Friday, August 09, 2024

Ex-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR ran red light, wearing two guns, with loose weed on his red SUV console.

UPDATE: August 9, 2024: SHOAR is running for State Senate with the endorsement of convicted felon DONALD JOHN TRUMP.  Still waiting on answers about "High Sheriff" DAVID SHOAR.  What is SHOAR's law enforcement certification status with the Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission?  No answer to December 26, 2023 request to FDLE.  What is SHOAR's current status with the law firm that employs as "Of Counsel" both County Commissioner ISAAC HENRY DEAN and RICHARD RUMRELL, the father of St. Augustine Beach Mayor DYLAN RUMMRELL?  

December 23, 2023, updated January 12, 2024:

It happened in St. Augustine Beach, Friday night, December 15, 2023: at least five (5) SABPD officers were on scene:


Ex-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR (right) with State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA

(Photo credit: Jeffrey Marcus Gray & The New York Times)



Ex-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR (The New York Times)

Celebrating Christmas and New Years a little early? The chief investigator for the WOOLSEY MORCOM law firm, St. Johns County's disgraced former Sheriff 2005-2021, ran a red light, not stopping before turning at Pope Road and A1A Beach Blvd, on the evening of Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8:49:53.  

Ex-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR was pulled over by St. Augustine Beach Police on December 15, 2023 at Pope Road and A1A Beach Blvd., he had a Beretta on his hip and a snubnose hammerless Smith & Wesson on his hip.  There was 1/4 ounce of marijuana on the console of in his red Ford Explorer SUV, sitting next to the notorious former High Sheriff (Retired), including loose pieces of marijuana and three (3) joints.  The police report referred to him by his first name ("David") and does not quote their conversation.  Waiting on any photos of SHOAR and his two (2) guns.

Both of SHOAR's guns were seized and later returned after an NCIC check.  His antics wasted an hour of SABPD time.  Although he brandished his State of Florida medical marijuana card, SHOAR, it was not a license for SHOAR to drive around in his red SUV, smoking pot.  Nor was it a license for SHOAR to carry marijuana outside pharmacy packaging.  Nor was it an invitation for SHOAR to leave loose pieces of marijuana open in his red SUV, along with three (3) marijuana joints.

Does dangerous negligent driver DAVID SHOAR give new meaning to the ancient British term, "High Sheriff?" Riding around wearing two guns, smoking marijuana?  What kind of man is he?  See the series of hostile comments posted by SHOAR or his entourage below this article. 

In 2005, SHOAR was driving near his home without a seatbelt, coming home from a party In a car crash, SHOAR's leg broke in seven places.  He developed an addiction to opioids.  His bad driving resulted in both parking spaces adjoining SHOAR's reserved space being left empty; then he was provided with a driver. 

The angry, authoritarian, misanthropic misguided author of the 2010 Michelle O'Connell homicide coverup, SHOAR "retired" by popular demand.  (SHOAR said at the time that he decided to "exit, stage left" in January 2021 after international exposure of his works and pomps in The New York Times, PBS Frontline, Folio Weekly, NBC News Dateline, ABC 20/20, the Guardian and other news media. The mean lawless lawman is a sloppy, sleazy Republican politician  who covered up the September 2, 2010, Michelle O'Connell homicide can't evade karma.

SHOAR legally changed his surname from HOAR in 1994.

The WOOLSEY MORCOM law firm employs SHOAR as its chief investigator.  WOOLSELY MORCOM also employs County Commissioner ISAAC HENRY DEAN as "Of Counsel," and lobbyist ERIKA ALBA ("I'm not a lobbyist") a former Republican County Commission primary candidate as a partner; its former managing partner is Judge CASEY WOOLSEY, County Court Judge, facing for discipline for alleged unethical activities.   What do they think of SHOAR's driving?  Could it subject them to liability for negligence if SHOAR/HOAR gets into another car wreck?

Details from St. Augustine Beach Police and SABPD Offense Report SABP23OFF000610.

By Drew Dixon, from Florida Politics (December 21, 2023):

Cops find marijuana in former St. Johns Sheriff’s SUV, let him go with warning


The former Sheriff of St. Johns County was found in possession of cannabis in his sport utility vehicle on a St. Augustine Beach road, but police let him go with a simple warning.

The former Sheriff of St. Johns County was found in possession of cannabis in his sport utility vehicle on a St. Augustine Beach road this month, but police let him go with a simple warning.

David Shoar, Sheriff of St. Johns County from 2004 to 2021, was busted with possession of marijuana in his Ford Explorer. According to a St. Augustine Beach Police Department (SABPD) report, Officer Brett Adams said he sensed what smelled like burning marijuana coming from Shoar’s SUV even before he pulled the vehicle over when he observed Shoar did not stop at a red traffic light on State Road A1A before turning onto Pope Road in the coastal community.

Shoar immediately brandished his Florida state-issued medical marijuana card, which permits legal use of prescribed cannabis. but the weed must be stored in prescribed containers and packages from a dispensary. There was no prescribed container or package. Even though marijuana is legal for medicinal and prescribed use in Florida, it is still illegal to drive under the influence of the drug.

The incident took place at about 9 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15.

After the traffic stop was made, Adams said in the report, “I observed pieces of marijuana on the center console (of the SUV). Additionally, there was a very strong odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle.”


Adams stated he asked the former Sheriff to exit from his vehicle. A search of the vehicle was conducted and an additional three marijuana cigarettes were located inside the Explorer.

Adams wrote in his report, “I collected the marijuana and submitted it into evidence for destruction.”

Coincidentally, Shoar was an outspoken critic of some proposed measures in Florida that would have legalized medicinal marijuana before the drug got state approval for prescriptions. In 2015, a Florida Politics report noted Shoar, who was President of the Florida Sheriff’s Association, was opposed to elements of state legislative proposals to legalize medicinal cannabis.

Adams said he gave Shoar a “verbal warning for both the traffic violation and having marijuana in the vehicle.” The former Sheriff was allowed to drive away from the traffic stop.

No field sobriety test was given.


SABPD Police Chief Daniel Carswell issued a statement this week addressing the officer’s actions and said the incident was handled appropriately.

“A roadside investigation and interview were conducted by officers. No driver impairment was detected during the interview/investigation,” Carswell said in a brief type-written statement which largely recounted the incident report drafted by Adams.

“SABPD officers conducted a thorough investigation adhering to agency policy and standard operating procedures,” Carswell concluded in his prepared statement.

Drew Dixon

Drew Dixon is a journalist of 40 years who has reported in print and broadcast throughout Florida, starting in Ohio in the 1980s. He is also an adjunct professor of philosophy and ethics at three colleges, Jacksonville University, University of North Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville. You can reach him at drewdixonwriting@gmail.com.


From WOOLSEY MORCOM website, bio of their "Chief of Investigations," who appears to have no private investigator license issued by the State of Florida.  Wonder why?

DIRECTOR OF INVESTIGATIONS

David B. Shoar

Before joining Woolsey Morcom in 2023 as its Director of Investigations, Sheriff Shoar began his law enforcement career as a police officer with the St. Augustine Police Department in 1981. He served as a uniformed patrol officer for ten years until his promotion to Sergeant in 1991. Sheriff Shoar served as a uniformed Patrol Sergeant through 1997. In 1997, he was promoted to Operations Commander overseeing the Patrol and Detective Divisions. In 1999, he was assigned as the Administrative Services Commander. He served in that capacity until May of 2000, when City Manager Bill Harriss appointed him Chief of Police.

Sheriff Shoar is a 1987 Honors graduate from St. Johns River Community College. He graduated with highest honors in 1996 from the University of North Florida, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice. In 2001, he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with highest honors from the University of North Florida.

Sheriff Shoar is a member of several academic honor societies including Phi Kappa Phi and the Golden Key National Honor Society. He has served as an adjunct professor at St. Johns River Community College and Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.

In 2005, Sheriff Shoar was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Flagler College. Also in 2005, Flagler College created the David B. Shoar Award for Academic Achievement to recognize the graduate of the Public Administration Baccalaureate Degree program who maintains the highest grade point average. Sheriff Shoar worked with Flagler College to create the Public Administration baccalaureate degree program for working professionals in 2003.

Sheriff Shoar retired from the St. Augustine Police Department in 2004 after being elected to serve as Sheriff of St. Johns County. After re-election in 2008 and 2012, Sheriff Shoar was elected to his fourth and final term as Sheriff in 2016. 

In 2014, Shoar was elected by his fellow Sheriffs to serve as President of the Florida Sheriffs Association. He has served on a variety of advisory boards including the University of North Florida’s Institute of Government and the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. He has also served on the Board of Directors of EPIC Behavioral Healthcare in St. Johns County.

Sheriff Shoar was appointed by three successive Florida Governors (Crist, Scott, and DeSantis) to serve as one of nineteen commissioners on The Florida Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission (2010-2020).

Sheriff Shoar is married to the former Laura Giannotta. They are the parents of two children, Emily and Matthew. They live in the Crescent Beach area and belong to St. Anastasia Catholic Church in St. Augustine.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...

So what if he had weed. It's legal, it's a lot healthier than booze and other kinds of medicine, and he can have guns. None of that is illegal. Everything you just said here is irrelevant. Might as well start posting things about cat grooming.

Billy the Bamboozler said...

Was he coming back from a visit with Ernesto or Bill McClure AkA Billy the Bamboozler McSewer? I don't even think Shoar would hang out in Billy the Bamboozler's sewer. Everyone knows better than that..

Anonymous said...

You're full of it Slavin. If you got pulled over and to they recognized you and wanted to let you walk on a petty charge, would you say, "No, take me to jail like everyone else." No, only a complete fool would do something like that and nobody with any kind of decency on planet earth would take Shoar to the jail where he worked for 25+ years and put him in a cell. Unless he killed someone or did some serious crime nobody would do something like that. You live in fantasy land.

Edzilla said...

Here's how I see it. Yes the average Joe probably would have gone to jail depending on the asshole on duty that day. BUT...I'm glad to see someone, ANYONE slide for ANY reason seeing as those crackers on the bench have been f*****g people over and f******g people's lives up for decades. You see the police ARE really the good guys when it comes to the dysfunctional criminal justice system. They're the best players in that particular game!

Ed Slavin said...

Did former St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR ever apologize for running the red light and turning without signaling? Did he apologize to the SABPD officer and SABPD Chief? Did SHOAR/HOAR EVER request that he be issued a a traffic ticket for his illegal turn? SHOAR retired as a millionaire. He now works for a corporate law firm. Developers long used SHOAR as a cat's paw in campaigns, as when he issued postcards from the edge endorsing an unqualified candidate against beloved Mayor Nancy Shaver. Like his mentor, St. Augustin e City Manager WILLIAMN BARRY HARRIS, disgraced ex--Sheriff SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR set a low bar for ethics in SJC, in the spirit of predatory predecessors like Sheriff LAWRENCE O. DAVIS, whom SJSO and SHOAR long lauded with falsehoods on their websit.

Ed Slavin said...

I contracted rheumatic fever at 13. Thang God and penicillin there was no heart damage. Since then, II have had rheumatic arthritis. Thus, I am not a licensed driver. Thus, I do not drive, out of respect for the value of human life. As Pope Francis would say, "who are you to judge?"

Ed Slavin said...

So your haughty hypothetical is inapplicable, insulting, irrelevant and pointless. Do you approve of SHOAR's performance/. Who are you?

Edzilla said...

1) Nobody apologizes for anything anymore
2) If you've been in any job for that long and don't retire a millionaire then you were either handicapped Intellectually or mentally in some way...or you took it in the bung.
3) People oppose other people in races for office. That's a thing.

Anonymous said...

I am Billy the Bamboozler's speech writer and designated driver. No I don't get paid twice.

Anonymous said...

you must be a very unhappy person to constantly be attacking others. I feel bad for you. I was hopeful for a Democratic candidate for Commissioner next year. it won't be you with all the anger you spew.

Ed Slavin said...

Ad hominem. I can just feel the love. JFK's UN Ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, said, "As scarce as truth is, the supply seems greater than the demand."

Ed Slavin said...

SHOAR's bad decisions drew the attention of five (5) officers, apparently all of the SABPD officers on duty at the time. No apology. Not even a ticket for running red light. Police report referred to him as "David." Favoritism? Waiting on tape of radio call. Would you hire SHOAR as your investigator if you had a law firm?

Anonymous said...

I guarantee if you failed in your perfection and did something stupid, and Shoar and the boys let you slide, you'd be praising Shoar right now. But because you've never needed a boost..we hear all this stuff from you about Shoar.

Anonymous said...

There's no real Democrats in the whole county... hate to tell you. Democrats like to tax and do government stuff. Ed doesn't count, voted against sales tax increases "because it would effect the poor." I'm not buying that because it's not logical. Some other anti-government agenda at work...

Anonymous said...

Yea, exactly. Who are you to judge? Get off your pompous high horse. All you do is judge others.

Anonymous said...

You don’t even allow free speech. You cast stones and control the comments. You’re a hypocrite, a coward, and a failure.

Anonymous said...

If someone works for the head of a department for 25 years, and they arrest that person for petty stuff after they retire, who would want to work for that organization or what would that do to the morale of that organization? Think! If I was a cop and he'd been my boss for 25+ years, I wouldn't arrest him unless he went on a killing or robbery spree. All this human nature and common sense... nothing out of the ordinary about that. It's a social group and the hierarchy doesn't change because that person retires. If that's the kind of gig you had wanted for yourself then you could have had it. It is what it is.

Ed Slavin said...

SHOAR never ran SABPD. Not even a traffic ticket for the man who attacked the Michelle O'Connell family and covered up her homicide. So much for the Rule of Law. If SHOAR were ethical, he'd have asked for a traffic ticket for running the red light. The culture of corruption is deep, and so is the b.s. Such discourtesy to the people, Anyone else would have gotten a ticket. Low expectations here in the place Dr. King called "the most lawless" in America.

Anonymous said...

You’re a little bitch and a pussy

Ed Slavin said...

1. Controversial e-x-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR was not even given a traffic ticket December 15, 2023 for his illegal turn at a traffic light without using his turn signal. SHOAR's "Anonymice" defenders are evidently angry at our state and local news media's multiple news stories about SHOAR's non-arrest.
2. Notice the "Anonymice" have the same sense of sense of entitlement as DONALD JOHN TRUMP.
3. SHOAR is the former Sheriff, who left office in January 2021.
4. SHOAR has no immunity. "Presidents are not kings," as Judge Tanya Chutkin ruled against TRUMP's demand for immunity. SHOAR is not a king.
5. SHOAR got no traffic ticket. His bad driving put lives in danger. He was given special privileges: no ticket?
6. Do SHOAR/HOAR's "Anonymice" defenders think they are above the law, too?
7. Why don't any of the "Anonymice" identify themselves?

Ed Slavin said...


8. Who are the "Anonymice?" Any of the "Anonymice" abusing SJSO computers or time on this project?
9. SHOAR was the County's notorious cat's paw for developers, who funded Republican campaigns. Gullible SHOAR called developers "very nice people" at a LWV event.
10. SHOAR helped developers dump their "money bombs" on honest public officials.
11. One of those honest public officials was our beloved City of St. Augustine reform Mayor Nancy E. Shaver, who wrote a letter to the editor calling for justice for Michelle O'Connell. Before she ran for office, Mayor Nancy Shaver had a letter in the St. Augustine Record, stating:

Posted December 18, 2013 02:15 pm
By NANCY SHAVER St. Augustine
Letter: Something for Alexis' stocking
The St. Augustine Record

Editor: The Empty Stocking fund appeal always brings me to thoughts of children, and this year to seven-year-old, Alexis O’Connell, whose mother, Michelle, died of a gunshot in 2010 under circumstances that are at best unclear. At the age of four Alexis was left to wonder why, if the Sheriff’s office investigation were to be believed, her mother who loved her so deeply, and called to say she was on her way to her, suddenly decided to kill herself and leave Alexis alone.

I’ll make a donation to the Empty Stocking fund as many of us will. But this year I’ll also take the time to contact [the] … United States Attorney, and ask [him] to investigate the handling of Michelle’s death. Nothing will restore Michelle to this earth, but clear-eyed justice can give Alexis some measure of peace.

Please consider adding your voice to this request….

A comprehensive and professional inquiry would be a gift not only to Alexis and her family, but also to all of us who look to the law to protect and serve us equally.

12. What principled reason exists for the "Anonymice" inveighing against valid reporting and questions about the author of the coverup of the September 2, 2010 homicide of Ms. Michelle O'Connell by Sheriff's Deputy JEREMY BANKS, with BANKS' service weapons in BANKS' home?
13. Confederates of thin-skinned ex-Sheriffs ululate, and bully me for my exercise of their First Amendment rights. As William F. Buckley, Jr. once said, "Why does baloney reject the grinder?"
13 Two (2) respected judges found probable cause that Deputy JEREMY BANKS committed homicide of Ms. Michelle O'Connell.
14. U.S. District Court Judge Brian J. Davis and County Court Judge Charles J. Tinlin both found probable cause that BANKS committed homicide. Untethered to truth, SHOAR stirred up five years of meritless civil litigation against FDLE Special Agent Rusty Ray Rodgers for doing his job in investigating BANKS. See New York TImes articles.
15. No more coverups are desired or required.

Ed Slavin said...


16. Remember September 2, 2010, a date that will always live in infamy.
17. Justice for Michelle O'Connell.
18. Enough malarkey from the DAVID SHOAR party.
19. Republican U.S. Rep. David Perley Lowe of Kansas said as Congress was enacting the 1871 Civil Rights Act (Ku Klux Klan Act), "Immunity is given to crime, and the records of the public tribunals are searched in vain for any evidence of effective redress." (Rest of quote: "While murder is stalking abroad in disguise, while whippings and lynchings and banishment have been visited upon unoffending American citizens, the local administrations have been found inadequate or unwilling to apply the proper corrective. Combinations, darker than the night that hides them, conspiracies, wicked as the worst of felons could devise, have gone unwhipped of justice.x Cong.Globe, 42d Cong., 1st Sess., App. 166-167, quoted in Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961)
20. "Anonymice:" kindly identify yourselves.

Anonymous said...

This is why you don’t have a wife or kids. No one cares about you. You’re an annoying prick and a loser. Little bitch. You are a fucking nobody.

Anonymous said...

So tough behind a keyboard, faggot

Anonymous said...

Did you apologize for being a cuntboy?

Ed Slavin said...

Character counts. Is there a culture of corruption a and desuetude on law enforcement here in the place Dr. King called "the most lawless" in America? Not even a traffic ticket?

Ed Slavin said...

Poster above states, "If I was a cop and he'd been my boss for 25+ years, I wouldn't arrest him unless he went on a killing or robbery spree." Reminds me of TRUMP's 2016 remark, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters." We have a reasonable expectation of profit in our county and our country. Willful men like SHOAR and TRUMP speak and act contrary to the genius of a free people.

Ed Slavin said...

Enough lawbreaking. Enough flummery, dupery and nincompoopery, SHOAR has no respect for the law.

Ed Slavin said...

"Decency, security, and liberty alike demand that government officials shall be subjected to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal -- would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious doctrine this court should resolutely set its face."
Justice Louis Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438 (1928), dissent upheld and Olmstead reversed in Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967)

Anonymous said...

Shoar has nothing to do with Trump and you've got no evidence of that being the case. Him visiting St. Johns County is proof of nothing. Shoar did nothing illegal worth mentioning.

Anonymous said...

Cops give people warnings all the time. I've run a red light downtown and got a warning before...so really what you are suggesting is that they get tougher. If that happened, people wouldn't want to live here. Already very little money to be made unless you've already got money.

Ed Slavin said...

One of the Anonymice wrote, "Shoar did nothing illegal worth mentioning." No for you to decide, "Here sir, the people govern," as Alexander Hamilton said at the New York State Convention ratifying our Constitution.
[Poughkeepsie, New York, June 27, 1788]. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-05-02-0012-0034

Ed Slavin said...

In circa 1981, Assistant Anderson County, Tennessee District Attorney General Janice Grabowski Hicks ran a red light, dropped by the Clinton City Hall, and paid her fine without being ticketed. Character counts. Ex-Sheriff SHOAR could have asked SABPD for a ticket. Satrap SHOAR never encouraged respect for the Rule of Law. Justice for Michelle O'Connell. Justice for Eli Washtock.

Anonymous said...

nincompoopery? What is this, the 1950’s? fucking weirdo

Anonymous said...

I have to assume that you are in highschool since I've never heard the term. My advice to you is to move onto college and then comment on the internet. Then you won't be wasting your time and everyone else's with nonsense.. and you'll have a better chance of being taken seriously.

Edzilla said...

Ed is good overall. Don't encourage him to post vulgar name calling like he's doing now for some illogical reason.

Edzilla said...

👆The Tea Party has entered the chat... you know, the terrorist supporters, executive branch crime supporters, the fascist propaganda peddlers etc

Billy the Bamboozler said...

He has a better vocabulary than you. (See Ed, I told you about these sub apes. This is what the sub apes do with their "free speech." To them, hate speech, terrorist threats, and neo nazi propaganda is "free speech." Next they'll be claiming that mass shootings are "Second Amendment rights."

Anonymous said...

👆 Someone in town needs to straighten this guy out. You gonna get straightened out in that county jail buddy. You're gonna get squared away before, during, AND after your release.

Ed Slavin said...

Ipse dixit, you can't fix it. SHOAR and his vulgar Worcester Massachusetts style of demeaning degrading discourse typify the genre of nattering nabob of negativism name-calling by coarse social dominators in St. Johns County. They can't handle the truth. Pray for them.

Ed Slavin said...

We have a reasonable expectation of probity, Some people, like developers, expect enormous profits and give little back to our community and our country. JFK's mom, Rose Kennedy's favorite4 Bible verse was, "to whom much is given, much is expected." If he were a better person, ex-Sheriff DAVID SHOAR would have requested a traffic ticket and paid a traffic fine, While normal people struggle to pay traffic fines and costs, SABPD gave SHOAR a free ride. The 1% profit from such desuetude of law enforcement in their favor. As Sheriff, DAVID SHOAR allegedly would personally ask officers to favor Ponte Vedra swells and not issue them tickets.