Attention, St. Johns County residents: Here's an interesting story below, about a trial of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR's former Finance Director, RAYE BRUTNELL, who allegedly stole at least $702,771, 2011-2018.
Notice the headline is dead wrong -- in reality, the trial is put off until May 2020, not January.
The copy desk for GateHouse, now merged with GANNETT, is in Austin, Texas. No local does our page makeup any longer. Does any local edit anything? Does anyone who knows anything about St. Johns County have a second pair of eyes on whatever sloppy story gets e-mailed to Austin?
I grew up in Southern New Jersey with a Gannett newspaper, the Camden Courier-Post.
My mom hated it. She said it was a "dumb paper." She was annoyed when I purchased it during visits, She was right -- anything GANNETT touches turns into a McPaper, like USA Today.
Aided by a Fund for Investigative Journalism grant as an undergraduate, I later investigated Tennessee Valley Authority coal purchasing, guided by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Nat Caldwell of the Nashville Tennessean, purchased by GANNETT.
Nat Caldwell dreaded the day when GANNETT made the Tennessean into less than a newspaper,
GANNETT is dumbing down the American newspaper industry with its maladministration,
You can trust GANNETT to be mediocre, with more disinvestment to come. Weeks after GANNETT took over GateHouse and the St. Augustine Record, the name of the last journalist to adorn the masthead disappeared -- now there is only a "manager," an ad man. Then last journalist on the masthead were Jim Sutton (Opinion Editor) and Craig Richardson (Editor). Richardson was canned to save money, among more layoffs earlier this year, No word on whether Mr. Sutton quit in protest.
From The St. Augustine Record:
Former St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office finance director case continued to January
Posted Dec 3, 2019 at 6:16 PM
A former St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office finance director accused of taking more than $700,000 from the Sheriff’s Office between 2012 and 2018 was scheduled for a pretrial hearing Tuesday morning and received her fourth continuance.
A former St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office finance director accused of taking more than $700,000 from the Sheriff’s Office between 2012 and 2018 was scheduled for a pretrial hearing Tuesday morning and received her fourth continuance.
Raye Brutnell, 48, entered a not guilty plea in December.
Her next pretrial hearing is Jan. 7. If a plea agreement is not reached, the case is scheduled to go to trial in May 2020.
Brutnell originally faced more than 160 charges, though it was later reduced to 11 charges. Brutnell faces six counts of forging bank bills, checks, drafts, or promissory notes, two counts of criminal use of personal identification, one count of grand theft over $100,000, one count of grand theft over $20,000 and one count of failing to properly apply solicited charity contributions.
A special prosecutor, Nicole Orr from the 10th Judicial Circuit, was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott due to Brutnell’s husband’s employment with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. State Attorney R.J. Larizza of the 7th Judicial Circuit requested the appointment and said he knew the couple.
Assistant State Attorney Jake Orr, 10th Judicial Circuit spokesman, said the state attorney’s office had no comment on the case.
Brutnell is represented by Henry Coxe of Jacksonville, who declined to comment on the case.
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