Former PBSO Deputy Michael Gauger wants to challenge Sheriff Ric Bradshaw Bradshaw already faced controversy over his departments high rate of police shootings. In the powerful position of state property manager he effectively reigned over billions of dollars in Russian assets, and paved the way for Vladimir Putins rise by appointing Putin as his deputy in 1996. The Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office has six departments Legal Affairs, Law Enforcement Operations, Community Operations, Corrections, Support Services, and Administrative Services. By the end of the 40-minute call Lewis and Rodriguez had agreed to do some paid freelance work on Jessicas behalf and obtain her gold-diggers private Facebook messages and web browsing history. Bradshaw has helped to secure reimbursement for those expenses. They can maybe try to say I encouraged it, but Im not worried about that. Dougan also claimed hed sold the PBSOtalk website to a Russian businessman (he changed his domain registration first, to make it look good) and that he no longer had control over what was posted there. When The Daily Beast asked Dougan if he could provide a copy of the contents of the thumb drive he claims to have received from his source, he came back a few days later with a zip file of 743 DNC emails, just as hed described. Hes saying hes for body cameras, Freeman said. That includes this election cycle. Even without the Seth Rich tale, Russias state-controlled media outlets have already gotten mileage out of Dougan, whos portrayed as an honest ex-cop caught in a corrupt system, who had to flee to Russia to escape persecution by American authorities. Early release of inmates in not my decision and is up to the Chief Judge and the State Attorney. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw - Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Voters here in 2002 cast ballots in support of making the races for Sheriff, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections non-partisan. He was sentenced to 18 months. The warrant sought evidence of communication between Dougan and Internet user BadVolfs Russian moniker. Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. How do you see the differences facing voters in this race? BE SURE TO READ: We Cannot Allow the Left to Destroy Palm Beach County, BE SURE TO READ: Zero Evidence of Threats to Palm Beach County School Board, [Video] 7th Grader Punished For Shirt Saying Only Two, Pushaw Dunks On FLOTUS Spox Who Resigned After, Cruz Defends Justice Thomas-Dems Hate Him Because Hes, Video: Satanists Shred Bible at SatanCon Boston Opening, Nightmare Photos Hatched: Hilarious Easter Bunny Encounters Thatll, News Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of fifty (50) years in law enforcement. Reports of the treatment drew national scorn. Freeman has knocked Bradshaw for overseeing an agency that has had to make multimillion-dollar payouts to settle cases brought against people shot by deputies. Palm Beach County Sheriff Speaks Out On Recent Antisemitic Acts They didnt have an arrest warrant, and no charges had yet been filed. While Bradshaw has not officially announced his candidacy, he told me today, I feel good, and Im going to run.. The city is dealing with community outrage over the death of a 13-year old boy on a dirt bike as he was running from police and the Florida Highway Patrol has found the officer was not at fault. A fake-news site is nothing without real news, he wrote recently. But he still did work for Sheriff Bradshaw. No, Dougan says quickly. He sued Windam for wrongful discharge, and the town settled for less than $10,000 in go-away money. Ron DeSantis ordered, Bradshaw said, I dont know.. But Bradshaw never has been shy about pushing a big budget and has noted that sheriffs can ask the governor to overrule county commissions. Bradshaw serves on regional task forces that deal with homeland security and emergency management. His own reelection website touts his 50 years of experience in law enforcement, and he says total crime is down nearly 26 percent since 2016. Bradshaw has formed seven mental health teams, consisting of a deputy and a social worker. In May, according to Dougan, the Kremlins RT network shot video for a feature-length documentary on Dougan. He believed the sheriffs office was whitewashing the whole affair, punishing Raban and his deputies with technical violations to satisfy the public, while glossing over the police brutality at the heart of it all. He says that when he started writing his book he hadnt yet decided to admit his supposed role in DC Leaks, so he left out the meeting at the basketball court. Dougan was in Moscow in time to witness Putins landslide reelection victory this year, after his most viable opponent, opposition leader Alexei Navalny, was hit with dubious fraud charges and barred from running. During the week he periodically borrows a friends car to drive north to a workshop in Solnechnogorsk, on loan from the owner, who saw Dougan in the news and wanted to help, he says. In this contemporaneous telling, Dougan had gone to Moscow to do business. And the sheriffs office opened yet another investigation. Politically speaking, it is the equivalent of trying to climb Mount Everest without rope. Sheriff Bradshaw allowed Jeffrey Epstein to be on work-release for 12-hour days, six days a week. Internal Affairs is now investigating. Publicly, he claimed BadVolf was a friend hed met in Russia, but he disclaimed responsibility for the putative hackers actions. Asked about the criminal investigation of Epsteins jail time that Gov. Bradshaw would be seventy-six years old in 2024, and the assumption has been he would retire, but I have a lot of gas in my tank, said Bradshaw. We are constantly evaluating our hiring practices. It was an unusual movenobody volunteered for Belle Glade. 2023 Florida Sheriffs Association // Privacy and Refund Policy, "The people of Palm Beach County, and the Sheriff's Office make a great team, which is why Palm Beach County is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Gov. From ex-cop to exile: Former police officer flees US after - RT The contrast with his opponent is stark. For these he turned not to property records, but to a similar vulnerability in the states voter registration rolls. Im just lucky that I have a place to go, and Im really grateful for that. Michael Gauger, the longtime chief deputy to Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, wants to run against his old boss in the 2024 election for county sheriff. Bradshaw is the most politically powerful persona in the county. As told in his book, and elaborated on in interviews with The Daily Beast, Dougan went straight to Shinjiru in April 2016. Palm Beach County Sheriffs office follows the latest policies and procedures for hiring practices. The details are under seal, but an arrest warrant was issued, and Dougan is now officially a fugitive. The feds had evidently bought into Dougans game. Dougan kept up the conceit that BadVolf was hacking into county networks and stealing the secret address data, and his notional Russian hacker starting attracting national attention. Send it to The Daily Beasthere. Sylvester Stallone Set For 'Cliffhanger' Reboot From Director Ric Roman Antisemitism has been on the minds of local authorities as the number of incidents being reported has been going up. Knife-wielding man shot by Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy - Yahoo News Other targets featured on DC Leaks included Colin Powell, State Department and White House employees, some Clinton campaign staff and volunteers, and a recently retired four-star general. He replaced the Excel spreadsheet with a user-friendly web interface, and then began dumping more confidential addresses from other Florida counties. Ric Bradshaw wins fifth term as Palm Beach County sheriff - WPTV Jul 14, 2020 at 2:01 pm. But that day in the spring of 2016, his hoax backfired spectacularly, with FBI agents raiding his home and carting off his computers. Barbera's statement said Bradshaw has. Hillsborough County, Address: 3228 Gun Club Rd. He couldnt just throw them on his website and admit what hed doneFlorida is one of 12 states where its illegal to record a phone call without the consent of both parties. "I'm not gonna say bad bad, but I'm gonna say it's . The Democratic Sheriff was elected to a four-year term in 2020. The talk of Russian hackers inspired Dougan as he was pondering how to release the 10 hours of recordings hed made while posing as Jessica. Police officers shot a man who was going through what the report described as a behavioral health crisis. A review concluded that there had a been total failure of the system. After a two-year investigation, I got him. Donahue had been forced to exit the race, and the charges were dropped by election day. I start picking their life apart, and their businesses, their family., One target in particular had consumed much of Lewis time over the years, he explained. Sheriff Bradshaw On Newly Partisan Race & Jeffrey Epstein's Work Eventually someone in the county government seems to have figured out the flaw in the countys address confidentiality system. His excellent inter-personal and communication skills demonstrate competence as a leader who gets things done, yet maintains a balance between assertiveness and diplomacy while always remembering that his first and foremost duty is to keep citizens safe. Seven months later, an Internal Affairs probe concluded there was no excessive use of force by the men. Nothing happened. Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. But now that the recordings were public by way of his BadVolf persona, he could use them freely. Hed given the FBI clear evidence that the sheriffs office had been stalking him for years, even hacking into his stuff, all because it didnt approve of his constitutionally protected free speech. The encounter had begun with Paul playing her car radio too loud in violation of Floridas traffic code. Weve been waiting on them for years.. $692,658 about 23 times the amount Freemans campaign has raised. (TRACEY) Editor's note: Sheriff Bradshaw completed . In press interviews and public posts he claimed to be a government IT worker in Moscow with an interest in exposing police corruption. An attorney representing victims has said Epstein engaged in improper sexual conduct while he was in the program. Through July 25, Bradshaws reelection campaign had pulled in a massive haul of $692,658 about 23 times the amount Freemans campaign has raised. It was so convincing that Bradshaws office had to issue a denial, leading to a cycle of real news headlines like Sheriff Bradshaw Wrongly Accused of Telling Boynton Residents to Run Over Protesters?, There are rules to making good fake news, Dougan learned. Other Political Experience; Florida Sheriffs Task Force for Region 7, Chairman ; Russias not my fight, he explains. Settling in Moscow was hard at first, Dougan says, and he struggled to make ends meet. Dougans sojourns to Moscow started in February 2013. But he has become a typical self-serving politician. More recently, news reports linked Freeman to the firing of a Riviera Beach city manager in an attempt to become chief. The Jack Report Last year, Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Dougan with extortion and wiretapping, the latter presumably for recording the Jessica calls. Bradshaw also asked the independent Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission to conduct a formal review of the work release program. It was a simple one-line database query, once hed loaded all the records, which reduced a list of 700,000 addresses down to the 4,114 that were never supposed to see the light of day. For Dougan, that was the last straw. The only reason conspiracy mongers fixed on Rich, rather than any of hundreds of his fellow DNC workers, is because he was killed. To be clear, there exists no evidence that Rich was secretly a Donald Trump supporter, a leaker of any kind, or a hacker with the skill to steal the private emails of seven senior DNC staffers. He was soon at the Toronto airport, boarding one final flight to Moscow. The couple even decided on a nickname for Dougan, Mr. I said, you know what? Now he had his own personal online tormentor. And true to his word, once Dougan was safe in Moscow he set up a website called DC Leaks to host them. I had nothing to do with this, he told New Times. On March 13 he sent Dougan a tranche of files over Tor, says Dougan, and Dougan agreed to put up an anonymous website to present them to the world. The violent crime rate here hovers at three times the national average, and 37 percent of the 20,000 inhabitants live below the poverty line. The Russian capital felt free and ungoverned, a place where you could get away with almost anything, as if the internet itself had suddenly transformed into a major metropolis. They wanted to know why Dougan had started traveling to Russia. Little was known about BadVolf. We arrest somebody that lives in the county that we live in, we want to keep it private. This fall's race for Palm Beach County Sheriff has four-term incumbent Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, a Democrat, being challenged by former Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Capt. Though the sheriffs office had no role in the sentencing, multiple news reports have shown that Epstein was treated more like a guest than an inmate. But the next day the FBI came and carted off Dougans computer, and with it the leaked files. And if there was any mistakes made eleven years ago, if there's anybody still here that was working eleven years ago, then we'll address that.". (The voting records leaks appear not to have included abuse victims, who have a higher level of protection under a state-run program.). Finally, we must mention the case of Jeffrey Epstein. He could easily see being arrested now, and if he was thrown in Palm Beach County Jail he doubted hed ever make it to trial. He has really made some powerful people extremely angry. They were published on Julian Assanges WikiLeaks beginning July 22, 2016. While acknowledging the optics are real bad, Bradshaw said it really wasnt a big thing at the time. For 10 days in the summer of 2015 romance was in the air. In interviews with The Daily Beast, Dougan insisted there was no other purpose to his frenzied drive to the capitol. His opponent, Lauro Diaz, did not have a primary challenger and so his questionnaire was completed more recently. Hes also mentioned in former CIA officer Bob Baers 2002 autobiography See No Evil. I couldnt stick around out of fear I would be missed, so I drove straight back to Palm Beach County before they realized I had taken my little trip.. I dont know what it is, but I feel so comfortable talking to you, and I enjoy our conversations.. He could imagined how it could unfold, a sheriffs officer holding a hushed conversation with an inmate: Hey dude, well drop your charges if you kill this guy.. Nationwide, union contracts have been blamed for preventing sheriffs and police chiefs from being able to discipline or terminate problem officers. He got fired, though he got his job back after a hearing. If yes, please explain. He picked a cool hacker name inspired by his childhood love of wolves, and set up a page at a Russian web host. The Icelandic hosting apparently didnt work out, and whoever controlled DC Leaks moved it to Malaysia five days later, on May 5th, where it stayed for the remainder of election season. The leak put Dougan back in the news. (The Daily Beast turned up no evidence of a link between Borodin and Flyman.). May 1, 2023 at 10:31 AM. One person on the list told The Daily Beast hed been laying low after working as a contractor for the CIA. According to Bradshaw, thats not whats going to happen. ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. - Palm County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw expressed outrage last week, saying that the murder-suicide at a Royal Palm Beach Publix could have been avoided if someone came forward . It included current and retired federal agents, prosecutors, local cops and judges. Questionnaire: incumbent Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw Bradshaw is also speaking out, for the first time, about the controversy surrounding late businessman and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's time in jail. And this is where his story hits another snag. Leaving behind his ex-wife and their two children, he started the long drive north to the Canadian border. Dougan says hed reached out to Borodin in advance of his trip, primarily because he wanted to meet as many interesting people as possible on his first visit to Russia. An Internal Affairs lieutenant named Dean Johnson was eventually charged with four felonies for allegedly leaking information to and about Dougan (he later copped a misdemeanor plea), but Dougan himself emerged unscathed. . The audio dump went off like a bombshell in Palm Beach County. He panders to the leaders of the left and special interest groups. He claims the record shows otherwise only because Shinjuro outsources its domain registration service to the Romanian hosting company THCservers. County Mayor Dave Kerner was a favorite to become the next Sheriff. During a recent online forum, Bradshaw, 72, amplified his pitch. They all needed a taste of their own medicine, and he knew just how to deliver it. Youd think they would give you some kind of warning so you could be more on alert., A retired cop says he knew about the incident from news reports, but did not know that his name and address were on the list until contacted by The Daily Beast. Issues: Argues that his experience in leading a large law enforcement organization is one of the reasons he should be reelected. Rich was 27 years old when he was shot and killed on July 10, 2016 on a Washington, D.C., sidewalk. As Sheriff, I have worked to make the Palm Beach County Sheriffs office one of the nations most professional law enforcement agencies. Jack has written for the Sun-Sentinel and the Boca Raton News. Lifestyle About the election: Early voting will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 3 through Aug. 16 at 18 locations; election day polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 18. Im shocked how he is still alive., Jessica couldnt get enough of it. Given what we now know, this is a poor response. Shinjuro is an accredited domain registrar that does its own registrations). Dougan moved back to Palm Beach County with a burning sense of injustice.