Former Clay Commissioner Fitzgerald found not guilty

For Assistant State Attorney Stephen Siegel, three strikes and you are out.  He hs tried Fitzgerald three times at the cost of god only knows how much of the taxxpayers money, he should be the next to go!!!

 Considering Gov. Christ should have reinstated Fitzgerald after she was acquitted of the felony, but he was waiting due to the misdemeanor charges, Fitzgerald should be reinstated to her Board of County Commissioner seat, awarded back pay and legal fees.

 It is scary to think that soneone's life could be affected the way Fitzgerald's has and the State Attorney's Office has absolutely nothing to show for it.

I wasn't here for all this fiasco so I am not making a determination based on any previous knowledge. I just find it a bit incredulous that the statement was made that:

Jurors in St. Johns County, ...... said the state did not prove the former commissioner knew she was doing anything wrong.

It doesn't say she didn't do anything wrong, only that the state didn't prove that she knew it was wrong. I was always taught that ignorance of the law was not an excuse. Apparently it is if you are the former Chair of the BCC.

Fitzgerald should be reinstated to her Board of County Commissioner seat, awarded back pay and legal fees.

I'm not sure I would agree with that. However this happened I wouldn't think that she has a lot of support in District One. Why do so now when that seat is up for re-election in November?

Link to Roll back BCC from 5+2 TO 5

http://24.23.126.8/

Mike Heemer

For those of you who check out the new blogs, you saw that Karen proposed a best phrase in the blogs. 

For those of you that have followed the Queen's antics in Clay County, Finder just gave us the best phrase of the year, if not the last 5 years.  With apologies to Finder since he does not know the history of the Queen and her side-kick Fester.

"However this happened I wouldn't think that she has a lot of support in District One."

Finder, welcome to the soap opera of the Boss Hogg-ette.  She actually lost District 1 but was our Commissioner.  To say she does not have support in District 1 (even before this happened) is an understatement.  Ain't that grand?  Then she hooked up with one of our local political gadflies who probably has links all the way back to Henry Clay, and had very important political cell phone conversations for longer than most of us work our jobs.  The rest is history.

Now, she is a proud member of the OJ club. 

Ok Clay Co Commisioners Welcome back Miss Fitzgerald with open arms. I guess Mike Price's fine Report is another report that has nothing but full of holes, and we pay him as Citizens of Clay Co for the fine work that he CAN'T DO. Maybe he (MIKE PRICE)should pay Miss Fitzgeralds back pay.

Wow, you give Fitzgerald WAY TOO much credit.  The fact that should could pull off an OJ....3 different times....with 3 different juries.  Unbelievable.  You have given her WAY TOO MUCH CREDIT.

Wake up and face reality.  INNOCENT, not once, not twice but three times.  Get over it already.

I have no ideal what circumstances may/may not have occurred in this case.  However, let me assure you the system does work.  A prosecutor knows very well what is needed to prove their case.  I've seen many of these in different circuits and am continually amazed at lack of evidence and preparation.  If you cannot prove the charges, stay out of court. 

We all need to accept the verdict and move on.  I would venture to guess that before the final costs are fully known, the price tag will be much more than was anticipated. 

Ms Fitzgerald is now eligible to reclaim her seat on the CCC.   If she does, just remember she has been adjudicated "Not Guilty" and is entitled to our acceptance.

Let's not for get that it was the SAO investigators (who were later on the Sheriff's payroll during the investigation despite what the Sheriff says)  who dreamed this entire conspiracy up and can not prove a thing. Does not bode well for their abilities as investigators or for their credibility as police officers.

This is the same team that used the power of the grand jury to bring these people to "justice" but can not convict outside of the loose grand jury rules.

Their world is falling apart and they have egg on their faces but are holding strong for the Sheriff.

Add to this situation:

People unnecessarily killed in Oakleaf

Babies used during a drug deal TWICE, which the Sheriff denied for a week but later was forced to tell half the truth.  No policy violations either after an internal?

The announcement of "no gangs" in Clay County while a teenager is getting shot during gang activity.  Then he referrs to them as gang wannabes. Talk about challenging the crowd. Dumb.

How about the entire Deputy Barber drug investigation? Working investigators find possible illegal activities, Sheriff covers it up so it doesn't hurt the campaign by giving him a "heads up" and to quit the practice of breaking the law.

 There are more but we will discuss them later. Check into these issues and see what you find, but be aware that the Sheiff will lie to you so keeping looking.

FastOne;

I won't belabor the issue. Just a quick question.

Who do you endorse for Sheriff? Who do you think should get my vote? Right now there are only 4 candidates and this one apparently sucks so who's the best alternative?

Link to Roll back BCC from 5+2 TO 5

http://24.23.126.8/

Mike Heemer

Just a quick question? Do you have someone dress you for the day or can do it yourself? Be a man and vote for who you want running the Sheriff's Office and the rest of the county or just keep your blinders on and let them have their way. Have a great day...

209;

Actually I put the clothes on by myself but I always ask the lovely bride if they go together first. I hate it when she says 'you're not wearing THAT are you?'

She swears she's going to start putting the 'geranimal' labels in them so I can pick out my own. Ah one can only hope that one day I'll be a big boy, able to pick out my own clothes and get dressed all by myself. I'll bet that will be so much fun!

Now if I can just master getting my shoes on the correct feet and tying my own laces.

I'll bet you can already do that can't you? I mean with such intelligent repartee you have got to be so far ahead of me that I'll never catch up. I am so envious.

Mike Heemer

http://24.23.126.8/ Petition for choice in Nov.

Fitzgerald is found not guilty. All person according to our laws are innocent until found guilty. Ms. Fitzgerald should get her position back, and shoud get back pay, and should have her attorney fees paid. It doesn't matter how you feel about her personally she is the elected official for District 1. When an elected official has been exonerated then she should be given her position back.

The Sheriff by his own article written stated he hired the State Attorney Investigator that worked that case. If this was the best evidence and cases they could come up with. It would have been smarter if they would have stayed out of court. It would have cost me less in wasted tax dollars anyway.

The Sheriff's involvement with the drug investigation. If leaks are coming out of the Sheriff's Office as reported then we need a grand jury convened to find out what happened. Leaking information to people under investigation is a crime. Law Enforcement have access to some of the most privileged informaion. Violations of the public's trust is and should be considered serious.

Now here's one for the drive bys that always get pinged on the blogs. Some have said the Sheriff's ticket writing campaign has stopped because it's an election year and he doesn't want to make the voter mad. Public records 101 to validate your statements.

Budget UpdateJames Jett [jettj@clayclerk.com] 

We have just closed out our revenues versus expenditures for the first six months of this fiscal year in the Clerk’s Office.  Our revenues are down, in our court related budget, from last year at this time….$190,529 and on the non-court (recording) budget down….$292,510 for a total of $483,039.00.

This is because of the following:

(1)   Traffic citations issued by Clay County Sheriff’s Office for the first six months of last fiscal year were 14,407 and for the same six months of this fiscal year they have issued 7,236.  A total of a 49.7% drop in tickets processed from their office.  The Florida Highway Patrol issued 4,995 traffic citations in the first six months of last fiscal year yet have only issued 3,409 citations for the same time period this year.  A total drop of 31.8% in citations processed by our office. 

County-wide, we had 22,562 traffic citations issued for the first six months of last fiscal year versus 14,454 citations for the same time period this year.  A decrease of 8,108 citations or a 35.9% decrease from the prior fiscal year.

(2)   When we examine our “NON-COURT” fees, i.e. recording revenues, we see a similar decrease because of the economic trend.  For the first six months of the 2005-2006 year we recorded 46,237 documents, for the same time period in 2006-2007 we recorded 39,483 documents and for the same time period this fiscal year we recorded 31,970 documents, a decrease of 19.3% over one year and a decrease of 30.9% over the past two years.

Our office is in the process of making some adjustments because of these events which are beyond our control.  We have dismissed two(2) full-time contract employees within our traffic department and transferred the workload to other personnel, have eliminated one part-time position in our civil department and will eliminate an additional part-time position within our criminal department in May of 2008.  We have frozen all hiring and will examine additional cuts over the next few months to decrease recurring costs.

I bring this to your attention because our reversion to the county will be substantially less than in previous years because of these budget shortfalls.  I would suggest that you budget 30% to 35% less than last year’s reversion to compensate for these revenue decreases.

I will keep you posted as we continue through this fiscal year.  If you have any questions, please call.  Thank you!  

Looks like a lean year on revenue reversions in Clay County. Maybe they can fill the void with the red light chicanery.

A link for the red light campaign:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080413-red-light-camera-monkey-business-may-be-a-national-trend.html

Kudos Angela: You are right on about Fitzgerald.  Personalities aside, she was found not guilty. Return her to her elected position with back pay and her legal fees paid.  That should be the end of the story.  I find it curious that if you don't like her verdict, the trial wasn't done well, if you like her verdict, she got a fair trial.  Human nature is a funny thing.

Giggles because of Finder: Love the Garanimals (I don't think either one of us is spelling it correctly) idea.  My dearly beloved always asks "does this match?" It would be so much easier if you guys just matched the purple hippo shirt with the purple hippo pants (it worked for all my kids, I am sure you guys will catch on)

Clayvoter I think it should be both. It was a fair trial and her case was based off the evidence. The State Attorney's Office had the opportunity to investigate the situation. Then presented that evidence for which charges were placed against Ms. Fitzgerald. Ms. Fitzgerald presented evidence that disputed the charges that were placed against her. And 3 seperate juries reviewed the evidence and based off that information found her not guilty. I would say that was lacking on the State Attorney investigators and the State Attorney' Office to pursue those charges. Not against Ms. Fitzgerald for defending herself in a court of law.

I have blogged Mr. Ivey's ticket on here too. If the Commissioners voted on the board floor to place that stuff in the landfill then why is Ivey charged. The Commissioners hire the county manager who works at the pleasure of the Commissioners. Mr. Ivey worked at the pleasure of the County Manager. Ivey's orders came from the Commissioners who voted to dump that stuff in the landfill.

If you asked me who's responsible it would be the Commissioners who voted to allow that dumping.

I'll go back to work now.

You got to be kidding me.  Christy and Arthur are guilty as heck.  Christy pulled an OJ.  We'll see if Mr.Ivey is as lucky.  They shouldn't even be allowed to reside in Clay County.  Thats all Im going to say about that!

Make it a great day!

Steven P Munsey A+, MCP, IASO Orange Park | Green Cove Springs munsey13@comcast.net

I think the OJ trial was compromised by the investigations too.

Yes, I support the fact that Christy Fitzgerald was re-instated with back-pay after being found innocent of the charges.  I believe each and everyone would agree that if they were on trial for anything........and it went to trial in a court of law.........and  were found innocent of the charges being levied against them.......they would and should enjoy the fruits of that decision.

Like many,  I have grown skeptical over time because of the politics and  politicians who govern locally and nationally.  But I also personally know several very good, hard working local politicians. 

So what you have is a mixed bag of people who all been given a little power and a little authortity.   Some are good and know how to handle it,  some not so good.  That's where it comes down to the voters individual responsability to be involved, educated, and active when it comes to politics.  I would leave you all with a couple sayings that prudent here:

"an ignorant public is the government's best friend"

"complaining is an opportunity to volunteer"

Keep the Faith

godoggo