Caustic Assistant City Attorney JOHN CARY Attacks Antitrust Plaintiff's Lawyers, But City Votes Discretion to Join Class Action Lawsuit

• The City Commission of the City of St. Augustine voted May 13, 2019 to  explore opting in to an antirust lawsuit over price fixing and monopolistic practices involving credit or debit card merchant fees.  People use credit or debit cards to pay their water bills.  I suggested the City opt in, and Commissioners voted unanimously voted to opt in, unless the cost of cooperating would exceed the benefits, but left discretion on cost-benefit analysis to its maladroit lawyers.

Let's see how that works out, folks!

Behold.  Hark.

Our City is actually doing something, for a change, to protect the City from large organization

But Assistant City Attorney JOHN CARY made asinine remarks about antitrust plaintiff lawyers to City Commission May 13, 2019.

Uncouth JOHN CARY took potshots at antitrust lawyers in class actions, mocking their "huge fees" and saying little would be left for class action plaintiffs, only a "meager award." Spoken like a dull Republican.

Watch video here:

Item 11C 

Obtain direction from the Commission regarding entering into a class
action settlement regarding Visa and Mastercard and their charging of
“interchange fees”. (J. Cary, Assistant City Attorney).

JOHN CARY qualifies for membership in the Smirking Turkey Society (STS),

In his first-ever jury trial earlier this year, I watched JOHN CARY actually request extra jail time for a homeless woman with Stage 4 cancer because she requested a jury trial on a City Code alcohol offense.

County Court Judge Charles Jay Tinlin refused CARY's immoral, unethical request.

CARY appears to have suborned perjury, as we pointed out in our March 20, 2019 Folio Weekly cover story:

Jennifer, a Stage-4 cancer patient, was sitting with her cat on a leash in the courtyard of St. Augustine’s Lightner Museum and City Hall. Then she got sick. When St. Augustine police arrived on the scene, without even performing a wellness check, officers seized her bottle of green tea, claiming it smelled like vodka. We’ll never know. They poured it out on the spot, thus destroying the “evidence,” and transported her to jail, where a Breathalyzer test revealed a blood-alcohol level of ... zero.

Jennifer remained incarcerated for 36 hours. Then she walked from the jail to attorney Thomas Cushman’s office. Jennifer refused to plead guilty, and a jury convicted her of violating the city’s open-container ordinance. An officer had testified that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement refuses to accept or process container bottles for alcohol and that officers are trained to pour out alleged alcohol evidence and not preserve it.

Assistant City Attorney John Cary—performing in front of his first jury—asked Judge Charles Tinlin to throw the book at Jennifer for her brazen refusal to cop a plea. The judge wisely refused, sentencing her to time served. No city records support any claim of FDLE refusal to test container contents in alcohol possession cases, or SAPD instructions to destroy evidence in open-container cases before trial, at the time of arrest. 

John Cary, Assistant City Attorney

Mr. Cary received his Bachelors of Arts (BA) degree from the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. He received his Master's of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Central Florida, taking courses focusing on Urban and Regional Planning. He received his Juris Doctor (JD) from the Florida State University School of Law in 2009, following five years as a Space and Missile Operations officer in the United States Air Force, where he was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Cavalier Air Force Station, in Cavalier, North Dakota.

Mr. Cary was inspired to attend law school while taking the Land Use and Planning Law course in the final semester of his MPA degree. While he enjoyed planning and zoning and transportation issues, he really loved the legal aspects of land use. In law school, he took as many land use and local government-related courses as he could.
   

Mr. Cary began his legal career with the City of Ocala. He then went on to serve in all three branches of the state government: as an Attorney for the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, as a Chief Attorney of Professions for the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, and as the Senior Supervising Attorney/Operations Manager for Court Education in the Office of State Courts Administrator. Mr. Cary is thrilled to return to Municipal Law by joining the City Attorney’s office in January of 2018.

In addition to assisting the City Attorney in all assigned matters, Mr. Cary serves as advisor to the Code Enforcement, Adjustments and Appeals Board, the Lincolnville Community Redevelopment Agency, the Civil Service Board, and as police advisor to the St. Augustine Police Department.  Mr. Cary prosecutes all municipal code violations as well as coordinates and assists outside counsel in multiple litigation matters involving the City and represents the City in all Land Use and Environmental Dispute Resolution petitions.

Mr. Cary is a member of the Florida Bar, in addition to being licensed to practice law in Michigan and Colorado.