Seventh Circuit State's Attorney R.J. Larizza and St. Augustine Beach Police have brought misdemeanor battery charges against businessman/landlord LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA for battery upon St. Augustine Beach City Commission candidate Rosetta Bailey on Election Day (November 8, 2017) during her race against St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN.
Defendant LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA's first pretrial hearing is before County Court Judge, Hon. Alexander R. Christine, Jr. on May 22, 2017 at 9 AM, Courthouse Room 355. TRINCA has waived personal appearance. The entire misdemeanor trial could be held without his ever going to court. TRINCA waived arraignment, pled not guilty and sought discovery through his attorney in April 12, 2017 filings with the Clerk of Courts.
The criminal misdemeanor case is State of Florida v. LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA, Case No. 17000559MMMA, charging battery, F.S. 784.03(1)(a).
St. Augustine Beach Mayor RICHARD O'BRIEN's avid supporter, LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA, verbally confronted and allegedly pushed Rose Bailey, pushing her with both hands in the back from behind, nearly causing her to fall.
St. Augustine Beach politics is not quite as rough and tumble as the late Mayor Richard J. Daley's Chicago, but the anger of the Establishment toward dissent is palpable.
Local landlord and corporate CEO LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA crossed the line and allegedly committed a crime, allegedly assaulting a candidate, Rose Bailey. It was an apparent crime against our democracy.
Crimes against democracy are common in St. Johns County, where developers don't have to disclose their owners to get zoning favors, where there is no Inspector General, Ombuds or other checks and balances, where large developers have owned our Sheriff, rented our County Commissioners and City Commissioners, and perpetrated what RFK, Jr. would call "crimes against nature," including urban sprawl, clear-cutting, wetland-destroying and demolishing historic structures. Violating Article VI, Section 5(b) of our State Constitution, Republican ROBERT THORNTON SMITH, et al. contrived to run five phony write-in candidates, closing four universal primaries, disenfranchising some 82,000 Democrats and No Party Affiliation voters from voting for Sheriff, Clerk of Courts and two of three Commission races.
The candidate battery crime against our democracy at issue in State of Florida v. LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA was particularly egregious -- in broad daylight, in front of St. Augustine Beach City Hall, in the view of witnesses campaigning that day.
This candidate-battery crime against our democracy was by one of Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN's most outspoken supporters at the St. Augustine Beach's only voting location.
This crime against our democracy was in the context of Mayor O'BRIEN's anger at his political machine facing opposition by two candidates, Ms. Bailey running against him, and Maggie Kostka successfully running against erstwhile Mayor ANDREA SAMUELS, who lost ignominiously.
This crime against our democracy was in the context of Mayor O'Brien bringing and eventually losing a "stalking" injunction against government watchdog Thomas Reynolds, now a candidate for St. Johns County Commission seat 4 as a Democrat.
Kudos to St. Augustine Beach Police Chief Robert Hardwick, Officer Jessie Z. Lewis, State's Attorney Ralph Joseph Larizza and Assistant State's Attorney Samuel Frazer for enforcing the law.
Twelve days earlier, on October 27, 2017, outside a mainland early voting polling place (Southeast Branch Public Library), Anastasia Mosquito Control Commission of St. Johns County candidate Merrill Paul Roland was insulted, assaulted, punched, kicked, battered and spat upon by St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee Chair ERIC WEST, against whom no charges have been filed yet. Mr. Roland was hospitalized as a result.
The criminal charges against TRINCA place in sharp repose the May 1, 2017 maudlin meanderings of Mayor RICHARD BURTT O'BRIEN and Commissioner SHERMAN GARY SNODGRASS "apologizing" to City staff for not shutting down dissenters. See St. Augustine Record editorial of May 4, 2017 and May 3, 2017 St. Augustine Record article, my commentary, and comment of First Amendment attorney Thomas Elijah Cushman, here.
Criminal defendant LEONARD PATRICK TRINCA is represented by local trial lawyer PATRICK "DUCKS" CANAN, erstwhile School Board Chairman and a putative Democrat who has hosted fundraisers for Charles Crist and other statewide candidates. As School Board Chairman, PATRICK "DUCKS" CANAN was unhelpful and discourages about answering still-unanswered questions about school board purchasing practices.
PATRICK "DUCKS" CANAN raised eyebrows with his maudlin, emotional, malicious manner of avoiding to my questions in 2016 about possible bid-rigging activity in school construction, as evidenced by only one bid received for an Aberdeen School last year. Read PATRICK "DUCKS" CANAN's bumptious, bigoted, bullying, threatening June 6, 2016 e-mail message here. As William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
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