None of the DNC emails did. PBSO was prepared to handle this unprecedent challenge. The Democratic Sheriff was elected to a four-year term in 2020. In the early morning of March 14, 2016, the hunt for a Russian hacker brought FBI agents to a condominium complex in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Creepy.. Sputnik News ran a lengthy piece on him highlighting his daring escape to Moscow. Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. In truth, DCleaks.com was registered at a family owned hosting firm in Romania called THCservers, which also features in a number of identified GRU hack attacks. But Dougan was an unusual cop. County Mayor Dave Kerner was a favorite to become the next Sheriff. But that day in the spring of 2016, his hoax backfired spectacularly, with FBI agents raiding his home and carting off his computers. He changed training to include a tactical pause designed to de-escalate confrontations and leave more distance between the deputy and a suspect. Bradshaw is seeking his fifth term in the Aug. 18 Democratic primary. We definitely need a change in these trying times and move to a leader like Diaz that will support his troops to insure their safety and the safety of the community. ". The bureau held off at the last minute, though, and Lewis believed he knew why. Back then he said he created DC Leaks to help elect Trump; today he claims it was to expose the DNC for sandbagging Bernie Sanders in the primaries. 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. 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.. So far he says hes shipped 20 of them from his newest startup, BadVolf Serious Systems. 2023 www.palmbeachpost.com. 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. Mr. Epstein was allowed to engage in sexual behavior with underage girls. Got a tip? I was born in the Soviet era and I remember the fight for honesty in our government, he wrote Gawker in his hacker guise. 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. Dougan posted the full audio of his calls with Lewis, along with screenshots of their text messages. They could find no trace of this BadVolf character in their networks. He was sentenced to 18 months. The late sex trafficker served only 13 months of his ridiculously light, 18-month sentence in the Palm Beach County Jail on work release. In press interviews and public posts he claimed to be a government IT worker in Moscow with an interest in exposing police corruption. 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 . The Palm Beach Sheriff's Office has come far under Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who is seeking his fifth term. Palm Beach County. Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who faced blistering criticism for granting Jeffrey Epstein liberal work-release privileges while the sex offender was serving time in the county stockade, has . PBSO seeking $740 million, a $31 million increase, in next years budget, to pay $6 million of a $22.5 million verdict won by Dontrell Stephens, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. While law enforcement agencies across the country have employed body cameras, PBSO deputies still dont have them. Privacy Policy To a sizable number of fringe conservatives, it goes without saying that the Clintons order hits on the people who get in their way. Our policies and practices have to be sound, fair, clear, and understood. During our interview, he seemed more concerned about the potential loss of evidence from a search than the idea of harming someones life over a potentially needless arrest. The final report nine months later evinced little interest in the hacking boasts by Lewis and Rodriguez, but found that Lewis had broken department regulations by divulging PBSO business to Jessica.. Barbera's statement said Bradshaw has. Legislature considers flooding our streets with cancer-causing chemicals | Opinion, Before DeSantis and Disney, a Broward case with free speech parallels | Steve Bousquet, Hispanics are turning Republican, and theyll vote for Ron DeSantis in 2024 | Opinion. Under Bradshaw, who had been police chief in West Palm Beach, standards increased quickly. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of forty-nine (49) years in law enforcement. "I've stopped work release altogether until this whole thing has been reviewed and I may not even have work release again because my personal stance is if you get sentenced to a year in the county jail, you need to do a year in the county jailperiod.". Neal H. Moritz's Original Film (Fast & Furious franchise) will produce with Rocket Science, as well as Stallone and Braden Aftergood's Balboa Productions. No, Dougan says quickly. Dougans trick was to cross-reference that number against previous versions of the data, stepping back month by month until he found the same voter not yet protected as confidential. Raban was found in violation of 11 different department regulations and demoted. Early release of inmates in not my decision and is up to the Chief Judge and the State Attorney. 1290 WJNO - The Palm Beaches' Home for Mudd, Beck, Hannity, Clay & Buck, Levin & Noory. This year, the Legislature ordered Bradshaws agency to pay $6 million of a $22.5 million verdict won by Dontrell Stephens, who was paralyzed in a 2013 shooting a federal jury deemed to be an excessive use of force. Since winning his first term in 2004, Bradshaw has not faced a credible opponent. Dougan claims his involvement mostly ended at that point, but that he sometimes logged into the server and saw the whistle-blower and his friends uploading additional files. All rights reserved. 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. Other Political Experience; Florida Sheriffs Task Force for Region 7, Chairman ; Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of forty-nine (49) years in law enforcement. There really was a DC Leaks. But when Dougan gets into less-publicized, fine grained details, his tale diverges from DC Leaks actual history, particularly in the period between the sites domain registration on April 19th, 2016, and its public debut on June 8th. Bradshaw has helped to secure reimbursement for those expenses. Alex Freeman, who distanced himself from his father, took on Bradshaw in the Democratic Party primary four years ago and got smoked. Leaving behind his ex-wife and their two children, he started the long drive north to the Canadian border. Im putting everything out there.". For over 50 years, I have committed my career to public safety in Palm Beach County. Do you want the person with the most experience, has done the job and has proven himself over 16 years as the sheriff and has executive experience in actually running major law enforcement organizations? She had a Linkedin profile and was on Facebook, but there was little else. So Bradshaw and 15 of his top executives will be working on their own 10,000-square-foot floor at DiVosta Towers, he told 1290 WJNO radio in July. This is not a blanket answer and depends on the circumstances. I was pissed off, says Dougan. Public safety is about a quarter of Palm Beach Countys 2020 fiscal year budget. It was too small a case for the FBI. Dougan moved back to Palm Beach County with a burning sense of injustice. But the independent Maine Human Rights Commission ruled that Dougan did indeed sexually harass Nelson, and in January 2013 Nelsons lawsuit against the town of Windham was settled out of court on undisclosed terms. They were published on Julian Assanges WikiLeaks beginning July 22, 2016. Bradshaw is seeking his fifth term in the Aug. 18 Democratic. On the other end of the call was Jessica, a New York woman in her mid-thirties with a fawning, obsequious manner and a chipmunk voice. Yes, in Palm Beach County 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016. His campaign slogan and key commitment is Citizens Before Politics., My opponent likes to say that I dont have the 50 years of experience that he has, Diaz told the Town-Crier. It was like the Wild West meets New York City, he says. Weve taken significant steps to ensure that our policies are identified as best practice, but we dont stop there. Bradshaw notes the expense of servers to store all the footage from 2,500 cameras, adding that he already cut 10 percent from his original budget proposal for next year. And true to his word, once Dougan was safe in Moscow he set up a website called DC Leaks to host them. And in 2006 he pepper-sprayed an off-duty deputy in the face, a move a judge later called gratuitous and which cost the county a $275,000 civil judgment. They all needed a taste of their own medicine, and he knew just how to deliver it. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3 with mail-in voting getting underway in late September. Opinion A deputy shot Adams after a struggle outside the family business in Loxahatchee Groves in 2012. Voters here in 2002 cast ballots in support of making the races for Sheriff, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections non-partisan. But his story is full of holes. Dougan expected nothing but ass-covering from the sheriffs office anyway. Jan 2005 - Present18 years 4 months. By the end of his campaign, Dougan had released roughly 14,000 protected address records from at least 20 different Florida counties. Lawmen say they are its defenders. His tale ends with a big reveal that wont surprise anyone familiar with the deep lore built up around Russiagate on the alt-right. Dougan raised money to put a light aircraft in the skies over Palm Beach, a banner with an anti-Bradshaw slogan trailing behind it. Ron DeSantis ordered, Bradshaw said, I dont know.. Its just that simple, Bradshaw said. One sheriffs official carried on an intimate 10-day telephonic flirtation with a woman who turned out to be Dougan using a voice changer. 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. One person on the list told The Daily Beast hed been laying low after working as a contractor for the CIA. Instead, The Daily Beast has learned exactly how Dougan used public information and sophisticated data analytics to blow holes in Floridas address confidentiality system without cracking a single network. It reached the mainstream by way of a since-retracted Fox News story, and then on the back of Fox personality Sean Hannity. We refer throughout this opinion to "Deputy Lin" and "Sheriff Bradshaw" individually, as each pertinent issue and defense pertains to these defendants separately. 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. A lawsuit filed by Officer Danielle Nelson describes months of bad behavior toward female officers, ranging from inappropriate comments to repeated unwanted touching and misogynistic slurs. For someone who claims to dislike politics, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has made himself into a political force. A Channel 5 reporter said Lewis sounded more like a modern-day hatchet man than a cop in the recordings. While Bradshaw has not officially announced his candidacy, he told me today, I feel good, and Im going to run.. 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. Youre a big guy too!, In another call, Lewis wondered aloud why Dougan hadnt been killed yet. Also, I have worked to give back to the community, nearly $10 million from LETF funds to social programs that support children, seniors and underserved communities. Bradshaw, a Democrat, was first elected in 2004 and reelected to another four-year term in 2020, easily crushing his opponent in the Democratic Primary and the Republican Candidate in the general election. Versions of the Rich conspiracy story have been spread by Russias social media foot soldiers at the Internet Research Agency, and by the likes of Julian Assange, Infowars radio host Alex Jones and indicted piracy baron Kim Dotcom. But no matter how busy he gets writing fake news, Skyping into conspiracy shows, promoting his book or building custom computer tables, Dougan always finds time once a week to send a taunting email to the FBI agents who raided him. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3 with mail-in voting getting underway in late September. www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/. Researchers see rise of 'Constitutional Sheriffs' as threat to democracy. A fake-news site is nothing without real news, he wrote recently. The building is home to professional service. In its broad strokes, Dougans story meshes with the superficial features of the 2016 election leaking. In addition to exposing the sheriffs offices desperation to pin something on Dougan, the recordings captured Lewis boasting about doing the same to another longtime Bradshaw critic, an ex-cop from Michigan named Jim Donahue who ran against Bradshaw in the 2012 election. Bradshaw asked Governor Ron DeSantis to have FDLE conduct an investigation and his agency has also been looking into whether any policies were violated. Dougan set up SheriffBradshaw.com to rail against Bradshaw, and PBSOtalk.com, to serve as an open web forum where Dougan and anyone else would be free to air the departments dirty laundry. Freeman was a major in the Riviera Beach Police Department, which at the time was one of the countys worst. 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. CA: Do Not Sell My Info Sheriff Ric L. Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach . Ron DeSantis has ordered an investigation into Epsteins treatment, including whether the sheriff broke his own rules to give a convicted sex offender work-release. In an interview with detectives, Lewis said the recordings had been modified to put words in his mouth, though in the same interview he claimed not to have listened to them. I am the person thats been keeping you and your family safe for the past 16 years.. It was a former high-ranking Kremlin official named Pavel Borodin. Lewis told Jessica all about his career. I dont know what it is, but I feel so comfortable talking to you, and I enjoy our conversations.. Bradshaws fund-raising prowess isnt his only source of political strength. Keep us online. WPTV- West Palm Beach Scripps. While acknowledging the optics are real bad, Bradshaw said it really wasnt a big thing at the time. He circled back with Lewis and asked for every scrap of information Lewis had on Jessica and her family. 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. Some of the protesters who hit the streets this spring in the aftermath of the Floyd killing complained that Bradshaws deputies were less willing to work with them than were West Palm Beach police. Our in-house medical unit all follows the same process with our correctional staff. Internal Affairs is now investigating. 2022 Newspaper Publishers Inc. All rights reserved. Due to term limits, Kerner, a Democrat, and a former police officer would have to give up his seat on the county commission in 2024. If so, where and when? When BadVolf was ever asked why a Russian hacker would care about a Florida sheriff, Dougan always had an answer at the ready. 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. Shootings have declined significantly. Bradshaw said hes proud of how his deputies handled the protests. Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Chair, Florida Sheriffs Task Force for Region 7, Chair, FBIs Joint Terrorist Task Force, Executive Board Member, Law Enforcement Planning Council of Palm Beach County, Member, Have you ever been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime? "People that come to the county jail are supposed to be here for a year or less. Ric L. Bradshaw, Currently Elected Palm Beach County Sheriff, Palm Beach County, Florida: Picture, bio, position statements and social media links | Vote-USA $ Donate. 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. 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. Once it was registered, the domain lay dormant for 10 days, according to DNS resolution records from multiple sources. Technology 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. Fuck them. Some very wealthy, powerful people. Is this true of PBSOs contract with its road-patrol and detention deputies? There no way to know if Dougans entre into the Russiagate truther club is calculated to support Putins denials that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, or just to sell books. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of fifty (50) years in law enforcement. In February of that year, Dougan claims he was contacted online by an anonymous Washington, D.C., whistle-blower with information about the Democratic National Committee. Sometimes at night he visits Moscows bars and clubs with his friends. He has served as sheriff for 16 years. Have you received any other endorsements? Deputies at the time said they intervened to keep protesters from blocking traffic and endangering the public. It is not. 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. The feds had evidently bought into Dougans game. In 2013, Lewis said, the bureau had been on the brink of arresting Dougan for allegedly providing false information on his FAA pilots certification, failing to disclose that he suffered the potentially-disqualifying neurological illness Tourettes Syndrome. Bradshaw said the PBSO staff is satisfied overall about where the department is headed. Throughout everything, Dougan hasnt forgotten his old enemies. About two weeks after the leak, Palm Beach County shut down its public feed of the SITUS dataset, according to logs kept by an open-source cartography site. In other areas, however, Bradshaw has not embraced reform. The Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office has six departments Legal Affairs, Law Enforcement Operations, Community Operations, Corrections, Support Services, and Administrative Services. Lewis was certain that Dougan was visiting Russia to partner with that countrys cybercriminals. Had a guy run from me, he wrote in one post. We hope that four more years will bring even more progress. Weve been waiting on them for years.. That was based on the question, Who do you want to make the best decisions for your family, your neighborhood and your safety? Bradshaw told the Town-Crier. 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. Archive, About Us 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. If Bradshaw remains for the full four-year-term through 2024, he will earn the title of longest-serving sheriff in the county. Is there anything about yourself that we didnt ask about that would embarrass you if an opponent found out? If that was the plan, it worked. He kept going, slathering layers of disinformation over his citizen journalism. His office provides the local security detail when President Trump visits Mar-a-Lago. He picked a cool hacker name inspired by his childhood love of wolves, and set up a page at a Russian web host. 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. He panders to the leaders of the left and special interest groups. 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. I always figured it was just on there.. The two exchanged photos and texted frequently, and before long they were talking until 1:00 in the morning. Do you support civil citations for some misdemeanors and/or other diversion programs? 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. Copyright Info. We have to have the ability to listen and understandand we do. 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. For more information about Diaz, visit www.diazforsheriff.com. For Dougan, that was the last straw. As he puts it, I should not be the largest mental health provider in the county. Hes talking about the county jail, which the sheriffs office runs. 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. Would you support the creation of a civilian review board to review complaints about deputies? There are calls that can be answered by civilians. In January of that year Bradshaws office opened a criminal investigation into Dougan, assigning a retired detective to track his every move and hunt for his sources. 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. Questionnaire: incumbent Palm Beach County, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Questionnaire: incumbent Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Democrat, Republican lawmakers keep sticking it to working people | Editorial, Radioactive roads? The best known victim of that attack was John Podesta, and a handful of documents from Podestas Gmail account appeared on the site four months before WikiLeaks published the whole inbox. In Palm Beach County there were about 4,000 homeowners availing themselves of Floridas address confidentiality laws. Its none of my business One day if I ever get my Russian citizenship, maybe thatll change.. I went to Michigan, I went to Canada, I went all over the place, Lewis told Jessica. He commented, in explicit terms, about the sexual attractiveness of the women he encountered on the job, the lawsuit alleged. At the time of the Lewis catfishing episode, Dougan had been to Moscow two or three times, staying for a month on each visit. Hes so much involved in this gutter talk, he cant figure it out.. Four years later, Freeman was named Victims Rights Officer of the Year by Palm Beach County Victim Services. Dougans cockiness faded after the FBI search. Dougan quickly discovered that Muck City was the stomping ground for a gang of rough deputies led by one his superiors, Brent Raban, a sergeant who liked to patrol in a skullcap emblazoned with the word punishment. Raban bragged on Facebook about brutalizing the people he arrested, sometimes posting mugshots of bruised and beaten faces. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. Photo: Getty Images. (A spokesman for the FBIs Miami office declined comment.). For more information about Bradshaws campaign, visit www.ricbradshawforsheriff.com. The feed reopened five months later with the confidential addresses now masked. Sheriff Richard Wille, who was first elected in 1976 and retired . This time Dougan was sure Bradshaw was going down. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office leadership is using their totalitarian authority to commit vast numbers of crime to investigate and persecute [sic] its political enemies.. The actions of law enforcement officers are being scrutinized more closely, and the public is calling for policy changes and policing reform. More recently, news reports linked Freeman to the firing of a Riviera Beach city manager in an attempt to become chief. Hed just gotten his kids off to school when he noticed a suspicious pickup truck with tinted windows idling in front of his house. I made it here to Russia on April 6 or 7, he says. In October 2009 he was fired from the Windham police force for sexual harassment. 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. It was a former deputy named John Mark Dougan. Bradshaw, who worked his way up from patrol to chief of the West Palm Beach Department before winning election as sheriff in 2004, said voters back him because hes got vast experience and because his agency gets the job done. Bradshaw took 61 percent of the vote to Freemans 39 percent. 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. 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. May 1, 2023 at 10:31 AM. Its absolutely the best nightlife of any city Ive been, including New York, he says.

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