Saturday, November 21, 2020

Record's Latest Puff Piece Touts Disgraced St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, f/k/a "HOAR," Who Covered Up Michelle O'Connell Homicide








It takes a village.  It takes courage, facts and law.   A corrupt public official is "retiring" soon.

Thanks to everyone who helped Sheriff DAVID SHOAR "decide" to retire.   

The facts helped ran the crook off!

The incurious St. Augustine Record just dropped a piece of hagiography that will make you laugh.  

A louche lapdog for the Sheriff's corrupt political machine -- under three successive corporate owners -- the Record is a mere amanuensis.   Not a newspaper.  A  stenographer.

Developer and Sheriff fanboy Stuart Korfhage reports that Sheriff DAVID SHOAR cursed out New York Times Assistant Editor for Investigations, Walt Bogdanich, a Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner.  

The Record would not quote what Sheriff DAVID SHOAR said, because it consisted of curse words.

Not to mention defamation, and evidence that SHOAR is utterly insane. 

Guns don't recoil forward.  Michelle O'Connell did not kill herself.  SHOAR and State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA covered up a homicide. 

SHOAR is inarticulate.  While sporting three (3) taxpayer-paid degrees, SHOAR can't handle the truth.

SHOAR is a potty-mouthed pathological liar, who loves President DONALD JOHN TRUMP.

SHOAR was so outrageous that the demure lapdogs at GANNETT's Record would not even quote SHOAR about the September 2, 2010 murder of Ms. Michelle O'Connell.

SHOAR accused the family of "molesting" Ms. O'Connell's body by having her exhumed and autopsied.  Her jaw was broken.  Two judges found probable cause that BANKS killed her -- County Court Judge Charles Tinlin and U.S. District Court Judge Brian J. Davis.

SHOAR is a disgrace to the human race.  

SHOAR legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994.

Now, SHOAR looks forward to an office and a part-time teaching gig at Flagler College, Inc.

There, SHOAR's former Undersheriff, JOEL BOLANTE, heads the putative Public Administration program, and has landed in hot water with a federal court jury trial next year over retaliation for reporting sexual harassment --- the illegal firing of Dr. Tina Jaeckle, Ph.D.  SHOAR is also expected to go into business with former FBI Special Agent James Casey.  As they say in East Tennessee,  "they bear watchin'". 

Flagler College, Inc. Chancellor WILLIAM LEE PROCTOR retired earlier this year, abruptly, without honor, after the amended complaint was filed.  And after giving his deposition, Flagler College President JOSEPH JOYNER, Ed.D., has announced his retirement at the end of the school year.

Amidst its massive discrimination and retaliation problems, does anyone suppose that Flagler College, Inc. needs DAVID SHOAR as a professor?  Are you kidding me?

From the St. Augustine Record, know locally as "The Mullet Wrapper":




St. Johns Sheriff David Shoar looks back at 40 years in law enforcement

Stuart Korfhage

St. Augustine Record

November 22, 2020


St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar stands with Commander Bill Werle, Deputy Brittany Cicero and Corporal Samuel DeLuca in front of agency headquarters in St. Augustine on Friday. Shoar is retiring as sheriff after 16 years in January.

After being sheriff of St. Johns County for essentially a generation, David Shoar is serving out the final days of what he says will be the last of his political and law enforcement career.

Shoar didn't seek reelection this year during his fourth term as the county's top elected official. Instead, he's waiting to start the next chapter of his life as a 59-year-old unencumbered by the weight of leading the largest law enforcement agency in a fast-growing county.

In an interview with The Record, Shoar talked about what's ahead for him, acknowledged problems that occurred during his tenure and addressed other issues with law enforcement in this time of increased scrutiny and calls for racial justice.

On his reasons for stepping down at a relatively young age (15 years younger than the current president and 19 years younger than the president-elect):

"I have seen men and women, not just in law enforcement but other professions, stay too long. And I had a fear that that could happen to me if I spent another term (as sheriff).

"One of the old sheriffs long ago told me, 'David it's always good to retire one term before the citizens decide it's a good idea.'"

On the importance of having a replacement in Rob Hardwick, whom he strongly supports:

"When you've got that many employees and ... I've been with them 16 years now, they're family. And you don't want to leave that family in the hands of someone you don't trust or you don't have confidence in.

"That was a big thing. Robbie (Hardwick) stepped up and I've got full confidence in him. And I've been in law enforcement almost 40 years. It's time for some fresh ideas."

Shoar said he has a few plans for the future but is still evaluating his opportunities:

"I'd like get an office at Flagler College, and I want to do some writing and I want to teach a class a semester. And help with some fundraising efforts at the college — on a very limited basis. 

"I'm going to do some consulting for a few different groups that I'm interested in that are led by friends of mine. I'm going to volunteer as a mentor at the Veterans Court. I'm going to be doing some of those things that intrigue me.

"It's exciting in one breath and in another it's intimidating. I've worked since I was 10 or 11 years old. Now I don't have to work."

With someone as influential in local politics as Shoar, there are always those who might want to push him to run for something else. Former Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford currently serves in the U.S. House of Representatives. But there's no indication now that Shoar will seek that kind of path:

"The only house I'm running for is my house. (He is building a new home in the county.) I'm done with it.

"That'll eventually fade off in a couple of years (of being asked to run or assist in a campaign). Listen, I love my community. Anything I can do to help people, I'll do it. If I see a good candidate out there and they need help, I'll do what I can. 

"This public sector work, it's going to be very challenging in the next five years. A lot of the assumptions that we've worked on as a nation are peeling away — good and bad, whatever perspective you look at it from. Things are changing."

Although Shoar has remained very popular with voters, there have been some scandals over the years.

The most publicized one involved the suicide of the live-in girlfriend of deputy Jeremy Banks — Michelle O'Connell. Although the New York Times and other media outlets covered the case, two different investigations by outside State Attorney's Offices failed to find enough evidence to overrule the finding that it was a suicide.

Shoar has admitted several mistakes in the mishandling of the initial investigation that led to questions about the case. And he has openly feuded with the Times reporter who covered the story. (In fact, Shoar's comments about that subject were not suitable for print. Suffice it to say that he strongly disagrees with the reporter's findings and characterizations of the case.)

But more recently Shoar has had to deal with the arrest of his former CFO, Raye Brutnell, who is accused of embezzling $700,000 from the agency. And he also had to terminate a deputy who is accused of beating a suspect. Anthony Deleo was charged in the 2019 incident. 

On dealing with those cases and similar difficulties:

"The Brutnell case, what an embarrassment. She's 20 feet from my office and stole $700,000.

"We've had a lot of officer-involved shootings in my tenure and I'm not real happy about that." (But Shoar added that those involved had little choice given the circumstances.)

Shoar has served in the military and/or law enforcement for nearly all of his professional life. He's been very defensive about the role of law enforcement in this country while denouncing specific immoral actions like those in Minnesota involving the death of George Floyd.

The calls for defunding police and for disrespecting officers do not sit well with Shoar:

"What I've seen happen in my profession, saying it's a profound disappoint is an understatement because cops in this country have done more for these communities that have been left behind than anybody.

"We've done more for those folks as cops than any other organization in the country, so when I hear these attacks on law enforcement ... when we screw up it's all over the news like that (officer in Minnesota) that had his knee on the guy's neck for nine minutes.

"I fired this guy (Deleo) and we arrested him. We've been holding our people accountable more than anyone. Some agencies have not been doing that but not the majority of them. 

"What's so ironic is we're being stereotyped and that's what they've accused us of doing. They say that we've stereotyped people and assumed that they're all guilty because they have some attribute. Well, they're doing that to cops today."

But despite being upset that men and women in his profession are sometimes all lumped in with those who abuse their power, Shoar says he tries not to harbor animosity toward the public:

"I think this is a powerful statement: I'm a little bit jaded. I've become a little bit cynical over the years, but I still believe that 97% of the people are good, decent people that want to be left alone and live their lives. I'm not one of those guys who says, 'Oh half the country is all (messed) up' or anything like that.

"I still (believe) that 97% of the men and women of this country care about their family, care about their health, care about their world and want to be left alone and they're good people. And that's pretty good to say after 40 years of doing this job."

Overall, Shoar said he's glad he devoted so much of his life to this profession:

"It's been a great run. Some failures, obviously, along the way. 

"When I retire, I can go home and look in the mirror and say, 'I helped a lot of people.'"








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