Circuit Court Judge R. Lee Smith sentenced former Sheriff's CFO RAYE ANNETTE BRUTNELL to 7+ years in prison and ten years of probation for stealing $702,773 rights under the nose of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who legally changed his name from "HOAR" in 1994. Under Florida law and a weak plea agreement, that was the maximum he could have done.
Unlike Watergate federal Judge John J. Sirica, St. Johns County Circuit Judge Smith appeared incurious in May, when Brutnell pled guilty.
Neither he nor the 10th Circuit State's Attorney's office reached further to investigate what Sheriff DAVID SHOAR should have known when his top financial person stole money under his nose for five years.
When alert Bank of America employees detected BRUTNELL depositing a vendor check into her own account -- rather than her usual array of phony front accounts -- they notified SHOAR.
Working through then-Governor RICHARD LYNN SCOTT, Sheriff SHOAR got a friendly State's Attorney and Sheriff from another judicial district to "investigate." It stopped with BRUTNELL.
Like Republican Lord of All He Surveys, SHOAR covered up the September 2, 2010 homicde of Michelle O'Connell in the home of Deputy JEREMY BANKS, and covered up the January 31, 2019 murder of Eli Washtock, who was investigating BANKS. SHOAR is no longer Sheriff.
BRUTNELL is married to a supervisor with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Was this an inside job?
Why didn''t FBI investigate bank fraud, and investigate SHOAR?
This stinks.
From St. Augustine Record:
Former St. Johns County Sheriff's Office finance chief gets 7-plus years in embezzlement case
By Colleen Michele Jones
St. Augustine Record
Former St. Johns County Sheriff's Office finance director Raye Brutnell stands with her lawyer, Hank Coxe, before Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith for sentencing at the St. Johns County courthouse Tuesday. Lee sentenced Brutnell to more than 88 months in prison for stealing more than $700,000 from the sheriff's office.
Raye Brutnell, the former St. Johns County Sheriff's Office finance director accused of embezzling money from the agency, was sentenced Tuesday to just over seven years in prison in a plea deal with the State Attorney's Office.
Brutnell was arrested in November 2018 amid allegations that she stole more than $700,000 from the sheriff's office and its employee benevolence fund over about five years by issuing checks to fraudulent vendor accounts that she created.
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In a proceeding that lasted less than 20 minutes, Brutnell stood to face those charges in the St. Johns County Courthouse, dressed in a gray blazer and black pants, dabbing tears periodically behind her face mask.
Brutnell chose not to submit a statement to the court before hearing the decision delivered by Judge R Lee Smith. She was handcuffed and led away by bailiffs after the judge handed down her sentence.
According to the sheriff’s office, Brutnell initiated 74 payments to fictitious accounts totaling $702,773, including 51 payments from the benevolence fund worth $80,115 and a “misappropriated” benevolence fund check of $2,868.
Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith sentences former St. Johns County Sheriff's Office finance director Raye Brutnell to more than 88 months in prison in his courtroom at the St. Johns County courthouse on Tuesday.
Brutnell was facing 11 felony charges and originally entered a plea of not guilty. If convicted on all counts and sentenced consecutively, she could have been sentenced to up to 150 years in prison.
Raye Brutnell plea deal: Guilty on three counts
As part of a plea deal struck with the state May 17, Brutnell agreed to plead guilty to two counts of grand theft and one count of executing a scheme to defraud on a financial institution.
She had been charged with two counts of criminal use of personal identification. But as part of the deal, she agreed to plead guilty to one charge of criminal use of personal identification information.
The state has agreed not to prosecute six charges: fraudulently creating or using counterfeit personal identification information; official misconduct; forging a bank bill; uttering a forged bill, check or draft; unlawful use of a two-way communication device; and failure to properly apply solicited charitable contributions.
Under the deal, Brutnell's sentence could have ranged from approximately three to seven years in prison.
Smith said Tuesday because Brutnell had not yet submitted any of the restitution she was required to pay — a minimum of $79,531.57 — he was imposing the harshest sentence of 88.35 months, followed by 10 years of probation.
The sentences recommended in the plea deal vary depending on the restitution she has paid by her sentencing date.
The local State Attorney's Office of the 7th Judicial Circuit did not handle the case.
Because of Brutnell’s former position with the sheriff's office and because her husband worked as an agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and once worked in St. Johns County, 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza requested then-Gov. Rick Scott to appoint a special prosecutor, saying that the couple is known to him personally and professionally.
Scott appointed 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office to handle the case.
Following the May 17 plea hearing, Jake Orr, a spokesman for the State Attorney's Office in the 10th Circuit, told The Record: "I think 7 1/2 years in prison followed by 10 years of probation is pretty good for us."
Brutnell's attorney, Hank Coxe, declined to comment following the judgment Tuesday.
Record reporter Sheldon Gardner contributed to this story.