Sheriff DAVID SHOAR waited for some fourteen (14) months after he knew that fired indicted RAYE BRUTNELL stole more than $708,000 before bringing civil litigation against her, waiting until after she moved out of town.
The lawsuit seeks the equitable remedy of constructive trust, which I had suggested in 2018.
Sheriff SHOAR has his own in-house counsel, maladroit UnderSheriff MATTHEW CLINE.
So why did SHOAR and CLINE wait so long to sue BRUTNELL? This looks like legal malpractice to me.
I've been raising concerns about this in St. Johns County Commission meetings since 2018.
As HCN points out, Sheriff SHOAR inexplicably asserts that the defendant lives in St. Johns County, asserting that venue exists in St. Johns County. Since the defendant moved away nearly a year ago, she could be expected to file for a change of venue.
One of the clues in a classic Sherlock Holmes story was "the dog that didn't bark."
It's our money.
We expect our elected constitutional officers to be watchdogs, not lapdogs.
Like a senile farmer who waited more than a year after the cow has gone to shut the barn door, Sheriff DAVID SHOAR is worse than a lapdog. He's an unjust steward, repeatedly guilty of waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance, flummery, dupery and nincompoopery,
It is so symbolic that this creepy conman -- who has caused so much misery -- literally legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994. Pure poetry in motion. He's a whore for developers, who pressures Commissioners to vote for projects that destroy our nature here in God's country. At a 2017 League of Women Voters event, SHOAR actually told me that the developers are "nice people." What a servile eunuch (or servile unit), a dull Republican bully, a robotic "yes man" without a conscience.
We renounce SHOAR, and all of his works and pomps, and his failure to protect the public fisc from embezzlement,
Footnote: SHOAR hired the conflicted corporate law firm of Adams & Reese to file the lawsuit. (Full disclosure: before my disbarment, I once litigated an environmental whistleblower lawsuit against that firm in a case referred to me by EPA, involving ocean dumping by AHL Shipping, a New Orleans owner of rusting oil tanker, owned by a corrupt union (Masters, Mates & Pilots Union, Internationsl Longshoremen's Association). Tried in a conference room at the Orlando Public Library, before USDOL Administrative Law Judge Pamela Lakes Wood, the cse involved "vertically manned ships," a euphemism for an arrangement whereby the 22 seamen on the tanker were required to pay dues MMP, which owned the polluting ships!
The Adams & Reese attorney in that case took umbrage when, borrowing a page from Jerry Spence's techniques, the ALJ let me mark on one of her demonstrative exhibits with a sharpie.
From Historic City News:
Shoar files civil lawsuit against ex-finance director
The latest move to recover about $800,000 in embezzled funds from local taxpayers and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Benevolence Fund at the hands of Sheriff David Shoar’s Director of Finance, Raye Annette Brutnell, came Wednesday this week when Shoar brought a civil lawsuit against Brutnell in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court for St Johns County.
On reading the allegations in the civil suit, Historic City News finds several answers to questions that have been answered with some vagueness or left unanswered by Shoar. Here are some highlights:
- The county attorney will not represent the sheriff’s office attempting to collect this money. Shoar has hired the Jacksonville law firm of Adams and Reese LLP. Shoar is asking to recover reasonable attorneys’ fees in this case.
- Brutnell caused the Sheriff’s Office to make 74 fraudulent payments from several different of the Sheriff’s Office accounts totaling $702,773
- Brutnell caused the Benevolence Fund to make 51 fraudulent payments totaling $80,115
- Brutnell misappropriated a Benevolence Fund check in the amount of $2,868
- Brutnell also caused a fraudulent payment to be made by an unauthorized check for $5,000 in the name of her husband, Mark Brutnell. It was deposited into the joint bank account held with her husband.
- Shoar asks the court to impose a constructive trust over assets, funds, and accounts titled in Brutnell’s name, including but not limited to any pension plans or retirement accounts in her name.
Time is the safest refuge of a delinquent debtor. The more they get, the less you are likely to recover.
At 9:00 a.m. on the morning of January 7, 2019 felony arraignment was held in the criminal case against Brutnell. A year has passed without so much as a single court appearance by Brutnell.
Felony pretrial was scheduled for 2/12/2019, it was continued. Felony pretrial was rescheduled for 4/30/2019, it was reset. Felony pretrial was rescheduled for 6/6/2019, it was continued. Felony pretrial was again rescheduled for 8/13/2019, it was continued. Felony docket sounding was scheduled for 10/30/2019, it was reset. Felony Jury selection was scheduled for 11/4/2019, it was disposed of. Felony pretrial was again rescheduled for 12/3/2019, it was continued from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. then reset. Felony pretrial was again rescheduled for 1/7/2020, it was reset, again.
Judge Howard Maltz has ordered Brutnell to come to court for a pretrial hearing on 2/11/2020 — a full year since she entered her “not guilty” plea on all charges; but, in light of an issue that came up before Christmas, some court-watchers are predicting she will never appear in court in St Johns County.
On December 5, 2019 when the St Johns County Clerk of Court attempted to contact Brutnell to notify her of upcoming hearing dates for the 16-remaining criminal charges against her, the notice was returned, undelivered by the post office.
It seems that on March 1, 2019, Raye and her husband, FDLE Tampa Bay Special Agent in Charge Mark E Brutnell, sold their home in South Beach at Ponte Vedra for $452,000. The proceeds paid off their $355,500 mortgage from Kinecta Federal Credit Union and they moved to The Fitzgerald Channelside Luxury Apartments in Downtown Tampa.
As far as the civil lawsuit filed by Shoar, one of the recitals is that venue for the matter is proper in St Johns County because the defendant lives here. If she now lives in Hillsborough County, she might ask for a change of venue.
As for the criminal cases, State Attorney RJ Larizza has already recused himself. The governor already appointed a special prosecutor from the 10th Judicial Circuit, and because of the delays in seating a jury and hearing the case, another executive order was filed this month extending the appointment for another year. Brutnell’s attorney might argue that a change of venue in that case is in order, as well.
We are continuing to follow this matter and will keep readers informed as new developments occur.
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