SAPD Wins Conviction, 100 Day Jail Term, For Anti-Gay Battery With Bug Spray At Home Depot

Republican St. Johns County County Commission candidate MERRILL PAUL ROLAND, 59, spent Christmas in the St. Johns County Jail. He checked in to St. Johns County Jail on December 24, 2013. He won't be allowed out until April 3, 2014. ROLAND will spend the entire winter as an inmate of the St. Johns County Jail, whose published inmate rules allow viewing only one (1) television station: PBS.

A registered Republican, a perennial sjx-time political candidate, a St. George Street pirate entertainer-activist and an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) disabilities access activist, MERRILL PAUL ROLAND has repeatedly run for office.

MERRILL ROLAND was convicted by a jury of first degree battery December 23, 2013.
St. Johns County Court Judge Alex Christine sentenced ROLAND to 100 days in jail, with no credit; to anger management classes; to pay $300 restitution to his victim; and to 364 days probation.

Convicted batterer MERRILL PAUL ROLAND was convicted by unanimous jury verdict of spraying bug spray in the face of a man at Home Depot -- a man whom he first called homosexual in front of the man's girlfriend and the man's mother. The two had prior business deaings at a scooter rental store.

First degree battery charges were filed after the bug-spraying battery on July 10, 2013 at Home Depot in St. Augustine by the victim, a 28-year old white man, after an investigation by the St. Augustine Police Departmnt. The State's Attorney's office prosecuted the case. County Commission candidate MERRILL PAUL ROLAND defended himself pro se, after repeatedly waiving his right to counsel.

Based on Justice Department guidelines, the City of St. Augustine Police Deparemnt is now likely to report the State of Florida v. MERRILL PAUL ROLAND case as a successful hate crime prosecution (under the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990). ROLAND, who was signed up to run for County Commissioner against Chairman John Jay H. Morris of Ponte Vedra, qit,

No local news media of any kind, print or electronic, serving St. Johns County reported the MERRILL PAUL ROLAND conviction as involving a hate crime (calling somoneone homosexual and spraying bug spray in his face). Why? Query: Does any journalist who is not working for the New York Times bother to read our local police reports?

If this apparent anti-Gay hate crime had occured in St. Johns County -- outside the territorial limits of the City of St. Augustine, in controversial St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's jurisdiction -- what might have happened?
1. A standing ovation led by Sheriff SHOAR, like in the Michelle O'Connell shooting case (as seen on PBS Frontline and in the New York Times)? See below/
2. A flagrant failure to obtain forensic evidence? (Ditto).
3. Some cockamamie story that defies the laws of physics (or chemistry in this case)? (Ditto).
4. Edicts and ukases contrary to the rules of scientific evidence, including "junk science" masquerading as scientific "evidence?" (Ditto).

One thing is for certain: when the St. Augustine City Manager is honorable, our police officers can do their job. Thanks to City Manager John Patrick Regan, P.E., since mid-2010, St. Augustine Police can make correct decisions, uncontaminated by corrupt county machine politics, unbossed and unbullied by conflicts of interest.

Bullies, be afraid. Miscreant misanthropes: knock it off. Peace!

No more should anyone expect that good-ole-boy "Do you know who I am!?" incantations will work as proverbial "get out of jail free cards." (After one of ex-City Commissioner ERROL B. JONES' arrests, some City Commissioners joked they were considering bying nametags asking, "Do you know who I am!?" (That's what then-Commissioner JONES actually said to SAPD in 2012, shortly before his arrest).