Ralph Nader, "Please Teach Your Children About Corporate Criminals (WaPo, September 25, 2021)

My parents taught me about corporate criminals. We had a copy of "The Robber Barons" in our living room, among a cache of good books that opened my eyes to the world. 

During freshman orientation at Georgetown University on August 28, 1974 (Feast of Saint Augustine), I saw Ralph Nader speak at Gaston Hall. He stayed to answer numerous questions, until there were only twelve of us left in the auditorium. 

The next morning, i went to volunteer for Senator Ted Kennedy. Best. Senator. Ever. 

Heer's Ralph Nader's September 25, 2021 column from The Washington Post::

Students haven't studied "corporate welfare," even though taxpaying parents subsidize these government giveaways, handouts, and bailouts to demanding, mismanaged, or criminal corporations with power. (Photo: Sergio Flores/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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• Please Teach Your Children About Corporate Criminals

  Today's school children are engulfed by corporate apps, software, and textbooks biased toward the corporate definitions of an economy and myths about "free markets."

  

  RALPH NADER

  September 25, 2021

  If you think elementary, middle, and high school students know too little history, geography, and government, try asking them about the corporations that command so many hours of their day, their attention, what they consume, and their personal horizons.

  Howard Zinn published A Young People's History of the United States (2009), to go with his best-selling pioneering work, A People's History of the United States (1980), but he didn't do justice to all the modern corporate controls of just about every facet of American life, including educational institutions.

  Today's corporate plutocracy is at a different level of penetration altogether.

  Today, school children are engulfed by corporate apps and software, textbooks biased toward the corporate definitions of an economy, and myths about "free markets." For years free school materials and videos produced or sponsored by business groups, including the coal and nuclear industries, have flooded elementary classes. Our report: Hucksters in the Classroom: A Review of Industry Propaganda in Schools by Sheila Harty (1979), documented this mercantile assault on education. Students even take tests designed by corporate institutions.

  Eleven-year-olds have asked me "What is a corporation?" Teenagers ask, "What's corporate crime?" or "What's a company union?" These are the same youngsters who click on the handcuffing fine-print contracts of internet companies that own social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok. These are the same youngsters who are lied to daily by corporations about harmful junk foods and drugs, and whose parents overwhelmingly work in anti-union offices and factories.

  Forget about students knowing or learning about "The Commons," although they listen to music broadcast on the public airwaves and probably have visited a national park. (For more on The Commons see: Think Like a Commoner: A Short Introduction to the Life of the Commons by David Bollier). Students haven't studied "corporate welfare," even though taxpaying parents subsidize these government giveaways, handouts, and bailouts to demanding, mismanaged, or criminal corporations with power.

  Schools forever have separated students from giant slices of reality—historical and contemporary. Much of this ignored or distorted reality shapes present conditions, such as the various controls of the many by the few. But today's corporate plutocracy is at a different level of penetration altogether. Shucking past taboos, corporate marketeers hard sell directly to children bypassing or undermining parental authority. What they sell is obesity, diabetes, promiscuity, dangerous addictions and violence in their merciless "entertainment programs" and narratives about armed force, however illegal it may be.

  In terms of sheer time, range of exposure, and planned peer group pressures, corporations are raising our children day and night. Big companies do strategic planning about everything affecting our children. There are no longer adequate limits and boundaries on corporatism or protections of commercial-free zones.

  It's getting worse. Eyewear for "augmented reality" from Facebook and rapidly expanding "artificial intelligence" induce dependency and more sedentary living. People from Bill Joy to Stephen Hawking to Elon Musk have strongly warned about these emerging technologies and the consequential loss of freedom and democracy.

  I'd like to invite some open-minded educators to consider a six-hour curricula for late middle school through high school students on the modern global corporation. Hour One could be called "Big Corporations are Different from You and Me" illuminating this fast-dominating "artificial person" with all the rights of real humans yet structurally escaping from responsibility, a status of "privileges and immunities" under corporate law[lessness].

  Hour Two could be devoted to the history of corporate power so heavily characterized by the costs of their amassing wealth—costs to workers, communities, small businesses, voters, consumers, patients, our governing ways, and, yes, students. Having been told repeatedly about how companies "built America," students should learn about all the "NOs." Corporations were operationally entrenched against the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, union organizing, the minimum wage, universal health insurance, early solar energy, mass transit, public campaign financing, and governmental institutions accountable to the citizenry. The most recent big "NOs" are against consumer, labor, and environmental justice and, of course, waging peace instead of forever wars of mayhem and profit have filled volumes of documentation.

  Hour Three might run students through all the attempts and reforms by the American people to reign in the destructive, unjust excesses of large companies and their controlling ideology of corporatism. What were the results from all those widespread protests, regulatory actions, prosecutions, and electoral reforms? What are the successes of the peace movement, environmental groups and initiatives by workers, consumers, creators, and defenders of The Commons, (such as the public lands and public airwaves), investors and savers for justice and the common good? What happened to the corporate tax system, the drive for shareholder rights and corporate democracy and, most importantly, the rule of law over corporate power?

  Hour Four, Hour Five, and Hour Six – well, to be continued. That is, if we hear from people interested enough in having this proposal described further.

  ---

  Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

  

  RALPH NADER

  Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the author of "The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future" (2012). His new book is, "Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lies and Lawbreaking Betray All" (2020, co-authored with Mark Green).

‘Devastating’: Florida Republicans worried about 2022 as they crafted election law (Politico)

There;s no doubt why Dull Republicans in Tallahassee attacked voting rights. From Politico:

Text message exchanges made public cast a new light on the Florida Legislature's election reform bill signed into law. | Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images

FLORIDA

‘Devastating’: Florida Republicans worried about 2022 as they crafted election law

Emails and text messages undercut the GOP’s claim Florida’s election overhaul wasn’t political. 

By GARY FINEOUT

 

09/20/2021 06:00 AM EDT

 

Updated 09/20/2021 02:30 PM

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republicans this spring insisted a contentious new election law curtailing access to ballot boxes was needed to prevent electoral fraud. It was not, they said, an attempt to gain a partisan advantage. 

But a raft of internal emails and text messages obtained by POLITICO show the law was drafted with the help of the Republican Party of Florida’s top lawyer — and that a crackdown on mail-in ballot requests was seen as a way for the GOP to erase the edge that Democrats had in mail-in voting during the 2020 election. The messages undercut the consistent argument made by Republicans that the new law was about preventing future electoral fraud.

The law — labeled “Jim Crow 2.0” by some Democrats — was passed at the strong urging of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill at an exclusive event aired by Fox News. It advanced even as local election officials, including Republicans, criticized the measure after running a trouble-free election in 2020. One official went so far as to call it “slap in the face” while one north Florida supervisor recently told DeSantis he was resigning at the end of this month in part to oppose “continuous changes” in election laws.

DeSantis gives Fox 'exclusive' of him signing election bill

Florida was just one of several GOP-controlled states that enacted voting restrictions in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s loss and his unsubstantiated complaints about voter fraud, although it isn’t as restrictive as laws passed in Georgia and Texas. When debating the bill in the waning moments of this year’s legislative session, Republican Party of Florida chair and state Sen. Joe Gruters repeatedly said the bill would “make it as easy as possible to vote, and hard as possible to cheat.” 

Yet in one remarkable text exchange obtained by POLITICO, Gruters and lead House sponsor state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) went back-and-forth over proposals to shorten how long mail-in ballot requests are valid.

Gruters defended a Senate proposal to cancel all existing mail-in ballot requests, saying that it would be “devastating” for Republicans to keep them valid heading into the 2022 election when DeSantis and other state GOP officials are up for reelection. More than 2.18 million Democrats used mail-in ballots compared to 1.5 million Republican voters during the 2020 election where Trump easily won Florida. Part of that was due to the ongoing pandemic, as Democrats strongly encouraged voters to change their habits nationwide. 

“We cannot make up ground. Trump campaign spent 10 million. Could not cut down lead,” Gruters wrote to Ingoglia, who had been chair of the Republican Party of Florida before Gruters.

Gruters (R-Sarasota) also said it would hurt the GOP in non-partisan races, noting that “our school board member got killed” in a local race. Gruters this week filed legislation that would ask voters to make school board races partisan.

The final election bill did not include the Senate proposal to cancel all requests. Instead, lawmakers voted to grandfather in existing requests. But over the protests of Democrats, the Republican lawmakers still shortened the time the requests would remain valid from two election cycles to one. 

When asked about his text messages, Gruters said “what I said in my text message was accurate. I think the failure to do a reset will have a detrimental impact going forward.”

The emails and text messages obtained by POLITICO were handed over as part of an ongoing lawsuit by several groups — including the League of Women Voters of Florida — challenging the newly-enacted law that put in new restrictions on the collection of mail-in ballots and the use of drop boxes. The groups contend the new law illegally targets elderly and disabled voters, as well as minority voters. The National Republican Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are helping defend the measure.

The groups challenging the law asked for the records to be turned over as part of their preparation for trial. POLITICO asked for copies of all records turned over by the House, Senate and governor’s office. These records included legislative drafts that are usually shielded from disclosure.

Included in the records were several emails between Ingoglia and Ben Gibson, an attorney for the firm of Shutts and Bowen who has been chief counsel for the Republican Party of Florida the last two election cycles. Gibson, an ally of DeSantis who the governor appointed to the State Board of Education, has also represented national Republicans in election-related lawsuits including the one challenging the new law.

Gibson recommended several provisions that made their way into the final legislation, although not all the ideas he shared with Ingoglia were included, such as one that would have given additional power to Florida’s secretary of state to investigate local election supervisors. At one point he provided a lengthy side-by-side of House and Senate bills that recommended which provisions should be kept and which ones should be jettisoned. Ingoglia downplayed his communications with Gibson. 

In a text message to POLITICO, Ingoglia said, “I had an open door policy and listened to everyone. Some ideas we took, and many were discarded. The legislature wrote this bill. Any suggestion otherwise is not accurate. Ultimately I’m proud of what the Florida Legislature passed.”

Ingoglia also brushed aside the back-and-forth with Gruters. He said he was “very clear from the beginning” that allowing mail-in ballot requests to remain valid for two election cycles “was too long.” 

“I was on record for this well before any text message was received,” Ingoglia said. “This was a policy decision all along and had nothing to do with partisan reasons.”

Democrats who sharply criticized the voting legislation said they were not surprised that it was drawn up with the assistance of a top Republican attorney.

“Unfortunately, I am not shocked,” said state Rep. Evan Jenne (D-Dania Beach). “Democracy is just a game to some.” 

Democrats also made sure to consult outside groups as well while the bill was under debate. During session, Senate Democrats held a caucus meeting where a lobbyist and consultant representing civil rights groups encouraged Democrats to ask questions that could be used in a potential lawsuit.

State Sen. Annette Taddeo (D-Miami) said that if legislators wanted to improve Florida’s elections they would have relied more on local supervisors.

“If this was truly about democracy and integrity of elections we would be taking the advice of experts,” Taddeo said. “Clearly this shows this was partisan — where they were colluding to undermine democracy.”

Florida’s next surgeon general opposes mask, vaccine mandates (Miami Herald)

One-term Governor? RONALD DION DeSANTIS has chosen an anti-mask, anti-vax Surgeon General. 

From Miami Herald: 

Florida’s next surgeon general opposes mask, vaccine mandates

BY LAWRENCE MOWER AND  KIRBY WILSON 

HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 21, 2021 3:57 PM

Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, that Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a physician from UCLA, has been hired to be Florida's new surgeon general. 

TALLAHASSEE

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a new surgeon general for Florida on Tuesday, a Harvard-trained doctor who advocated for an approach to the coronavirus pandemic that emphasizes protecting individual rights over community-based precautions.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, a UCLA researcher who expressed skepticism that vaccines could help end the pandemic, said Tuesday that he would “reject fear” as a public health strategy.

“Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies,” Ladapo said. “That’s been something that’s been, unfortunately, a centerpiece of health policies.”

As surgeon general, Ladapo will oversee the state’s Department of Health, Florida’s lead agency on combating the coronavirus pandemic. He replaces Dr. Scott Rivkees, a pediatrician whose last day was Monday.

Ladapo indicated on Tuesday that he’ll play a more prominent role than Rivkees, who was noticeably absent from public appearances over the last year.

Since the start of the pandemic, Ladapo has penned op-eds in the Wall Street Journal challenging main assertions by national health experts.

When asked about whether people should fear the vaccine, Ladapo said Tuesday those fears were driven by a “climate of mistrust” in the public about the nation’s coronavirus response. That sentiment is similar to those made by DeSantis since the start of the pandemic.

“That was a direct result of scientists, my colleagues, some of them, taking the science and basically misrepresenting it to fit their agendas,” Ladapo said. “This idea that people don’t get to make their own decisions on issues of health is wrong and it’s not something that we’re going to be about.”

When asked whether Florida should be promoting vaccines, Ladapo replied that too much emphasis had been placed on that approach.

“The state should be promoting good health, and vaccination isn’t the only path for that,” Ladapo said. “It’s been treated almost like a religion, and that’s just senseless.”

He said the state should be supporting many measures for good health: “vaccination, losing weight, exercising more [and] eating more fruits and vegetables.”

DeSantis said the state was getting a top-flight doctor who will tell the truth about the science behind the pandemic.

“Telling the truth is important, and I think that’s what Dr. Ladapo understands,” he said. “You’ve got to tell people the truth, and you’ve got to let them make decisions.”

TOP EXECUTIVE IN STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH

As the head of Florida’s Department of Health, Ladapo will be a key figure in the debate on whether children should wear masks in schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students and staff.

The state’s ban on mask mandates, and all other mitigation efforts, have ostensibly relied upon the guidance of Rivkees and the department. But the state has recently blocked Rivkees from testifying in a lawsuit against the ban on mask mandates.

Thirteen of Florida’s 67 school districts are currently facing financial penalties if they don’t follow a department rule that says parents must have the ability to opt out their children from school mask mandates.

Ladapo declined to say what type of mitigation efforts he would support in schools when asked on Tuesday.

“Well, you know, I’m discussing that with my team in terms of recommendations. It’s complicated … we are discussing,” Ladapo said.

However, he said pulling children from school is a “perfect example of how glaringly we’ve ignored public health.”

Democratic lawmakers who serve on the Legislature’s public health committees criticized DeSantis’ choice.

“Florida’s surgeon general should be an expert in public health, but instead the governor has chosen someone who has questioned the safety of the COVID vaccines, has advocated against masks as a way to stop the spread of the virus, and who believes herd immunity through natural infection is the best possible way to end this pandemic,” said Sen. Janet Cruz, D-Tampa, in a statement.

JOINING UF FACULTY

Ladapo was born in Nigeria and moved to the United States at the age of 5. His father was a microbiologist. He’s married with three children, and he was recently granted a professorship at the University of Florida.

Ladapo said he is a “good friend” of Stanford University professor Jay Bhattacharya, who has become a go-to expert for DeSantis in public health matters. Bhattacharya — not Rivkees — was a witness for the state in a parent-led lawsuit against the governor’s mask mandate ban.

Bhattacharya was also one of the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, a document drafted by three physicians who advocate for a policy that says that anyone who is not vulnerable “should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal.”

The document asserts that mask usage isn’t necessary, that lockdowns are counterproductive, and allowing young and healthy people to get infected should be expected as long as the vulnerable are protected.

Ladapo said he signed the declaration, although “there were a couple of things I didn’t agree with.”

Many of Ladapo’s essays echo the opinions of DeSantis, his new boss, who has questioned the efficacy of mandates, criticized leaders who implement lockdowns and championed various coronavirus treatments.

Ladapo’s writings do all of the above, but in one Wall Street Journal piece from June, Ladapo and a co-author took a strong stance against vaccines.

“The risks of a COVID-19 vaccine may outweigh the benefits for certain low-risk populations, such as children, young adults and people who have recovered from COVID-19,” the column states.

To come to that conclusion, Ladapo and his co-author cited incidents reported by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which, as the column noted, is not intended to evaluate whether a given reaction was caused by a vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not appear to agree with Ladapo’s conclusion.

“These vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history,” the government agency’s website reads. “This monitoring includes using both established and new safety monitoring systems to make sure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe.”

Ladapo’s hiring now means three major Florida health agencies will be led by Black officials. The Department of Children and Families is led by Shevaun Harris. The Agency for Health Care Administration is led by Simone Marstiller.

Ladapo still faces confirmation by Florida’s Republican-controlled Senate.

Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau Chief Mary Ellen Klas and Tampa Bay Times staff writer Allison Ross contributed to this report.

This story was originally published September 21, 2021 2:33 PM.

Noted Homophobe, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), 88, Reportedly Running for Re-Election

Cool cartoon by St. Johns County's talented cartoonist Mike Konopacki.

Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is reportedly planning to run for re-election in 2022.

Last panel reminds me of the time in 1991 when I co-authored articles touching on security clearance law for American Bar Association Young Lawyers' Division magazine, Barrister (circulation 175,000).  

My co-author, my then-boss, then and now the Legal Director at the Government Accountability Project in Washington, D.C. demanded I tone down our article's critique of government anti-Gay discrimination on security clearances, to focus only on whistleblowers. I declined the invitation.   

After USDOL Chief Administrative Law Judge Nahum Litt helped in winning a major victory -- an ABA House of Delegates resolution on security clearance due process, adopted in Honolulu in August 1989 -- we helped Congressional Democratic staff for Congressmen Don Edwards and Gerry Sikorski with five days of historic House of Representatives legislative oversight hearings on security clearances, 1989-1990.  The first five witnesses were four whistleblowers and one Gay man, all ensnared the the web of shame of what I called "unaccountable national security clearance czars."  

My boss's only justification for wanting me to Bowdlerize our article was his opinion that "Grassley is a homophobe," but was helpful with whistleblowers, and not to be lightly offended. 

My boss yelled and screamed and pouted. 

We later parted ways.  

Lesson: Always stand up for principles. 

When our putative "liberal" allies in D.C. turn their back on LGBTQIA+ rights, they were wrong.  

Gay rights are human rights, as President Joe Biden told the United Nations on September 21, 2021.

And, Senator Charles Grassley is he still a bigot?  Are good people still making bad excuses for the windbag?

You tell me.

Teacher bonus checks are bouncing in Florida (Tampa Bay Times)

Rather than send teacher bonuses by direct deposit, Dull Republicans ordered actual checks!  It was a chance to put their names and signatures before voters.

They blew it.  

Some of the teacher bonus checks have bounced.  

How many teacher bonus checks have bounced?

 Have you ever gotten a bad check from an employer? How embarassing for our Boy Govenor, a one-termer. Perhaps RONALD DION DESANTIS needs to hire new managers. His constant staff turnover, 2013-date, from his days as a Congressman, suggest he would be difficult to work for -- what do you reckon? 

Remember when Republicans were fiscal conservatives?  

Not in today's Flori-DUH, suffering from 20 years of Dull Republican misrule.  

From Tampa Bay Times:

Teacher bonus checks are bouncing in Florida

Checks issued to at least 50 teachers in 22 different counties bounced because of a banking error, Florida Department of Education spokesman Jared Ochs said.

By Lawrence Mower and Ana Ceballos

Published Yesterday

Updated 2 hours ago

TALLAHASSEE — When dozens of Florida teachers tried to cash their state-issued $1,000 bonus checks this week, they got a startling response: “insufficient funds.”

No, the State of Florida hasn’t run out of money. Instead, the bad checks are being blamed on a “banking error” by JPMorgan Chase.

Checks issued to at least 50 teachers in 22 different counties bounced because of the error, Florida Department of Education spokesman Jared Ochs said.

“We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and are working to correct it, including refunding any fees incurred by the recipients as a result,” Allison Tobin Reed, the bank’s vice president of communications, said in a statement to the Times/Herald.

Reed said the mistake impacted “a small number of people out of 176,000 payments made.” However, it was not immediately clear how soon impacted educators will have access to their $1,000 bonuses.

“The impacted individuals have been identified and we are diligently working to correct this banking error expediently,” Ochs said.

 The bounced checks came to light after Sen. Jason Pizzo, D-Miami, posted a photo to Twitter of one teacher’s “returned item notice” from the Jackson County Teachers Credit Union showing the check bounced for “not sufficient funds.” The teacher received the notice on Tuesday.

“Any Florida teachers out there whose bonus checks bounced?” Pizzo asked.

The banking error was confirmed by the state shortly after Pizzo’s tweet got attention on social media.

Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the state should have made people aware of the issue before being called out about it on Twitter.

“If there hadn’t been any social media attention, how long would it have taken for them to tell us?” Driskell said. “To me, it is embarrassing to see a check from the state with the governor’s signature bounce. It is embarrassing.”

The bounced checks were the latest glitch over DeSantis’ handling of $1,000 bonuses to teachers, principals and first responders, money that came from federal COVID relief funding.

Instead of sending the money to school districts to distribute, like in the past, DeSantis’ administration decided to issue the checks individually, with an accompanying letter signed by DeSantis. The state paid a private contractor $3.6 million to print and send the checks. That led some lawmakers and the union representing school teachers to accuse DeSantis of using the bonuses to score political points.

The state said that by sending the money directly, saying the $3.6 million was well below the 10 percent normally allotted or administrative costs on federal funding.

After dozens of checks bounced, Pizzo pointed back to that multi-million dollar contract.

“Teaching moment: The individual political benefit in spending $3.6 million to print and send thousands of checks with your name on it, is outweighed by the more efficient and fiscally responsible option of direct deposit,” Pizzo said.

Feds hint at "developments" in case against former Lynn Haven mayor and three others (Tom McLaughlin, The Panama City News Herald)

There will be a supersding indictment in Lynn Haven corruption case.  

Feds hint at "developments" in case against former Lynn Haven mayor and three others

Tom McLaughlin

The Panama City News Herald

September 23, 2021 

LYNN HAVEN — The federal criminal trial of former Lynn Haven Mayor Margo Anderson and three co-defendants was postponed Friday as prosecutors hinted that they are refining their existing indictment in the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker ordered the trial, which had been scheduled to get underway on Sept. 27, continued until Oct. 26. He ruled after U.S. Attorney Andrew Grogan informed him of "developments in the case." 

Grogan did not indicate the nature of the developments, but said more information will be released in the near future when a superseding indictment is filed.

"The interest of a speedier trial is outweighed" by "a superseding indictment to be filed," Walker said in agreeing to delay the trial.

Lynn Haven:Federal indictment of Lynn Haven mayor and city attorney hinted at corporate wrongdoing

More:Federal judge tosses cornerstone conspiracy charge in case against former Lynn Haven mayor

Also of interest:Lynn Haven corruption: 3 plead guilty, facing prison time

Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Jacksonville Division Rachel Rojas speaks to media on Aug. 19, 2020, at the Panama City branch office. Lynn Haven Mayor Margo Anderson and Lynn Haven City Attorney Joseph Adam Albritton are the subjects of a federal indictment.

Walker said the Oct. 26 date would serve only as a placeholder and that he anticipated a status conference would be held on that day rather than an actual trial.

Anderson was originally indicted by federal authorities in August 2020 along with former Lynn Haven City Attorney Adam Albritton. Each faced more than 60 criminal counts, including conspiracy to defraud, wire fraud and embezzling federal funds.

The indictment was amended and new charges were added to those Anderson and Albritton already faced when James Finch, the owner of Phoenix Construction, and former Lynn Haven City Commissioner Antonious Barnes were brought into the case alongside them. 

The four originally were charged with conspiring to defraud the city of Lynn Haven and the federal government in the wake of Hurricane Michael and multiple counts of honest services fraud and wire fraud.

The second indictment was filed in March of this year. In August, in response to motions made by the defendants, Walker tossed out the conspiracy charge the federal government had relied upon to build its case against the four as co-conspirators.

NHC watching disturbance headed for Florida; Hurricane Larry to send heavy surf to East Coast

$125K in double-red flag fines? 1,700 rescues? Swimmers have kept PCB busy this year

Want to catch pythons for cash? Panama City's Kurt Cox knows a thing or two.

Walker wrote in his ruling that while he saw clear intent to conspire in three of five "projects" he looked at to determine whether conspiracy allegations held up against the group, in two others he did not and due to that he could find no alternative but to toss the entire charge.

Dismissal of such a charge, Walker said, should not be employed when a less drastic ruling will suffice, "but, in this case a less drastic ruling will not suffice."

"It is simply not possible to disentangle the allegations," Walker said.

Walker noted in making his August ruling that because allegations stemming from the alleged conspiracy between Anderson, Albritton, Finch and Barnes were "incorporated throughout" the charges spelled out in the March indictment, his ruling that it be thrown out "could make other counts subject to dismissal."

"This court, however, declines to address this issue or any other until raised by the parties," Walker wrote.'

September 28, 2021 Board of County Commissioners Meeting on County Attorney Hiring Decision

Just posted today:

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING for the County Attorney position (9/28/2021)

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, will hold a Special Meeting on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 beginning at 1:00 p.m. in the County Auditorium located in the County Administration Building, 500 San Sebastian View, St. Augustine, FL 32084. 

The purpose of the Special Meeting will be to discuss, interview, and select the candidate for the County Attorney position. The Board of County Commissioners may also consider and take action on any other business that may lawfully come before it during the Special Meeting.

If a person decides to appeal any decision made by the Committee with respect to any matter considered at the meeting, he/she will need a record of the proceedings, and for such purposes he/she may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is to be based.

NOTICE TO PERSONS NEEDING SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS AND TO ALL HEARING IMPAIRED PERSONS:  In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, persons needing a special accommodation to participate in the proceedings should contact the ADA Coordinator, at (904) 209-0650 at the St. Johns County Administration Building, 500 San Sebastian View, St. Augustine, FL 32084. For hearing impaired individuals: Florida Relay Service: 1-800-955-8770.

Event Details

Event Type: Meeting

DEPUTY ANTHONY DELEO BEAT UP UNARMED NAKED MAN, ACQUITTED OF AGGRAVATED BATTERY -- Prosecutorial and Journalistic Malpractice? State of Florida v. ANTHONY J. DELEO

It happened in America.

In the early morning hours of December 29, 2019 in northwestern St. Johns County, Florida, CHRISTOPHER BUTLER, an impaired driver, and convicted felon, was driving slowly and erratically on I-95, eluding police for several miles before he pulled into a parking lot.  

CHRISTOPHER BUTLER, eluding police and intoxicated on beer and Coricidin, was initially uncooperatiuve and allegedly kicked Defendant Deputy ANTHONY DELEO in the knee.  Shirtless BUTLER then removed his pants and underwear and said he was God.  

Stating that he was in pain from the knee kick, Deputy DELEO was angry and frustrated, having only recently recovered from complex knee surgery. As a result he could not get down on the ground with the suspect. 

Two maladroit overweight fin de siècle Sheriff DAVID SHOAR deputies, weighing a total of 600 pounds, delayed handcuffing the driver for five (5) minutes and fifty (50) seconds, during which time they were seemingly unwilling or unable to put an unarmed impaired man in handcuffs.  

Meanwhile Deputy ANTHONY DELEO took out his frustrations, breaking bones and nose and sending BUTLER to Flagler Hospital, with 22 baton strikes, four punches and two kicks to the face to make an arrest.

Two (2) officers -- what Ashley J. Terwelleger calldd "600 pounds of men" -- taking five minutes and 50 seconds to handcuff 170 pound BUTLER. 

Finally, another deputy, Willie Carson, drove up and was able to handcuff the fleeing felon in seconds. But for Carson, BUTLER might have had more severe injuries, the prosecution argued.

Ex-Deputy DELEO was charged with: 

AGGRAVATED BATTERY 

(784.045 1a1 & 784.045 1a2)  

784.045 Aggravated battery.—

(1)(a) A person commits aggravated battery who, in committing battery:

1. Intentionally or knowingly causes great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement; or

2. Uses a deadly weapon.

The jury was out for some three hours before returning a not guilty verdict. 

State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA was kind enough to respond to public outrage an d media coverage by charging fired Deputy ANTHONY J. DELEO with aggravated assault.  

But the State's Attorney called no experts!

Legal malpractice? Desuetude of law enforcement by the Seventh Circuit State's Attorney office?

This left DELEO's lawyer with sufficient reasonable doubt for an acquittal. 

The individual Daytona-based prosecutrix in the courtroom was skilled eloquent and did her job. 

But as an organization, State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA's 82-attorney four county office: 

• called no medical experts on the source and seriousness of CHRISTOPHER BUTLER's injuries!  
• called no "use of force" experts!
• did not bother to show the full video in its case-in-chief, finally doing so in rebuttal argument!
• stinks on ice,

As the defense attorney, Terry Jon Shoemaker, asked jurors in closing argument, "Did they just want you to look at a bunch of medical records?"

Good question.  

It seems to me like State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA might have thrown the case. 

Query: When was the last time RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA ever appeared in court and examined a witness?  Other than ceremonial appearances at Dull Republican functions, who recalls ever seeing LARIZZA perform any of the functions of an elected  State's Attorney,

LARIZZA's office never called his pal, former Sheriff DAVID SHOAR to testfiy. 

SHOAR and other upper level St. Johns County Sheriff's officersnever took the stand to testify.  

Footnote: SHOAR fired DELEO, a fact that was rightly ruled inadmissible.  F.S. 90.403.

The defense attorney made sly reference to SHOAR proseecuting DELEO before leave  office.

In response to past queries, RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA has refused to distribute or adopt 

the National Prosecution Standards of the National District Attorney's Association. Wonder why?

Did the St. Augustine Record violate basic journalistic standards by this silly 471 word story? (Below).

You tell me/

Inept prosecution, lousy news coverage? 

You tell me.  

No body cameras on St. Johns County Sheriff's officers yet -- Sheriff DAVID SHOAR famously said in 2016 that they advance a "false narrative that cops need to be watched,"

Did the DELEO case prove SHOAR wrong?

You tell me.

The State of Florida only got to prosecute DELEO thanks to non-SJSO video.  DELEO was caught only thanks to FHP video and cell phone video by an innocent bystander, lawyer Ramzi Bateh.

Is there any good or principled reason why all LEOs are equipped with working body worn cameras, recording all future interactions with the public?

You tell me.

The trial was carried live by the Clerk of Courts office by Zoom and YouTube, without ever showing the video the jury saw, some previously posted on the Internet by local news media. 

Shirking its First Amendment watchdog function  the incredible shrinking St. Augustine Record's coverage after the trial reflected that perhaps no one had watched the trial, never quoting any of the evidence or omissions of evidence (failure to present medical testimony or police use of force experts).

Dull Republican State's Attorney RALPH JOSEPH LARIZZA once again proved himself inept and unsuitable to be prosecutor.  

I think LARIZZA & Co. effectively fixed the case when they called no experts and did not show the full video in the State's case-in-chief.

What a disgraceful excuse for law enforcement we have here in St. Johns County. 

From The St. Augustine Record: 

Anthony Deleo, former St. Johns County deputy, found not guilty in aggravated battery case

Sheldon Gardner

St. Augustine Record

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A former St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy charged with second-degree aggravated battery after video showed him kicking and beating an unarmed man was found not guilty Wednesday. 

Anthony Deleo, 52, was fired from the sheriff's office following the incident, in which investigators determined Deleo used a “gratuitous amount of force” during the arrest of Christopher Butler on Dec. 29, 2019, in a Winn-Dixie parking lot along County Road 210.

Previous coverage:Mom of son beaten by ex-St. Johns County deputy: ‘It’s barbaric what they did to him’

The jury left Judge Lee Smith's courtroom around 11:30 a.m. and had a verdict around three hours later. If convicted, Deleo would have faced up to 15 years in prison.

Closing arguments focused in part on whether Deleo used excessive force considering the circumstances and whether Deleo was responsible for the extent of Butler's injuries. 

The prosecution said Deleo administered excessive blows to Butler that were punishing instead of force being used as a tool to get him into custody, and Butler endured serious injuries. The defense said that Butler kicked, bit and scratched law enforcement and ignored dozens of commands ― and that deputies can respond with greater force than they're being met with because of the dangers posed by people doing illegal things. 

The incident began with a traffic stop.

The prosecution said Deleo administered excessive blows to Butler that were punishing instead of force being used as a tool to get him into custody, and Butler endured serious injuries. The defense said that Butler kicked, bit and scratched law enforcement and ignored dozens of commands ― and that deputies can respond with greater force than they're being met with because of the dangers posed by people doing illegal things. 

Butler was not fully cooperative with law enforcement, and Deleo initially tried unsuccessfully to pull him out of the car, the affidavit said. Butler eventually got out of the car. 

According to the affidavit, Butler was unarmed and stood in a “non-threatening manner” with his back to officers. Deleo hit Butler with his baton and used a stun gun to shock Butler twice as he walked away from them, the affidavit states. Butler then removed his pants as he fell to the ground.

Dash cam video from the trooper’s patrol vehicle recorded a portion of the beating. Deleo kicked Butler in the head twice and beat him with his baton 19 times as Butler sat on the ground naked, according to the affidavit.

The sheriff’s office report stated Butler did not resist during the ordeal. Butler, a St. Augustine resident, was hospitalized.

Butler was arrested on charges of fleeing authorities, reckless driving, DUI, and resisting arrest with violence. The State Attorney’s Office declined to file formal charges against Butler on all but the fleeing charge. He also had two out-of-county warrants.

Reporter Frank Fernandez contributed to this story.