"He's on. He also wants to teach and raise awareness about scams and identity theft, ensure fiscal accountability by seeing that tax dollars are spent responsibly on programs that improve the safety of all citizens, and keep citizens informed and updated on all threats and emergencies. Deputies at the time said they intervened to keep protesters from blocking traffic and endangering the public. In truth, there was no Russian hackerand there were no hacks. A fake-news site is nothing without real news, he wrote recently. Fearful that hed be arrested and wind up in the custody of the very cops hed been battling, Dougan fled to the only place he felt safe: Russia, where Vladimirs Putins government granted him asylum status. The investigations surround claims that the money manager was allowed to arrange for sex while on work-release at his West Palm Beach office. Mr. Epstein was allowed to engage in sexual behavior with underage girls. Sometimes called Muck City for the slimy run-off from the local sugarcane farms, Belle Glade is best understood as a developing-world-style shantytown plunked down 40 miles west of Mar-a-Lago. The Daily Beast asked Dougan about the discrepancies. Before he ever came back we had all the pictures., The talk of hacking perked up Jessicas interest even more. Palm Beach County commissioners, who complain privately about the ever-increasing share of county tax money that goes to PBSO, would not deign to publicly criticize the sheriff or his spending priorities, lest they run the risk of being tarred by him as soft on crime, a brand no politician wants to sport. Finally, on Dec. 29, 2008, Dougan resigned from the force, firing off a flurry of pseudonymous emails to department brass on his way out, with screenshots of the Facebook posts and a photo of Raban in his punishment cap. His Muscovite girlfriend traveled to Florida about as often, he says. Contact Us The hacker turned out to be Anthony Rodriguez, a social media specialist in PBSOs media relations office. Id just had a little girl, my daughter, he recalls. Issues: Argues it's time for a change in leadership at PBSO, citing community distrust of the department and its handling of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Im putting everything out there.". The PBA contributed $25,000 to DeSantis' political action committee. Some very wealthy, powerful people. Dougan places the story in the weeks surrounding his 2016 FBI raid. Im just lucky that I have a place to go, and Im really grateful for that. Dougan mastered the dark art of fake news, crafting official-looking websites with names like DCWeekly.com and DCPost.org for his made-up stories. 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. In other races, we have endorsed candidates who have answered yes. Nearly two dozen sheriff's deputies will soon be available to guard Palm Beach County schools if the school board approves a million-dollar agreement Wednesday.. In May, according to Dougan, the Kremlins RT network shot video for a feature-length documentary on Dougan. Freeman, who is Black, is making a direct play for voters questioning law enforcement these days. Last year, Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Dougan with extortion and wiretapping, the latter presumably for recording the Jessica calls. Dougans sojourns to Moscow started in February 2013. They didnt have an arrest warrant, and no charges had yet been filed. Now he had his own personal online tormentor. Seth Rich conspiracy stories are most virulent of the narratives purporting to exonerate Russia of interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, and by extension clear the Trump campaign of collusion. Bradshaw asked Governor Ron DeSantis to have FDLE conduct an investigation and his agency has also been looking into whether any policies were violated. A month after Donahue filed papers with the election office, Bradshaws department hit him with document falsification charges based on Lewiss evidence. Then he laughs. The rumors are true! Ron DeSantis has ordered an investigation into Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and a former Palm Beach state attorney. Dougan started patrolling Belle Glade in 2008 after four years on easier turf. Voters granted confidentiality in Florida are listed without names or addressesjust their Florida voter ID number. They were letting these guys get away with murder, and they were fucking over the citizens they were getting paid to protect.. Its a photo he posted a week after he arrived showing Dougan at an upscale restaurant having lunch with someone who was decidedly not a long-distance love interest. During Palm Beach County's 2020 elections, some races that were non-partisan since 2004 will now be partisan, including the one for Palm Beach County Sheriff. For someone who claims to dislike politics, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has made himself into a political force. Thats why I created the Mental Health Unit that employs civilian social workers and mental health professionals that respond to calls from the community that need this type of service. Its been part of the the far-right canon since Vince Fosters suicide in 1993. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Dougan had resigned from the sheriffs office in 2009 after nearly four years in a police cruiser. What am I going to do? After a few months, he sent an anonymous tip about Raban to an attorney defending one of the cops arrestees, and then tried to get a TV news reporter interesting in the Facebook posts. As he began his third year in the sheriffs office he put in for a transfer to Belle Glade. Jul 14, 2020 at 2:01 pm. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3 with mail-in voting getting underway in late September. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May sparked protests across the country, renewed questions about the relationship between law enforcement and minorities and even generated calls for police departments to be defunded. Is there anything about yourself that we didnt ask about that would embarrass you if an opponent found out? In order to succeed, we need the support of our community. On one occasion he was written up for insubordination. I serve in this position because of my experience and the trust that I have earned from other national and regional law enforcement agencies. Bradshaw took 61 percent of the vote to Freemans 39 percent. Asked about the criminal investigation of Epsteins jail time that Gov. I was pissed off, says Dougan. The leak put Dougan back in the news. In one incident that year, one of Rabans deputies, Michael Woodside, pulled over a woman named Maria Paul, put her in a chokehold and slammed her to the ground, according to a subsequent lawsuit that the county settled, before dragging her in handcuffs to the back seat of his cruiser and punching her repeatedly in the face and body. Regardless of what you think of calls to defund law enforcement agencies and spend that money on other programs, do you believe that law enforcement officers are often called to scenes where a social worker or similar government employee would be better suited? Lewis read a lot into the Borodin lunch. If yes, please explain. Bradshaw is seeking his fifth term in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. Nationwide, union contracts have been blamed for preventing sheriffs and police chiefs from being able to discipline or terminate problem officers. She broke into an elaborate story about a suspicious woman whod become involved with her wealthy father, and asked Lewis if he could help investigate the woman. Expand. Palm Beach County Sheriff candidates Ric Bradshaw and Alex Freeman. It was the largest settlement ever reached by PBSO. In October 2017 Dougan posted a story to one his fake news sites claiming that Ric Bradshaws second-in-command was a white supremacist nursing fantasies about killing a black man or a Jew. The post was widely circulated, and proved convincing enough that the genuine news outlet RawStory picked it up and ran with it. CA: Do Not Sell My Info Lewis was certain that Dougan was visiting Russia to partner with that countrys cybercriminals. He has near-universal name recognition, and he regularly raises gobs of campaign money.. PBSO, you think your hacker is great but he is amateur. 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.. He won temporary political asylum in February 2017, and last December the Russian government made his status permanentan honor not even granted to Edward Snowden. Bradshaw said he is not opposed to having his deputies use body cameras, but he has noted the cost, currently estimated to be about $19 million. Hes also mentioned in former CIA officer Bob Baers 2002 autobiography See No Evil. It was like the Wild West meets New York City, he says. Throughout everything, Dougan hasnt forgotten his old enemies. 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. Russias not my fight, he explains. Dougans Facebook timeline contains a curious artifact from his first trip. He said he is suspicious that Bradshaw recently gave employees a 1 percent across-the-board bonus days before the primary election. It was a former high-ranking Kremlin official named Pavel Borodin. While law enforcement agencies across the country have employed body cameras, PBSO deputies still dont have them. Its evident, though, that he was floating a version of the story in his BadVolf guise as early as September 2016. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of forty-nine (49) years in law enforcement. Since winning his first term in 2004, Bradshaw has not faced a credible opponent. Shootings have declined significantly. He claims the record shows otherwise only because Shinjuro outsources its domain registration service to the Romanian hosting company THCservers. Politics Bradshaw, who was first elected in 2004, is being challenged by Alex Freeman in Tuesday's. I am your sheriff, he said. The whistle-blower, Dougan says, was looking for a way to safely leak a cache of files, and came to Dougan because of his work setting up police forums. In press interviews and public posts he claimed to be a government IT worker in Moscow with an interest in exposing police corruption. But he still did work for Sheriff Bradshaw. Freeman, 51, is pinning his hope on the moment. 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. In early April he borrowed a car from a friend and a wig from his mother. Now I see a sheriff leader in American government trying to be dictator like Stalin.. Eventually someone in the county government seems to have figured out the flaw in the countys address confidentiality system. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office just issued the following statement: "On May 3, 2022, Sheriff Bradshaw, under advice from his doctors, elected to go forward with a heart procedure . There must be real news with real photos on the front of the site so the fake story blends in and becomes believable.. He was a disgruntled ex-cop named John Mark Dougan who for years had been waging a relentless campaign against his former employer, the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office. The mystery source handed Dougan a thumb drive, and Dougan jumped in his car and drove straight back home, racing to return to Palm Beach County before the FBI noticed he was gone. After that it didnt take much digging to confirm what Rodriguez had already come to suspect. Those emails never appeared on DC Leaks. Diaz said he wants to serve all people, not just a few, and treat everyone equally, with respect, professionalism, integrity, compassion and courage in order to achieve a stronger and safer Palm Beach County. Jessica had contacted Lewis for a planned home renovation project, but she quickly took an flirtatious interest in the 56-year-olds personal life, peppering him with questions and flattery. Bradshaw, Ric L. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. I know he loves his job and is passionate about the agency. Education: Bachelor's in human resources management, Palm Beach Atlantic University; master's in administration, Lynn University, Political: Elected sheriff of Palm Beach County in 2004; reelected in 2008, 2012, 2016. BS Degree, Human Resources Management, with honors, Palm Beach Atlantic University, MS degree, Administration, with honors, Specialization in Emergency Management Lynn University, Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute, University of Louisville. He has served as sheriff for 16 years. For more information about Diaz, visit www.diazforsheriff.com. Ill always have his back, said Kerner. I am the most qualified law enforcement professional seeking office and have the proven track record to continue to lead the Sheriffs office. PBSOtalk hosted countless false accusations about Bradshaw and other PBSO brass, some of them vile, and at one point a fake pedophilia confession appeared under the fraudulent byline of a top department official. Little was known about BadVolf. This is like water off a ducks back, he said. If they wanted a Russian hacker, he would give them one. I am called BadVolf, the page announced. The DC Leaks domain name was really registered two weeks after Dougans arrival in Moscow, just as in his story. You know, whats interesting is he thinks hes really, really super-smart., Bradshaw had placed Lewis in charge of the perpetual investigation of Dougan that began when PBSOtalk started churning out scoopsit was Lewis whod busted one of Dougans sources in 2012. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of fifty (50) years in law enforcement. Internal Affairs is now investigating. 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. A former Marine gunner, Dougan wanted to do real police work, make arrests, solve crimes and help people. Just sit back and watch psychological mindfuck unfold when you mess with !. No, Dougan says quickly. The FBI agents in charge were the same Dougan had met with just months earlier, he saysthe ones whod refused to pursue a hacking case against the PBSO. Deputy Dougans interpersonal skills need improvement, a lieutenant wrote in an evaluation, as he does not know how to pull back from a brewing issue.. But his story is full of holes. We hope that four more years will bring even more progress. Bradshaw started out good. The change came about this year, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Orange County that state election law prevents counties from deciding to hold nonpartisan elections. In short, we have demonstrated our ability to make needed changes quickly and most of our policies/practices are established well before we encounter a crisis or have to navigate through challenging times. As told by Baer, Borodin was one of two top Russian officials who tried to get a back-channel message to Bill Clinton in late 1995 offering financial support for his reelection campaign. Hes so uninformed its unbelievable. He had Lewis on tape boasting about hacking him, with no mention of getting a warrant first. He rose through the ranks of the West Palm Beach Police Department and in 1996 was appointed Chief of Police. More recently, news reports linked Freeman to the firing of a Riviera Beach city manager in an attempt to become chief. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary OHara, Dan Sweeney, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. The sheriff says he'll have that proposal in 30 to 45 days. Over the previous weeks, someone had been systematically targeting federal agents, judges, local cops and intelligence agency workers throughout Florida, posting 14,000 of their home addresses to the web, all of them specifically exempted from public records because of their sensitivity. Voters will have a chance to choose between Freeman and Bradshaw on Aug. 18, with the winner facing former PBSO deputy Lauro Diaz, a Republican, in the general election on Nov. 3. The change came about this year, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Orange County that state election law prevents counties from deciding to hold nonpartisan elections. 2022 Newspaper Publishers Inc. All rights reserved. But they dont feature at all in Dougans story. One of his bigger hits quoted Bradshaw encouraging motorists to run over Black Lives Matters protesters. Researchers see rise of 'Constitutional Sheriffs' as threat to democracy. Sometimes called Putins mentor, Borodin had been Boris Yeltsins top aide. The police believe it was a botched robbery, but the unsolved murder has fuelled waves of speculation that it was Rich who leaked the 44,000 DNC emails ultimately published by Wikileaks, and that he was murdered as a consequence. Alex Freeman, who retired as a major in the Riviera Beach Police Department, is trying to unseat Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw in the Democratic Party primary. DC Leaks published a completely different assembly of leaks, consisting primarily of a grab bag of emails and documents sourced from a GRU-linked phishing campaign earlier that year. Raban was found in violation of 11 different department regulations and demoted. Gauger has filed papers to run as a Republican.. All in all, a successful bit of trolling. His tale ends with a big reveal that wont surprise anyone familiar with the deep lore built up around Russiagate on the alt-right. . Show Caption Hide Caption FBI chief Wray calls Jan. 6 'domestic terrorism' You Might Like FBI Director Chris Wray condemned the January riot at the U.S. Capitol as "domestic terrorism" Tuesday as he defended the bureau's handling of intelligence Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner has said he will push for sales tax money to be used to pay for body cameras. They wanted to know why Dougan had started traveling to Russia. Dougan claims he was determined to follow through on his promise, so the following Saturday, he drove a rental car 1,000 miles to Washington, D.C., to meet the whistle-blower outside a high-school 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. He said the department is now nationally recognized.. He has raised $680,000 compared to roughly $27,000 for his challenger, Alex Freeman. Shinjuro is an accredited domain registrar that does its own registrations). Or do you want someone who says, I think I can do it, trust me? They want the experienced professional who has actually done it.. Im shocked how he is still alive., Jessica couldnt get enough of it. If so, how so? The agents had a search warrant to seize all his electronics and any and all records, data or materials pertaining to the computer networks of 24 different Florida county governments and confidential property records within these counties.. Years ago the Florida legislature recognized two classes of people who might face danger if their home address showed up in the states famously open public records repositories: abuse victims, and government officials like police and judges. 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. Yes, in Palm Beach County 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016. Then where the fuck am I going to run?. We have to have the ability to listen and understandand we do. Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. With PBSO seeking $740 million, a $31 million increase, in next years budget some including Freeman question whether Bradshaw is using cost as an excuse to keep his deputies from employing technology that, in other places, have provided piercing snapshots into police misconduct. Dougan provided The Daily Beast with the SQL queries and some of the scripts he used, and we verified that both of his re-identification techniques worked as described. 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. 2023 www.palmbeachpost.com. What I dont have is 50 years of experience in reckless spending and arrogant behavior, such as providing special treatment to convicted pedophile sex offenders, like [Jeffrey] Epstein, or like losing important evidence in critical cases, or abandoning the troops to move to a high-priced executive office building to lead from the rear instead of the front, all on the backs of the taxpayers and their hard-earned money., Diaz added that Bradshaws leadership is based on political influence more than experience. I have commanded two of the largest law enforcement agencies in the county with the West Palm Beach Police Department as Chief and now as Sheriff. We Cannot Allow the Left to Destroy Palm Beach County, Zero Evidence of Threats to Palm Beach County School Board, Four Florida State Reps Didnt Vote on Abortion Bill Dont Let Them Get Away With It, Even a Federal Judge Thinks Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer is a Liar, Palm Beach County Bob Weinroths Bid for School Board Seat off to Shaky Start, Jolt Media, Inc. | PO Box 810967, Boca Raton, FL 33481. Woodside was fired for using a police PC to watch a movie while on duty, and another deputy was terminated for lying on a police report and surfing Facebook on department time. And this is where his story hits another snag. He replaced the Excel spreadsheet with a user-friendly web interface, and then began dumping more confidential addresses from other Florida counties. They were just beating the minorities bloody, says Dougan. Please outline your work history for the past 15 years. He stepped out to investigate, and a dozen FBI agents jumped out of the car and the nearby bushes shouting at him to drop to the ground. In October 2017 Dougan posted a story to one his fake news sites claiming that Ric Bradshaw's second-in-command was a white supremacist nursing fantasies about killing "a black man or a Jew . On the other hand, a lot was known about the owner of the website where the data appeared. Leaks from George Soros Open Society Foundation were also displayed prominently at the websites launch, with some of the documents reportedly altered to create the appearance the foundation was secretly financing Russian opposition candidates. Jack Furnari is a husband, father, entrepreneur, publisher, columnist, and former political consultant. The audio dump went off like a bombshell in Palm Beach County. He sued Windam for wrongful discharge, and the town settled for less than $10,000 in go-away money. His enemies were on a frantic hunt for a Russian hacker who didnt exist, and investigating computer intrusions that never occurred. Similarly, Bradshaw has resisted the push to issue civil citations, rather than make an arrest, for offenses such as a marijuana possession. When BadVolf was ever asked why a Russian hacker would care about a Florida sheriff, Dougan always had an answer at the ready. This time hes claiming he had a hands-on role in the most notorious computer espionage incident in history: the 2016 leak of thousands of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. A Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputy was forced to open fire on a knife-wielding man who charged at him, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says. It included current and retired federal agents, prosecutors, local cops and judges. To subscribe to our highlights e-mail, add your information below. Bradshaw did not exaggerate during his interview with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that the department he took over 16 years ago was pretty much in shambles. The previous sheriff was an incompetent leader who favored buying expensive toys such as the law enforcement version of an armored personnel carrier over maintaining public safety.
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