Two St. Johns County Sheriffs and DONALD JOHN TRUMP

Update: August 9, 2024: Convicted felon DONALD JOHN TRUMP has endorsed the execrable DAVID SHOAR, who legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994

1. Check out this revealing October 24, 2016  photograph of controversial St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, campaigning in a St. Johns County government building, with then-candidate DONALD JOHN TRUMP, now charged in grand jury indictments dozens of facing felony criminal charges for fraud, stealing government secret documents, election fraud and election related civil rights violations in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., and soon more in Georgia.  

2. In 2016 an illegal St. Johns County Sheriff's office tweet endorsed TRUMP, withdrawn after press scrutiny by Stuart Korfhage, then with the St. Augustine Record, then a local newspaper owned by Morris Communications, with an office and staff who more or less covered some events in St. Augustine. 

3. In response to my questions, maladroit Sheriff DAVID SHOAR told a June 2, 2017 League of Women Voters forum that developers are "pretty nice people."  I responded, "they own you," addressing his campaign contributions from developers. SHOAR left the forum 38 minutes early. (As the late conservative William F. Buckley, Jr. once asked, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"

4. Sheriff DAVID SHOAR said on video in 2016, "You don't have a right to demonstrate" at our County-owned Convention Center at World Golf Village.

5.  The stunning video was reported in The New York Times. It happened in America, during the Sheriff's annual party, violating the constitutional rights of Jeffrey Marcus Gray, falsely claiming it was "private property."

6. Fun fact: SHOAR legally changed his surname from "HOAR" in 1994.

7. On July 24, 2019, ROBERT HARDWICK, then St. Augustine Police Chief -- elected in a landslide, with developer support,  in a closed Republican Primary as St. Johns County Sheriff in 2020 -- was called out with a "brickbat" from Folio Weekly, stating:

In a possible violation of the federal Hatch Act, which broadly prohibits government employees from campaign activities, the St. Augustine Beach police chief recently appeared and spoke in uniform before the Trump Club of St. Johns Counry.  SABPD has not responded to our request for comment.

Lessons learned: 

1. Let lawmen be lawmen, and not abusive Republican Lords of All They Survey.  Our Sheriffs and Police Chiefs must not be lousy louche lapdogs for developers, bundlers, bagmen, lobbyists, or organized criminals.  Is that too much to ask?

2. We need a County ethics ordinance.

3. We need lobbying registration and other government reforms.  

4. Our lawmen  swore an oath to support our Constitution and laws.  

5. Honor your oaths, gentlemen and ladies. 

6. Supporting insurrectionists and devious developers is not in your job descriptions. 

7. St. Johns County residents are watching you. 

8. The whole world is watching you.

9. Our St. Johns County Sheriff's Department harbored an embezzler who stole nearly $800,000 over five years -- she's the spouse of an FDLE supervisor. 

10. Our local government internal controls stink on ice.

11.  We are too often burdened with the bigotry and incompetence of unctuous, uncouth, unkind, unjust stewards in our local governments.

12. Along with State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA, Sheriff DAVID B. SHOAR helped cover up the September 2, 2010 homicide of Ms. Michelle O'Connell in the home of Deputy JEREMY BANKS, using BANKS' service weapon, claiming the homicide was "suicide," a stench in the nostrils of our Nation, which was exposed by Anne Schindler, Folio Weekly, The New York Times, PBS Frontline and intrepid three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Bogdanich.