Read about spoiled brat St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN's meltdown, violating the First Amendment and civil rights.
Refusing to answer questions, St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN fears the truth.
Failing to provide any evidence of any permit from any government to dump polluted water into the Atlantic Ocean and St. Augustine Beach storm sewers, St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICH O'BRIEN engages in prejudicial pretrial publicity in the local newspaper, whose reporter saw right through him -- Sheldon Gardner's story is fair, although it did not quote environmental criminal laws requiring permits before dumping anything in the ocean (even salt water) or anything in storm sewers.
Yes, Mr. Reynolds made protected reports of environmental concerns to local and federal officials; O'Brien retaliated.
Yes, Mr. Reynolds compared O'Brien's wife, Lauren Ringhaver, to Leona Helmsley, raising concerns about her shrill and uncivil treatment of employees, who don't last very long at the LaFiesta Inn and Suites. Those employees need a union.
Yes, wealthy St. Augustine Beach hotelier-mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN now shows his hick hack effrontery, his sick sissified ickiness, his thin-skinned retaliatory nature, and his Amateur Hour animus by demanding an illegal injunction.
Yes, Mayor RICH O'BRIEN is about as sharp as a mashed potato sandwich with the crust cut off.
Yes, Mayor RICH O'BRIEN shows his true colors by embroiling our local courts in his insolent First Amendment violations, demanding an injunction banning a government watchdog from "his" City Hall.
Not even Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley would have done such a thing.
Yes, Mayor RICH O'BRIEN had a nebbishy real estate lawyer file electronically for the injunction on October 14.
It's time for the privileged, self-aggrandizing narcissist RICH O'BRIEN a/k/a "RICHIE RICH" to go.
In the November 8, 2016 election, St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICH O'BRIEN faces challenger Rosetta Bailey, former longtime PNC Bank Vice President, one of the first woman bank vice presidents anywhere, hired in 1973, breaking the "glass ceiling" long before the term "glass ceiling" was known.
Yes, Mayor RICH O'BRIEN, affecting martyrdom for being criticized and reported to authorities, gave ill-informed, misguided inflammatory quotes in the St. Augustine Record, adding libel to the list of his intentional torts.
Citing ‘serious’ safety concerns, St. Augustine Beach mayor files for injunction against local man
Posted October 20, 2016 12:02 am
By SHELDON GARDNER
sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com
St. Augustine Beach Mayor Rich O’Brien went to court last week looking for protection.
What the court ordered on Monday was a temporary injunction for protection against stalking, which forces St. Augustine Beach resident Tom Reynolds to stay away from O’Brien and his family and properties and places he frequents.
That order is in effect at least until Oct. 26, when Judge Howard McGillin Jr. is expected to consider issuing a final judgment of injunction.
Reynolds can go to City Hall to talk with other staff members, but said he can’t go to City Commission meetings.
O’Brien declined to provide more details beyond the petition, a sworn statement, because it’s “a pending legal issue.”
“And in my opinion a serious one,” O’Brien told The Record on Wednesday. “I think the [petition] speaks for itself. I did it because I had concerns for my safety and that of my family and the judge granted it, and they grant them for a reason.”
Reynolds, a regular speaker at City Commission meetings who briefly ran for the board this year, said the petition is a move to silence him.
While Reynolds disputes the details, the petition says Reynolds yelled and cursed about O’Brien to “a staff member” at an address listed for the La Fiesta Ocean Inn & Suites, which is O’Brien’s business.
The employee “was adjusting hoses from a pump of storm water from the hurricane when Reynolds started a tirade of yelling and screaming” about O’Brien, including using profanity, according to the petition. The employee said he “was concerned for his safety.”
Reynolds described an interaction with a staff member, telling The Record he voiced concern about water being pumped from the hotel and affecting the dunes and public access to sidewalks. He said he only yelled at O’Brien’s employee from afar, directing him to put cones on the sidewalk for public safety. Reynolds said he later filed a complaint for breach of peace with the St. Augustine Beach Police Department.
O’Brien said the water that was flowing was coming from a neighboring property, not from the hotel. And the water did not include sewage.
“The storm water from the hurricane that was being pumped into the storm drain with the [advance] approval of the city was what was going in there,” O’Brien said. “There was absolutely no sewage being pumped into a storm drain by our neighbor.”
O’Brien also said that “there were several reports to state, county and federal agencies regarding this that were deemed to be false reports. … They’re looking into it about these false reports.”
The petition also describes an incident at a City Commission meeting and two emails.
According to the petition, Reynolds sent emails on Oct. 12 and 14, one of which O’Brien described as including profanity and another as “very, very disparaging with a lot of name calling.” The petition says the email also targeted O’Brien’s spouse.
The petition also says that Reynolds visited properties belonging to O’Brien and his wife “which he had no business entering.”
“My wife and myself fear for our safety as this man is unstable, angry and appears violent in nature,” O’Brien stated in the petition.
O’Brien also described a recent St. Augustine Beach City Commission meeting when “Mr. Reynolds was yelling and disrupting our meeting to the point where he would not be quiet, and I had to have him removed from this meeting by the police.”
Reynolds said the injunction is “very embarrassing.” He referenced complaints he has made about public officials. He said he also planned to speak Monday about his concerns about the water pumping but was not able to because of the injunction.
“I am a watchdog. That’s what I feel like,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds also said he never went onto O’Brien’s property and hasn’t stalked anyone.
Tom Cushman, Reynolds’ attorney, said the mayor should “maybe read the First Amendment.”
“Because all Reynolds has done is go to the City Commission to speak about matters before the City Commission, which is protected speech, as the mayor should know,” Cushman said.
“We dispute what supposedly happened with the employee, but the mayor was not around,” Cushman added. “What’s that got to do with stalking?”
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Florida law forbids Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Did Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN of St. Augustine Beach violate that law, exposing himself to court-ordered attorney fees and damages in his retaliatory injunction filed against government watchdog Thomas F. Reynolds, Jr. for "stalking?":
768.295 Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) prohibited.—
(1) It is the intent of the Legislature to protect the right in Florida to exercise the rights of free speech in connection with public issues, and the rights to peacefully assemble, instruct representatives, and petition for redress of grievances before the various governmental entities of this state as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and s. 5, Art. I of the State Constitution. It is the public policy of this state that a person or governmental entity not engage in SLAPP suits because such actions are inconsistent with the right of persons to exercise such constitutional rights of free speech in connection with public issues. Therefore, the Legislature finds and declares that prohibiting such lawsuits as herein described will preserve this fundamental state policy, preserve the constitutional rights of persons in Florida, and assure the continuation of representative government in this state. It is the intent of the Legislature that such lawsuits be expeditiously disposed of by the courts.
(2) As used in this section, the phrase or term:
(a) “Free speech in connection with public issues” means any written or oral statement that is protected under applicable law and is made before a governmental entity in connection with an issue under consideration or review by a governmental entity, or is made in or in connection with a play, movie, television program, radio broadcast, audiovisual work, book, magazine article, musical work, news report, or other similar work.
(b) “Governmental entity” or “government entity” means the state, including the executive, legislative, and the judicial branches of government and the independent establishments of the state, counties, municipalities, corporations primarily acting as instrumentalities of the state, counties, or municipalities, districts, authorities, boards, commissions, or any agencies thereof.
(3) A person or governmental entity in this state may not file or cause to be filed, through its employees or agents, any lawsuit, cause of action, claim, cross-claim, or counterclaim against another person or entity without merit and primarily because such person or entity has exercised the constitutional right of free speech in connection with a public issue, or right to peacefully assemble, to instruct representatives of government, or to petition for redress of grievances before the various governmental entities of this state, as protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and s. 5, Art. I of the State Constitution.
(4) A person or entity sued by a governmental entity or another person in violation of this section has a right to an expeditious resolution of a claim that the suit is in violation of this section. A person or entity may move the court for an order dismissing the action or granting final judgment in favor of that person or entity. The person or entity may file a motion for summary judgment, together with supplemental affidavits, seeking a determination that the claimant’s or governmental entity’s lawsuit has been brought in violation of this section. The claimant or governmental entity shall thereafter file a response and any supplemental affidavits. As soon as practicable, the court shall set a hearing on the motion, which shall be held at the earliest possible time after the filing of the claimant’s or governmental entity’s response. The court may award, subject to the limitations in s. 768.28, the party sued by a governmental entity actual damages arising from a governmental entity’s violation of this section. The court shall award the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees and costs incurred in connection with a claim that an action was filed in violation of this section.
(5) In any case filed by a governmental entity which is found by a court to be in violation of this section, the governmental entity shall report such finding and provide a copy of the court’s order to the Attorney General no later than 30 days after such order is final. The Attorney General shall report any violation of this section by a governmental entity to the Cabinet, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. A copy of such report shall be provided to the affected governmental entity.
History.—s. 1, ch. 2000-174; s. 1, ch. 2015-70.
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