SAB Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN Refuses to Apologize

Pity RICH O'BRIEN, re-elected Mayor of St. Augustine Beach November 8, but rejected by Circuit Court Judge Howard O'McGillin December 7th.  Judge McGillin erased O'BRIEN's temporary injunction.  Judge McGillin denied O'BRIEN's demand for a permanent injunction for non-existent "stalking" against citizen activist Tom Reynolds.  Not one voter was in court December 7th to support O'BRIEN.  Not one voter turned up at last night's Commission meeting (12/12/16) to register their support for O'BRIEN.  Not one.

The only witnesses who testified in support of O'BRIEN at the hearing were three people whose paychecks O'BRIEN's signs.  (Another one turned up last night, reading a prepared schpiel.)

Not one Commissioner supported O'BRIEN's outrageous injunction fiasco.  Not one.

An O'BRIEN hotel employee read a canned vague fearful schpiel defending him, but O'BRIEN refused to answer questions.  

O'BRIEN repeatedly refused to apologize to citizen TOM REYNOLDS.  I know.  I asked.  He said, interrupting me, that his purpose was "not to engage" with the public during "public comment. " 

O'BRIEN claimed his hearing aid was turned off on October 26, 2016 in Judge McGillin's court.  So I asked if his hearing aid was turned on last night.  No response.

This fourteen-year veteran elected official testified before Judge McGillin he didn't know what the "petition for a redress of grievances" clause in the First Amendment was about.  

RICH O'BRIEN is, to borrow a line from President Jimmy Carter, "a disgrace to the human race."

Does being Mayor of St. Augustine Beach mean "never having to say you're sorry?"

After being spat upon by a mob, our UN Ambassador Adlai Stevenson said in Dallas, the month before JFK's murder, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins and the redemption of ignorance."

O'BRIEN remains under environmental crime investigation for destroying a dune.  He will probably be required to pay Mr. Reynold's legal fees.  And as departing Commissioner ANDREA SAMUELS said, O'BRIEN (and other Commissioners) face a "contentious year."

You've got that right, cupcake.  When you use SLAPP suits, arrests and threats of arrest to coerce, chill and intimidate First Amendment protected activity, you're not entitled to respect.  You're a loutish, lugubrious goober who should resign (or be indicted).