Daytona Beach Deputy City Manager Arrested re: Prostitution, Resigns

GARY SHIMUN was Deputy City Manager of the City of Daytona Beach, Florida in charge of Development and Administration; he texted and made a date with a putative prostitute and showed her the money, but she was an undercover deputy.

Will State's Attorney R.J. LARIZZA go easy on him? After all, he's white and probably a developer puppet.

Daytona Beach deputy manager resigns after sex sting probe



Posted Dec 22, 2016 at 6:54 PM
Updated Dec 22, 2016 at 8:01 PM

By Seth Robbins seth.robbins@news-jrnl.com



Daytona Beach Deputy City Manager Gary Shimun is under investigation after authorities say he made an appointment with a undercover sheriff's deputy posing as a prostitute.

The State Attorney's Office is investigating whether to formally charge Shimun, who is accused of sending text messages to the deputy and making a meeting with her to exchange sex for money, according to a charging affidavit. He faces a potential criminal misdemeanor charge of assignation under the prostitution statute, said Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

Shimun resigned on Dec. 16 from his post with the city, two days after he became the subject of the prostitution investigation. He did not respond Thursday to phone calls or emails.

According to the charging affidavit, an undercover sheriff's deputy placed an advertisement under the "escort" section of Backpage.com, urging respondents to "come unwrap Santa's best present." The report states that Shimun then sent several explicit text messages to the deputy and agreed to meet her at a Daytona Beach Shores hotel. When he arrived at the assigned hotel room, he met the undercover deputy who told him "she would need to see the money before anything would occur," the report states.

He showed her a handful of cash, according to the report. But when the deputy questioned whether he had the right amount, he became "suspicious and quickly exited the room and went back to his vehicle," the report states.

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Two Daytona Beach Shores police officers later stopped Shimun in his truck traveling on the 2100 block of State Road A1A. Shimun chose not to speak with the officers, and he was allowed to leave, the report states.

During the sting, four women were also arrested and charged with various prostitution charges after they met with an undercover officer posing as a "john."

Davidson said that Shimun was not immediately arrested at the scene because he left before making the transaction, and investigators did not have the necessary time there to review all his text messages to determine whether sufficient evidence had been collected to make an arrest.

After examining the messages, investigators filed the charging affidavit with the State's Attorney's Office, which is under review, said Spencer Hathaway, an assistant state attorney.

Shimun sent his resignation to City Manager Jim Chisholm, saying that "our line of work is very stressful, and sometimes it makes sense to just step away for a while." According to his Linkedin webpage, he has worked as Daytona Beach's deputy city manager for more than two years.

City spokeswoman Susan Cerbone said that Shimun's resignation has been accepted and that he will be let go after January 13th when his accrued vacation time is completed.