt to conceal their origins. The postmark dates on the

envelopes were from August 5, 2024, to August 15, 2024. [t was determined that Jordan

obtained in excess of 10,000 fraudulent voter guides and purchased approximately 20,000 US

postage stamps.

On August 15, 2024, Your Affiant contacted Nick Primrose by phone. Mr. Primrose had |

submitted a complaint regarding the fraudulent voter guides. Mr. Primrose advised that he had

utilized Jordan to assist in his political campaign in St. Johns County. Mr. Primrose advised that |

his campaign had received a request from Jordan to provide a volunteer for an envelope stuffing |

operation starting on August 1, 2024. Mr. Primrose advised that they provided one of their |

volunteers, Kyler Carpenter, to help Jordan, On August 9, 2024, Mr. Primrose and his wife |

received one of the aforementioned fraudulent voter guides. On August 12, 2024, Mr. Primrose |

was approached by Kyler Carpenter. Carpenter advised Mr. Primrose that he was present at

Jordan’s “campaign headquarters” when the fraudulent voter guides were placed into envelopes. |

Mr. Primrose then called and confronted Jordan about the fraudulent voter guides, Jordan |

initially denied any involvement with the fraudulent voter guides but later made admissions to |

creating and mailing them. Mr. Primrose advised he terminated his contracts with Jordan at that |

time. The phone calls between Mr, Primrose and Jordan were confirmed via Jordan’s phone |

records, which were obtained for this investigation, via subpoena. |

On August 15, 2024, Your Affiant made contact with Tom Leek. Mr. Leek had contacted the |

FDLE concerning the fraudulent voter guides. Mr. Leek advised that he had received third-party |

information from Mr. Primrose about Jordan’s participation in the fraudulent voter guides. Mr. |

Leek advised that he did not authorize anyone, including Jordan, to publish the fraudulent voter |

Page 6 of 13

guides on his behalf. Mr. Leek advised that he discontinued using Jordan’s services after |

receiving this information about her involvement in the fraudulent voter guides. |

On August 21, 2024, Your Affiant conducted an interview with Kyler Carpenter, Carpenter was |

represented by his attorney, Timothy Miller. Mr. Carpenter advised that he had been a volunteer :

with the Primrose campaign. Mr. Carpenter stated that he was asked to help Jordan with a |

“Secret Envelope Stuffing” operation at the campaign headquarters, located at 1351 Grant St, St. :

Augustine, FL. Carpenter advised that he arrived at that location on August 1, 2024 at 0800

hours and was there for at least five hours. Carpenter advised that the operation consisted of him |

and Garrett Davis, an employee of Jordan’s, sitting at the dining room table placing the |

| fraudulent voter guides into envelopes and sealing them. The envelopes were then taken into the

living room, where address labels and postage stamps were placed on them. Mr, Carpenter was |

| shown a photograph of the fraudulent voter guides and was able to confirm that they were the |

same items he placed in the envelopes. Mr. Carpenter identified the people involved in the |

fraudulent voter guide operation as: |

e Brianna Jordan was overseeing the operation |

| * Jamie Johnson assisted with operation.

e Garrett Davis was an intern and assisted with placing the fraudulent voter guides in the |

envelopes. Davis also participated in taking the fraudulent voter guides to the post office |

: to be mailed. |

® St. Johns County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst was assisting placing labels and |

stamps on the envelopes containing the fraudulent voter guides. Whitehurst’s mother !

was also present and assisted with the fraudulent voter guide operation, as well as

| possibly helping to mail the envelopes. |

¢ St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Armold was assisting with placing labels and |

stamps on the envelopes. Arnold also had her children present with her at the campaign |

headquarters while assisting the operation. |

° St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell was assisting with placing labels and stamps |

on the envelopes, |

Page 7 of 13 |

On February 27, 2025, Your Affiant conducted an interview with Jamie Johnson at her |

residence. Johnson confirmed that she had worked for Brianna Jordan and Front Street |

Consulting during the 2024 Election. Johnson advised that she was originally working for |

Jordan on behalf of the Jim Priester campaign. Johnson advised that she was present when the |

| fraudulent voter guides were placed into envelopes and mailed to voters. Johnson was shown a |

photograph of the fraudulent voter guide and confirmed it was the same voter guides being |

mailed by Jordan. Johnson advised that Jordan had created the fraudulent voter guides using an

online program called Canva. Johnson did not know where Jordan had the fraudulent voter |

guides printed. Johnson estimated that about 10,000 fraudulent voter guides were created and

mailed due to Jordan purchasing 10,000 US postage stamps. Everything done with the |

fraudulent voter guides was done by hand to prevent them from going through a machine and :

lessen the chance that fraudulent voter guides/envelopes could be tracked. The envelopes were |

mailed by Jordan and Garrett Davis at the post office. Johnson advised when the story about the

fraudulent voter guides aired on the local news channels, Jordan panicked and started to burn the |

remaining fraudulent voter guides in the back yard of the Grant St, address, while Johnson and |

Davis were present. Jordan took the remaining fraudulent voter guides, that had not been

bummed, to her residence in St. Petersburg to destroy the evidence. Johnson believed that Jordan |

created the fraudulent voter guides due to her being frustrated with the SJREC not backing the |

“right people”, Johnson advised the following people took part in the fraudulent voter guide

operation: |

e St. Johns County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst |

* St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold |

e St. Augustine Beach Dylan Rumrell |

e Brianna Jordan |

¢ Garrett Davis |

e Kelly Harrison, campaign manager for the Priester Campaign. |

On February 28, 2025, Your Affiant conducted and interview with St. Augustine Beach Mayor |

Dylan Rumrell. Mayor Rumrell was shown a photograph of the fraudulent voter guide. Mayor |

Rumrell advised that he had previously seen the fraudulent voter guide due to receiving one in |

the mail. Mayor Rumrell denied seeing the fraudulent voter guide at any other time, Mayor |

Page 8 of 13 |

Rumrell admitted to going to the Jordan’s campaign house several times during August of 2024. |

Mayor Rumrell advised that he was assisting Henry Dean with his political campaign and the

purpose of the visit for Jordan was to view “campaign advertisements and videos” for Henry |

Dean, Mayor Rumrell denied any involvement with the fraudulent voter guides, |

On March 8, 2025, Your Affiant received and returned a phone call from Jamie Johnson. |

Johnson advised that she had been contacted by Jordan earlier in the day. Johnson advised that

Jordan asked her if she had been interviewed by an FDLE investigator yet. Johnson informed |

Jordan that she had not been interviewed, however she was aware that FDLE was looking for |

her. Johnson stated that Jordan instructed her not to speak with FDLE. Jordan further advised

Johnson that she (Jordan) would provide and pay for an attorney for Johnson. Johnson indicated

that Jordan was going to be talking to the other subjects involved in the investigation. Phone |

records were later obtained for Jordan, which confirmed that Jordan had spoken with Johnson on |

March 8, 2025. The records also showed that Jordan had been speaking with Whitehurst and

Arnold during the same time frame. |

On October 1, 2025, Your Affiant conducted an interview with Garrett Davis and his attorney, :

Steve Alexander. Mr. Davis had been provided with a Use Immunity Agreement by the Office |

of Statewide Prosecution. Mr. Davis confirmed that he was an intern for Jordan from July, 2024 |

to August, 2024. Mr. Davis was shown a photograph of the fraudulent voter guide and |

confirmed that it was the same voter guides that had been mailed to voters by Jordan during the

2024 Primary Election, Mr. Davis advised that Jordan had created the fraudulent voter guides to |

“counter” the true voter guide put out by the SIREC, Mr. Davis advised that Jordan had created

the fraudulent voter guides using Canva. Mr. Davis advised that Jordan ordered between 10,000 |

and 30,000 of the fraudulent voter guides, which were delivered via an “18 wheeler” to the |

campaign house on Grant St. and later unloaded at Jordan’s residence at 1425 Los Robles Ave, |

St. Augustine, FL. Davis advised that the fraudulent voter guides were sent to voters via the US

Postal Service using first class stamps so that the mailing would not have a return address. At

the direction of Jordan, Mr. Davis mailed some of the fraudulent voter guides at a drop mailbox |

in Jacksonville, FL. After the fraudulent voter guides story aired on the local news, Jordan had |

Mr. Davis purchase a “kettle grill” from the Home Depot on US Highway 1, St. Augustine, FL.

Page 9 of 13

Jordan gave Mr. Davis cash to purchase the grill so that it would not show up on Jordan’s credit |

card. Jordan, Johnson, and Mr. Davis then burned some of the fraudulent voter guides in the

| backyard of the Grant St. address. Jordan took the remaining fraudulent voter guides back with |

: her to Sarasota, FL to destroy. The date that the voter guides were destroyed at the Grant St. |

| Address was either August 12, 2024 or August 13, 2024, Mr. Davis advised the following

| people were involved with mailing the fraudulent voter guides: |

| e Brianna Jordan was the organizer. :

« Jamie Johnson. |

e §t. Johns County Commissioner Whitehurst was shown the false voter guides and knew

he was not endorsed by the SJREC. Whitehurst was present for several days of the |

operation. |

e Whitehurst’s mother placed stamps and labels on the fraudulent voter guides, as well as |

mailed some of them at the post office. Davis did not know her name. |

e St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Amold was present and knew the voter guides |

were fraudulent. Arnold took part in placing labels and stamps on the envelopes. |

Armold’s children were present and assisted with placing stamps and labels on the

envelopes as well. |

* St. Augustine Beach Mayor Dylan Rumrell was present and shown the fraudulent voter

guides. Rumrell should have known that the candidates listed on the fraudulent voter |

guide were not the candidates actually endorsed by the SJREC, Per Davis, Rumrell was |

assisting with placing the fraudulent guides in envelopes and mailing them. |

e James “Jim” Priester was present and shown the fraudulent voter guides. Priester knew |

that he, nor any of the other candidates on the fraudulent voter guide, were not endorsed |

by the SJREC. Priester did not stuff the fraudulent voter guides into the envelope, |

however he was provided with them to place in the mail. Priester’s wife was with him :

when he received the fraudulent voter guides to mail, |

* James Kelly Harrison was shown the fraudulent voter guides, and he knew that the |

candidates on the fraudulent voter guide were not the ones endorsed by the SJREC, |

Harrison was the campaign manager for Priester. |

e A male from the Nick Primrose Campaign was present for one day of the operation. |

Davis stated he was told by Jordan that this person went back to the Primrose Campaign |

Page 10 of 13 !

and informed them about the fraudulent voter guide operation, This person was

. identified as Kyler Carpenter.

Subpoenas were obtained for Jordan’s business and personal banking accounts and credit cards.

The records confirmed that Jordan was making payments for a Canva.com account. The records |

showed that Jordan made purchases from several printing companies that would have |

corresponded with the possible purchase of the fraudulent voter guides. Jordan made several |

| large purchases from the United States Postal Service (USPS) in the amounts of$7,302 (July 24,

2024), $14,602 (July 31, 2024), and $2,802 (August 6, 2024). The records further confirmed that |

Jordan had made payments for services to Jamie Johnson, Garrett Davis, and Kelley Harrison

during the timeframe of this incident.

Phone records were obtained, via subpoena, for Jordan. A review of the phone records showed

that on August 11, 2024, after a story about the fraudulent voter guides was aired on the local |

news, Jordan made phone calls to three businesses that provide shredding services. The provider |

for each business appeared to belong to a company called “Shred Nation” that operated out of |

UPS stores. The stores were located in The Villages, Apopka, and Tampa. |

Between June 4, 2026 and June 10, 2026, Your Affiant and other FDLE Inspectors conducted

interviews with individuals who had reported turning the fraudulent voter guides to the SJREC.

Approximately 60 of the individuals interviewed remembered receiving the fraudulent voter

guides in the mail prior to the 2024 Primary Election. The individuals all resided at addresses in |

St. Johns County, FL at the time they received the fraudulent voter guides. |

Your Affiant believes that based upon the investigation in its entirety, and evidence gathered |

during the investigation, probable cause exists that the following violations of law were |

committed:

Brianna Maureen Jordan (W/F December 19, 1990): |

COUNT |: TAMPERING WITH PHYSICAL EVIDENCE |

Page 11 of 13

FLA, STAT, §918.13(2)(A) |

THIRD DEGREE FELONY

COUNT 2; UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES |

FLA. STAT. §106.1436 |

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COUNT 3: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY |

| FLA. STAT. §777.04 |

| SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR

Jamie Lynn Johnson (W/F March 27, 1980): |

COUNT 1: © UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES

FLA, STAT. §106.1436 |

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COUNT 2: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY |

FLA, STAT, $777.04 |

SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

Christian Gerard Whitehurst (W/M April 4, 1982): |

COUNT 1: UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES . |

FLA. STAT. §106, 1436 |

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COUNT 2: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY |

FLA, STAT. §777.04 |

SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

Sarah Salley Arnold (W/F September 12, 1985): |

COUNT 1: UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES |

FLA, STAT. §106.1436 !

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR |

COUNT 2: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY :

FLA. STAT, §777.04

SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR

Dylan Andrew Rumrell (W/M April 8, 1977): :

Page 12 of 13 |

COUNT 1: UNAUTHORIZED VOTER GUIDES |

FLA. STAT. §106.1436 |

FIRST DEGREE MISDEMEANOR

COUNT 2: CRIMINAL CONSPRIACY |

FLA. STAT. §777.04

SECOND DEGREE MISDEMEANOR

| WHEREFORE, your Affiant prays that an information will be issued to arrest the |

aforementioned defendants and bring them before the Court so that they may be dealt with

| according to law,

| — |

| assa

| eT eS

| Adam Grafh Sphctal Agait Supervisor |

Florida Department of Law Enforcement

The foregoing instrument was acknowledged before me by means ofphysical presence this 19" |

day of June 2026 by Special Agent Supervisor Adam Graff who has produced identification and |

who did take an oath, |

I Enforcement Officer ; |

Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Ed Slavin Guest Column: Public can fight St. Augustine "City Hall'. (St. Augustine Record, February 2, 2008)



Circa 1970, my Mother and Father and I spoke together to the Mantua Township Committee in Mantua, Gloucester County, N.J. about barrels deposited by a trucking company adjoining our ten acre property.  Our local township burghers refused to act, falsely claiming the dumping was "grandfathered."  We lost. I was about thirteen years old. Sadly, my late Father told me, as generations of hardworking Americans told their own children, "You can't fight City Hall."  Our landmark t environmental laws had not yet been enacted.  We, the People have fought authoritarians for generations, winning victory after victory.  My Dad and his 82nd ABN DIVN "band of brothers" helped liberate the first French town. from the Nazis on D-Day (June 6, 1944), before the sun even after rose that day.  After our Appalachian Observer newspaper won declassification of the world's largest mercury pollution event (Union Carbide, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 4.2 million  pounds of mercury in 1983), Dad said, "Son, you're fighting City Hall, and you're winning."   As JFK said, "the torch has been passed to a new generation."  Young people since have been fighting and winning environmental battles, and winning.  Here's the column that I published in the St. Augustine Record in 2008, after then-Editor Anne Schindler wrote in her December 18, 2007 Editor's Column in Folio Weekly, calling me an "environmental hero" for exposing the City of St. Augustine's dumping of a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir, which was a backup supply for City water, after City sunk wells in Twelve Mile Swamp).

Guest Column: Public can fight St. Augustine 'City Hall'

Guest Column: Public can fight St. Augustine 'City Hall'



Publication Date: 02/02/08


Folio Weekly termed me an "environmental hero" on illegal dumping. I merely did my job as a citizen.

Since February 2006, I have endeavored to learn about City Manager William B. Harriss and the illegal dumping. Questions were stymied by city ommissioners interrupting me with ridicule, rodomontade, and non sequiturs. Whenever a community or constituency goes to the City Commission to express their concerns, they're treated disdainfully, often leaving disillusioned, hurt. 

Commissioners' hubris is nearly fatal to democracy and our environment - including forgiving a $15,000 tree-killing fine and approving the shipping back of solid waste to Lincolnville - without allowing any public comment, violating specific promises in each case.

Violations of free speech rights are indefensible and must be ended.

America was founded by visionaries who cherished free speech: Robert F. Kennedy said that if our Constitution were written in St. Paul's style, it would say: "But the most important of these is speech."

Free speech is everywhere under attack - locally, nationally and globally. Embittered, controlling, manipulative organizational oligarchs hate dissent and retaliate, yielding to immoral, infernal lusts to "reach out, reach out and crush someone."

From Harriss to President George Walker Bush to Russia's Vladimir Putin, "they know not that they know not that they know not."

Apparently not even oligarchs' own family members are safe from "gag orders" and efforts to chill/punish dissent. Mayor Joseph Leroy Boles, Jr. allegedly told his mother Maurine (a member of our city's history advisory board) to stop commenting on public issues (after I quoted her in The Record last year as supporting the proposed St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Highway). Joseph Boles opposes "federalizing" history and park functions (neglected by our city and state).

"How low can City Hall go?" Threatening citizens with arrest, violating free speech rights, refusing to answer budget hearing questions (or televise budget hearings); attacking artists and entertainers (St. George Street and Slave Market Square a/k/a Plaza de la Constitucion); discouraging meeting attendance (removing 60 seats from the Alcazar Room); reducing your available time for public comments outside scheduled agenda items (from 8 minutes to 3 minutes per meeting); insulting persons asking questions; threatening to seek attorney fees against Dr. Dwight Hines for filing his successful Open Records lawsuit, with Boles demanding to make him "pay the piper" (our city wrongfully withheld more than 45 pounds of public records it claimed did not exist).

Where are the "sanctions"/prosecutions for City Hall's criminal, anti-social, anti-environmental, anti-worker acts?

Our St. Augustine government embarrasses us all: illegal dumping in the Old City Reservoir (risking the health of untrained employees); wasteful spending ($22 million "White Elephant Parking Garage"); and suppressing free speech. It detracts from the beauty, history and image of our town.

Michael Dukakis said, "the fish rots from the head." City managers/staff are often surly, during commission meetings actually laughing and talking on cell phones when citizens and commissioners are speaking. Where are their manners?

Our city manager and city attorney sit with their backs to the public, never shown on-camera on cable-TV, speaking without being identified by name. Employees live in fear of retaliation if they speak the truth about Harriss and his reign of ruin.

Meanwhile, our county officials are more protective and vigilant to protect free speech rights, expanding public comment rights and clarifying First Amendment rights on county property (Amphitheater/Farmer's Market, Fairground and World Golf Village Convention Center).

Virtually all-white, all-male City Hall officialdom is isolated and an anachronism.

Every time St. Augustine City Commissioners violate First Amendment rights, a part of the soul of our city dies. Our Nation's Oldest City and its history and beauty are worth saving. We need greater transparency and accountability. See Clean Up City of St. Augustine, www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com for pollution and other scandals and solutions.

Get involved. Run for office. Support reformers. Vote. Write. Speak out. 

We need a "clean sweep" - "a new broom sweeps clean." Why not display a broom in your car/pickup/lawn/porch? Prove wrong those naysayers who complain, "you can't fight City Hall."

Ask questions. Demand answers. This is advanced citizenship. Smile. It's 2008.

Ed Slavin is former legal counsel for constitutional rights with Government Accountability Project; worked for three U.S. senators (Ted Kennedy, Gary Hart and Jim Sasser); clerked for Chief Judge Nahum Litt of the U.S. Department of Labor; and wrote a biography of President Jimmy Carter for young readers (forward by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.).


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DEMOCRATS RIDE HISTORIC BLUE WAVE (WaPo)

From The Washington Post:


Tuesday, November 03, 2026

The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing. (Nieman Lab, Harvard University)

The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing. (Nieman Lab, Harvard University) 

They've ruined our local newspaper here in St. Johns County, which once encouraged debate and published our letters and column.  

Those unjust stewards at USA TODAY CO. INC., which recently changed its name from GANNETT are destroying local news.  

I grew up reading a GANNETT newspaper in South Jersey (Courier Post, and it was mediocre, but they occasionally did worthy work. 

My later mentor Nat Caldwell, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter in Nashville told me that we would rue the day when GANNETT took over his beloved Tennesseean.    

He was right,

From Nieman Lab:







The scale of local news destruction in Gannett’s markets is astonishing

It might not be as mustache-twirling a villain as Alden Global Capital, but its enormous scale has meant enormous losses for local journalism.

Gannett, America’s largest newspaper chain, should wake up each morning thankful for the existence of No. 2 Alden Global Capital.

After all, who could ask for a better point of comparison? Alden is the perfect industry villain, a faceless private equity fund dedicated to nothing but cost-cutting and cashflow-draining. Its corporate website contains a total of 21 words, nine of which are “Alden,” “Global,” or “Capital.” It’s run by a secretive billionaire who last gave an interview in the 1980s — the sort of person who can own 15 mansions in Palm Beach and still think: I could really use a 16th. 

It’s the type of company that inspires debates over whether “vulturous” is too kind of an adjective. If you’re writing an Atlantic cover story on “Who Killed America’s Newspapers?” Alden Global Capital will hand you the murder weapon, already dusted for prints.

Gannett, meanwhile, is at least a newspaper company, one more than a century old. It’s rarely been considered a particularly good one, mind you — its reputation for cheapness and cookie-cutter products go back decades. (As The New York Times described it in 1986: “a chain of mostly small and undistinguished, though highly profitable, newspapers.”) But it was at least a familiar name, run by news people and with at least some dedication to its civil role in hundreds of communities. 

When Alden attempted a hostile takeover in 2019, anyone who cared about local news was put in the unfamiliar position of rooting for Gannett. Heck, if you squinted hard enough, Gannett could almost feel like the good guy. (If only because people like to believe there is a good guy in their industry, somewhere or another.)

But “we’re better than Alden!” has its limits as a brand promise, and Gannett’s most recent annual report drives home the fact that no company has done more to shrink local journalism than it has in recent years. Let’s total up the damage — in raw numbers, if not in stories unbroken and facts not uncovered.

Vaporizing a newspaper chain in four years

While Alden failed in its bid for Gannett in 2019, it sparked a wave of newspaper industry consolidation that some had foreseen for years. Within a few months, the two largest newspaper companies in the United States — No. 1 Gannett and No. 2 GateHouse — announced they were merging. The name would remain Gannett, but GateHouse execs were mostly left in charge. 

At the end of 2018 — the last full pre-merger year — the two companies had roughly 24,338 employees in the United States and 27,600 worldwide. (Gannett also owns a small group of newspapers in the U.K.) The merger closed in mid-November 2019, by which time it had about 25,000worldwide and was diving headlong into a hunt for “inefficiencies.” 

By December 31, 2019, the combined company was down to 21,255employees in the U.S. By the end of 2020, that had dropped to 18,141. A year later: 13,800. And its most recent SEC filing reports that, as of the end of 2022, Gannett had just 11,200 U.S. employees remaining (plus another roughly 3,000 overseas). 

In other words, Gannett has eliminated more than half of its jobs in the United States in four years. It’s as if, instead of merging America’s two largest newspaper chains, one of them was simply wiped off the face of the earth. 

That’s a cut substantially deeper than the rate of newspaper revenue decline. Why? Well, one reason is that to get the merger done, Gannett had to take out a giant loan at high interest rates, meaning hundreds of millions in revenues have had to be redirected to debt payments. To put it in perspective: In Q4 2022, digital subscriptions at Gannett newspapers — all of them — brought in a total of $35.5 million. But the company spent more than that, $47.3 million, just on debt payments. (This may remind you of Elon Musk’s ongoing evisceration of Twitter, driven by the same sort of M&A debt.)

You can also see the shrinkage in the number of newspapers Gannett publishes. In 2019, post-merger, it owned 261 daily and 302 weekly newspapers. By the end of 2022, those totals were 217 daily and 175 weekly newspapers. Some of that decline is Gannett selling a few newspapers to local buyers, but a lot of it is straight-up closures. Last spring, Gannett shuttered 24 weekly newspapers here in the Boston area alone.

Circulation has evaporated

Per capita newspaper circulation has been declining in the United States since World War II, so it’s hardly shocking that it’s still dropping. If you’re The New York Times, you’ve been able to more than make up for the loss in print subscribers with digital ones. But for most local newspapers, digital gains are nowhere big enough to stop the print bleeding.

Still, Gannett’s newspapers stand out for the steep angle of their decline. 

An important caveat up front: Different newspaper companies use different standards and make different choices in the numbers they report. And those choices can change over time. Gannett has stopped reporting some of its digital subscribers to the Alliance for Audited Media, for example. And some papers still count many more non-paying readers than others. Comparisons across papers and years are always going to be imprecise — but these are the numbers they’re reporting to the industry body.

Here are Sunday circulation numbers for (pre-merger) Gannett’s largest local newspapers, according to the company’s own filings with AAM. 

Let’s compare Q3 2018 to Q3 2022:

Every Gannett paper here saw a circulation decline of at least 52%. The average drop across these papers is an incredible 67%. [See update below.]They’ve lost two-thirds of their reported circulation in four years’ time.1

How bad is that? To find out, I assembled a comparison set of non-Gannett papers in other metro areas to see how their declines compared. These aren’t outlier successes like The New York Times — they’re metro dailies, most with chain or hedge fund owners, facing the same problems as everyone else in the business.

It’s a much better showing. Take The Seattle Times: It lost 62,000 print readers over this period — but it also gained 52,000 digital subscribers, making the overall trend lines tolerable. 

There are plenty of explanations for the gap — but it’s hard not to believe that Gannett’s gutting of their editorial products hasn’t been a driving factor.

And I haven’t yet mentioned the most important Gannett paper: USA Today. In Q3 2018, USA Today reported a total daily circulation of 2,632,392. In its most recent filing, Q3 2022, that was down to 180,381. (For what it’s worth, that 2018 number was artificially inflated in a few ways, including counting the subscribers of some Gannett local newspapers. A fairer comparison might be just paid print circulation: 579,692 in 2018, 134,629 in 2022.)

I asked Gannett for comment on this decline, and a spokesperson sent this statement: “Gannett continues to make tremendous progress on our strategic priorities which include a focus on increasing digital growth. We have an increasingly engaged digital audience with digital-only subscription revenue growing nearly 30% year-over-year. Digital-only subscriptions grew to over 2 million during the fourth quarter of 2022. Since the second quarter of 2022, paid digital-only subscriptions have outnumbered full access or print subscriptions.”

Death by a thousand cuts

Let me finish by looking at a single Gannett paper — the one I grew up reading, The Daily Advertiser of Lafayette, Louisiana. It’s far from the company’s most important paper — No. 109 in circulation among Gannett’s dailies — but it’s important to me; I read it nearly every day. Lafayette is a city of 121,000 and the hub of a region of half a million people. 

Here’s what’s happened to the Advertiser’s Sunday circulation since 2015. (Data is from Q3 of each year and as Gannett reported it to the Alliance for Audited Media.)

    2015: 26,885
    2016: 23,773
    2017: 20,177
    2018: 14,670
    2019: 10,389
    2020: 8,592
    2021: 6,528
    2022: 3,996 (plus a few hundred more)2

That’s an 85% decline since 2015. Those numbers include both print and digital — but maybe the digital trend is better? Let’s see:

    2015: 1,421 digital subscribers
    2016: 1,054
    2017: 1,247
    2018: 1,473
    2019: 1,283
    2020: 1,146
    2021: 928
    2022: 468 (plus a few hundred more)3

Yikes. All that decline has come amid round after round of Gannett budget cuts. You can debate the direction of causation: how much the cuts were driven by declining revenues, versus how much the declining revenues were driven by the cuts. But the end result is the same either way — a newspaper that is, today, an embarrassing product.

The Advertiser reported having 17 newsroom employees in 2020 and it still had a handful of people covering hard news as recently as last year. But a combination of cuts, buyouts, and escapes left it with exactly one local news reporter by January. Its staff directory is stuffed with reporters who left months ago. There are now days when zero news stories out of Lafayette are published. The copy hole is filled by stories from wires, Gannett’s one-reporter state capitol bureau, or other Gannett Louisiana papers (all of which look like thinly reskinned versions of each other). It misses obviousstories and runs press releases and error-filled copy. Its morning email is stuffed to overflowing with stories about LSU basketball, simply because Gannett actually has someone outside the Advertiser who covers LSU basketball.

The local college team in Lafayette is the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, and they had a big weekend. On Monday, they won the Sun Belt men’s basketball tournament, meaning they will go on to March Madness and the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2014. 

Was this mentioned in Tuesday’s newspaper? No. Was the fact they were even playing in the conference final mentioned in Monday’s newspaper? No. Probably the single biggest local sports story in the past year, and you wouldn’t know about it reading The Advertiser. (They eventually published a story online Tuesday morning — written by a sports reporter for the Gannett-owned Pensacola News-Journal, three states away.)

Speaking as a reader (and a grudging longtime digital subscriber), it’s just an abomination of a newspaper. Lafayette residents are lucky to have a few other options. The local TV stations, while nothing special, keep up with the usual TV news basics. A local nonprofit outlet named The Current does good work, but its small size means it has to pick its spots. Most importantly, the Baton Rouge paper, The Advocate, has invested in a Lafayette edition that does more Lafayette reporting than the actual Lafayette daily paper. In the five core Lafayette ZIP codes, The Advocate actually has more print subscribers than The Advertiser does (2,598 to 1,869).

But not every community is so lucky. When the local paper stops reporting, there’s often no one else to take its place. Everyone gets a little less informed about the world around them. And Gannett has increased local ignorance at a scale no other company can match. Maybe Alden Global Capital should be giving thanks for Gannett too, not just the other way around.

—

Update, March 10: A mea culpa. I originally referred in this section to “paying readers” and “paid readership” when quoting the circulation numbers Gannett (and other companies) file with the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM; formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations, or ABC). I meant it to be an umbrella term bigger than “subscribers,” since the numbers also included single-copy readers who don’t subscribe. But the vagaries of circulation reporting mean that the totals publishers report both exclude some paying readers and include some non-paying readers. (More about that later.) That’s my mistake.

I’ve also updated the 2018 circulation number for the Detroit Free Press. The paper reported a “total combined average circulation” that year of 933,926, which is the number I’d used before. But to get to that outsized total, the Freep counted not just the regular newspaper but also something called Yes! Your Essential Shopper, a weekly free shopperthrown on porches around the region. (Some consider this genre of publication more litter than newspaper, but advertisers appreciate their larger reach versus a paid daily. Many metro newspapers have similar products — though in my experience most list them as separate publications for circulation-counting purposes, rather than lump them together with the main paper.) But between 2018 and 2022, the Free Press stopped counting Your Essential Shopper as part of its circulation, which increased the scale of the decline between those years. In order to make the comparison more parallel with the others, I’ve removed the shopper’s 716,455 copies from the Free Press total, bringing it down to 217,471. That change reduces the overall Gannett circulation carnage from 77% to 67%.

  1. One nerd note: During this period, AAM tweaked how it counts digital subscriptions in such a way that it could reduce their numbers. (The less generous framing would be it made overcounting harder.) But this change affected all newspapers, not just Gannett’s, and the impact was not drastic. ↩︎
  2. Update, March 10: Note that this 2022 number does not include a certain type of digital sub known as a digital nonreplica edition. Gannett stopped reporting those publicly in 2022. In 2021, The Advertiser reported a digital nonreplica circulation of 348, so you can probably mentally add a similar number to the 3,996 number they reported for 2022. ↩︎
  3. Update, March 10: The same as above: You can probably add in another 350 or so to that 2022 number to make up for the digital subscriptions that Gannett has stopped reporting publicly. ↩︎