September 2, 2010: Michelle O'Connell Shooting: Whither Deputy JEREMY BANKS Case? Gov. RICK SCOTT Appointed Two Maladroit Special Prosecutors

Two judges found "probable cause" a homicide was committed by JEREMY BANKS sufficient to validate search warrants and dismiss a federal lawsuit BANKS filed against FDLE agent Rusty Ray Rodgers.  

But as of the eighth anniversary of the Michelle O'Connell homicide, only St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver, alone among local officials, has spoken out in support of a federal investigation.   (See December 23, 2013 letter to St. Augustine Record, before she ran for office, below).  

Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince swears in Mayor Shaver, December 1, 2014

Which other local officials will now speak out?

Who will stand with those of us in the "reality-based community," Mayor Nancy Shaver and two judges, in the spirit of the late Senator John McCain? 

If Senator John McCain were alive and well and serving on the St. Johns County Commission next Tuesday, he would speak out for Justice for Michelle OConnell.   How about you, Henry?  Jeb?  Paul?  Jimmy?  Jay?  Jeremiah?

As JFK once said to Canadian parliamentarians, paraphrasing Sir. Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing."

It takes a village to extirpate corruption.

We have a corrupt Sheriff -- good people must act. 

We, The People, will not be scared or deterred of four-flushing Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, an eight-time loser, whose endorsements cause candidates to lose.  

Federal and state officials must continue to investigate and prosecute the Michelle O'Connell homicide, obstruction of justice, retaliatory persecution and attempted prosecution of ethical lawmen, and tormenting of a victim's family, which began on the evening of this date, September 2, 2010.

Justice for Michelle O'Connell.  Now.

Two judges have found probable cause that a homicide was committed on Michelle O'Connell eight yrs ago today.  Normal officer-involved homicide investigation procedures were violated.  FDLE was not called in.  Evidence was destroyed. 

SHOAR later bragged, "I've known the family for a long, long, long time."   

JEREMY BANKS is reportedly:

• paternal great-grandson of former St. Augustine Mayor Everett B. Meade, 
• paternal great nephew of another former St. Augustine Commissioner (Shelby "Ted" Meade), 
• maternal grandson of the Ponce family (Margo Ponce). 

BANKS' mother works The Bailey Group, an insurance company owned by another old family (Bailey) with past political offices including St. Augustine Mayor (John Bailey, Sr.) and an influential law firm (Upchurch, Bailey & Upchurch).

So a politically connected Sheriff's deputy shot and killed his girlfriend, with:

• no St. Augustine Record. newspaper coverage, 
• no arrest and a botched investigation, and 
• bizarre, belated  recusal by State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA just before a planned exhumation and autopsy. 

In response to public uproar, Florida Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT appointed two (2) incurious "special prosecutors":
each from an adjoining judicial district;
each refused to take the September 2, 2010 homicide of Michelle O'Connell to the grand jury. 

Gov. SCOTT has not yet provided documents on the case, which I requested August 12, 2018.

Governor SCOTT is a close political ally of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, named along with SHOAR's mentor, former City Manager WILLAIM BARRY HARRISS, to the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission. 


After The New York Times began investigating in 2013, St. Johns Sheriff DAVID SHOAR caterwauled, commissioning a witch hunt committee, writing a false report provided federal aencies, working for five years to destroy the career of an FDLE special agent.

Angry, bullying Sheriff DAVID SHOAR publicly caterwauled and angrily accused the O'Connell family of "molesting"her body by having it exhumed and autopsied by independent pro bono experts.

The autopsy revealed Michelle's jaw was broken.

In 2013, District 23 Medical Examiner PREDRAG BULIC and his henchmen HOBIN missed that her jaw was broken. 

Since her jaw was broken -- and there's that a cut on her eyelid -- it definitely looks like homicide (Domestic battery before murder.)

In 2013, Sheriff SHOAR bragged that he paid for Michelle O'Connell's funeral.  

Sheriff SHOAR never apologized for his abuses of power, either in the Michelle O'Connell case or anything else, including rampant Fourth Amendment violations found by four federal judges (three Republican appointees).

Since 2012, Folio Weekly Magazine, New York Times, PBS Frontline, NBC News Dateline, ABC 20/20, Dr. Phil and others documented the facts.   

For five years SHOAR has refused to be interviewed by New York Times investigative reporter Walt Bogdanich.  (Wonder why?  As the late William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?)

St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR maintains on his website a page of links to materials and court documents falsely claiming that Michelle O'Connell committed suicide and that JEREMY BANKS was improperly suspected, investigated and searched. SHOAR's website also contains a paen to racist Sheriff LAWRENCE O. DAVIS, with three material false statements (falsely stating DAVIS "held the town together" when he was a civil rights violator, stating Dr. King was arrested her by "federal agents," and falsely stating DAVIS was "exonerated" by the Florida State Senate, which removed him from office by 44-2 vote.

In dismissing BANKS' lawsuit against FDLE Special Agent Rusty Ray Rodgers, United States District Judge Brian J. Davis ordered on March 30, 2018 (Good Friday/Passover) that there was probable cause that Michelle O'Connell was murdered by JEREMY BANKS. That makes two (2) judges who found probable cause that BANKS committed homicide -- so did County Court Judge Charles Tinlin in 2011.

JUSTICE FOR MICHELLE O'CONNELL: Eight years since fatal shooting of Sheriff's Deputy JEREMY BANKS' girlfriend with BANKS' own service weapon and still NO grand jury?!

Michelle O'Connell died eight years ago, September 2, 2010, after domestic violence -- a broken jaw and fatal intraoral gunshot wound in the mouth through her tongue. Michelle suffered and died while she was packing to move out of her home shared with politically connected Deputy Sheriff, JEREMY BANKS.

BANKS' boss, St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR has attacked the family and fomented BANKS' groundless lawsuit against an FDLE agent for seeking the truth and questioning SHOAR's unscientific, unsupported claim of "suicide."

Still waiting on documents requested from Florida Governor RICK SCOTT. SCOTT is a key witness in the coverup. In 201, Seventh Circuit State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA belatedly recused himself. Twice, Governor SCOTT issued Executive Orders appointing adjoining Florida State's Attorneys BRAD KING in 2011 (Executive Order 11-240) and then JEFFREY ASHTON (EO 14-270) in 2014, as "special prosecutors." Both KING and ASHTON incuriously "handled" the officer-involved domestic violence homicide case with NO grand jury.

Not yet.

Justice for Michelle O'Connell.

Footnotes:

In August 2018, JEFF ASHTON was elected to Orange-Osceola County Circuit Court. (In 2016, ASHTON was voted out of office in disgrace and swore that said he would never run for office again, having been exposed using government computers to search for adulterous dalliances on the "Ashley Madison" website.)

In 2016, BRAD KING applied for a Florida Supreme Court vacancy and was rejected after he was questioned by Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission Chair Jason Unger about the Michelle O'Connel case in a live streaming video broadcast.

Justice for Michelle O'Connell.

Before she ran for office, Mayor Nancy Shaver had a letter in the St. Augustine Record, stating:

Posted December 18, 2013 02:15 pm
By NANCY SHAVER St. Augustine
Letter: Something for Alexis' stocking
The St. Augustine Record

Editor: The Empty Stocking fund appeal always brings me to thoughts of children, and this year to seven-year-old, Alexis O’Connell, whose mother, Michelle, died of a gunshot in 2010 under circumstances that are at best unclear. At the age of four Alexis was left to wonder why, if the Sheriff’s office investigation were to be believed, her mother who loved her so deeply, and called to say she was on her way to her, suddenly decided to kill herself and leave Alexis alone.

I’ll make a donation to the Empty Stocking fund as many of us will. But this year I’ll also take the time to contact [the] … United States Attorney, and ask [him] to investigate the handling of Michelle’s death. Nothing will restore Michelle to this earth, but clear-eyed justice can give Alexis some measure of peace.

Please consider adding your voice to this request….

A comprehensive and professional inquiry would be a gift not only to Alexis and her family, but also to all of us who look to the law to protect and serve us equally.

1 Comment

Edward Adelbert Slavin · 

Bete noir at Community Activist

Justice for Michelle O'Connell. Eloquent letter by Mayor Nancy Shaver, published the year before she was elected. Write the United States Attorney here:
Hon. W. Stephen Muldrow
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida
300 N. Hogan Street
Suite 700
Jacksonville, Fl. 32202
Main Line: 904-301-6300
Fax Line: 904-301-6310

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Edward Adelbert Slavin · 

Bete noir at Community Activist

Stephen Muldrow is currently the Acting United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida. From July 2013 to March 2017, he served as the First Assistant U.S. Attorney to United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III. Mr. Muldrow has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Florida since 2001, where he also served as an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) prosecutor, a Senior Litigation Counsel, and Chief of the Major Crimes Section. Before that, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Puerto Rico from 1995 to 2001, where he served as that district’s Lead OCDETF Attorney and Coordinator for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force. In 1989, Mr. Muldrow joined the Department of Justice through the Honors Program as a Trial Attorney in the Tax Division, Civil Trial Section, Northern Region (Washington, D.C.), where he remained until 1995. From 1988 to 1989, he worked as a Law Clerk for the United States Marshals Service, Office of Legal Counsel (Washington, D.C.). Mr. Muldrow earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a minor in Spanish from Bucknell University (1986), his law degree with honors from The American University, Washington College of Law (1989), and a Master of Arts in Law & International Affairs, also from The American University (1989).

W. Stephen Muldrow