Will Ms. Brutnell reach a plea agreement?
Will she testify before a Grand Jury about Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994?
Will Governor RONALD DION DeSANTIS use his power under Florida Constitution, Article IV, Section 7, and suspend Sheriff Shoar?
Trial set for woman accused of stealing $700,000 from Sheriff’s Office
By Travis Gibson tgibson@staugustine.com
Posted at 5:16 PM
St. Augustine Record
A trial date has been set for Raye Brutnell, the former St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office finance chief who is accused of stealing more than $700,000 from the agency over a five-year period.
The felony jury selection is currently set for Nov. 4 with Judge Howard Maltz presiding.
Brutnell was scheduled to be in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing, but the case was simply continued.
Despite the judge setting a trial date, the case can still be resolved with a plea agreement if both parties decide that is in their best interests.
Brutnell turned herself in on Nov. 20, 2018, and originally faced more than 150 felony charges, including single counts each of defrauding a financial institution, grand theft in excess of $100,000, organized scheme to defraud in excess of $50,000 along with various counts of criminal use of personal identification and 52 counts each of forgery of bank checks, uttering a forged check, and official misconduct.
Those charges were eventually whittled down to 11 felony charges. If convicted on all charges and sentenced consecutively, she could face up to 150 years in prison.
Brutnell entered a not guilty plea in December.
The investigation into Brutnell’s handling of the Sheriff’s Office’s finances began around Nov. 14 when St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar said two employees raised concerns about a handful of vendor accounts being paid through agency’s finance department. Within days, investigators from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office had secured a warrant for Brutnell’s arrest. After she turned herself in, she was released the same day after posting bonds totaling $265,000.
According to information in the affidavit, the investigators found that the names and information related to those accounts were often slight variations of names or addresses of Brutnell’s close family members and that “several” of the checks written to those accounts had been deposited into Brutnell’s bank account.
More than $20,000 is believed to have been taken from the benevolence fund. Brutnell is said to have admitted to using the Sheriff’s Office Benevolence Fund to make checks out to cash in order to pay her mortgage and her car payment.
Brutnell referenced financial strain on her family, according to an affidavit, and said that “she did not realize the magnitude of the fraud until she was provided with a dollar amount by the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.”
According to county records, Mark Brutnell, Raye Brutnell’s husband and a Florida Department of Law Enforcement employee, and Raye Brutnell sold their St. Augustine home in February for $452,000 after purchasing the home for $395,000 in 2016.
Raye Brutnell said her husband was not aware of her actions, according to the affidavit.
Because of Brutnell’s position within the agency and because her husband is an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who once worked in St. Johns County, 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza requested Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor, saying that the couple is known to him personally and professionally.
Scott appointed 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Brian Haas to handle the case. Assistant State Attorney Jake Orr, the spokesman for that office, declined to comment Tuesday. A lawyer representing Raye Brutnell did not immediately return a request for comment.
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