Four of the five people charged over a fake Republican voter guide mailed before the 2024 county primary had their misdemeanor charges dismissed on Friday. Two sitting county commissioners and a St. Augustine Beach city commissioner are among the four, and the fifth defendant still faces charges in circuit court. News4JAX reported that Judge William E. Davis of the Eighth Judicial Circuit granted a defense motion to dismiss the misdemeanor cases from that court. The outlet reported that the judge agreed the state should have filed those charges in county court instead.
The St. Johns Citizen, which reported the ruling at 12:55 p.m. the same day, gave the same ground and said all five defendants were in court. Its account describes the four as two county commissioners, a former St. Augustine Beach mayor and a campaign consultant.
The line the ruling runs along is drawn in two sentences of Florida law, and neither of them is long. Section 26.012(2)(d) gives the circuit courts exclusive original jurisdiction “of all felonies and of all misdemeanors arising out of the same circumstances as a felony which is also charged.” Section 34.01(1)(a) gives the county courts original jurisdiction “in all misdemeanor cases not cognizable by the circuit courts.” A misdemeanor arrives in a Florida circuit court attached to a felony, and on the reported record only one of the five is charged with one. That is a third degree count of tampering with physical evidence, and News4JAX reported that the case can stay in circuit court because both charges arise from the same incident.
In this county the two courts are kept apart by the chief judge’s own case assignment orders, which tell the Clerk where to send each filing. Administrative order G-2026-044-SJ, signed by Chief Judge Leah R. Case and effective January 20, 2026, provides that “all circuit criminal (felony) cases are to be assigned to Division 56.” Order G-2025-022-SJ, effective October 1, 2025, assigns “criminal cases (misdemeanors, criminal traffic, & criminal ordinances)” to Division 65 at 33 percent and Division 66 at 67 percent. Both orders close by telling the Clerk to refer an uncertain assignment to the court administrator for resolution by the chief judge.
The argument was on the docket for three weeks
The Citizen reported on Sept. 10 that all five defendants had moved to dismiss and that one defendant’s motions were on the public docket. Among them was a motion arguing the case belonged in county court because that defendant faced only misdemeanors, and that a co-defendant’s felony could not reach them. The same report said prosecutors had placed all five defendants under a single circuit court case number for administrative purposes. On Sept. 29 the Citizen reported that the state had answered on the party-name filing date and the conspiracy counts, and said those responses did not reach every pending challenge.
Davis is not among the judges listed on the Seventh Judicial Circuit’s own roster, which covers Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties. News4JAX reported that he is hearing the matter because the Seventh Circuit, which covers this county, and the Fourth Circuit, which covers Jacksonville, both recused themselves.
What Friday decided, and what it did not
A dismissal for want of jurisdiction is a ruling about which courtroom, and it reaches none of the allegations. Prosecutors allege the five worked together between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 2024 to produce and distribute a guide presenting itself as an official publication of the county Republican Executive Committee. News4JAX reported that the charging documents cite section 106.1436 over a failure to carry the disclosures the statute requires. Nothing in Friday’s reported ruling touches any of that, and nobody has been tried on it.
When the charges were filed in July, attorneys for the three officeholders gave News4JAX a joint statement. It said the three “look forward to the conclusion of this matter and will have no further comments at this time.”
Whether the four dismissed counts will be refiled in county court is not on the record. The Citizen reported Friday that further details, including whether prosecutors intend to pursue them there, were not immediately available, and News4JAX said it was still working to learn the same thing. The order itself is not in front of this paper, because the Clerk’s case search for this county sits behind a CAPTCHA.
Two provisions bear on what a refiling would look like, and the dates matter to both. Section 106.1436 carries one line of history, “s. 49, ch. 2023-120,” and its subsection (4)(a) makes a violation “a misdemeanor of the first degree.” The same subsection sets a fine of not less than $25 for each guide distributed and caps it at $2,500 in any calendar month. Section 775.15(2)© requires that a prosecution for a first degree misdemeanor “be commenced within 2 years after it is committed,” and subsection (3) starts that clock the day after the offence. Subsection (4)© provides a three month extension in one circumstance, which is a charging document filed inside the period and then dismissed. It applies where the dismissal lands after the period has elapsed and is “because of a defect in its content or form.” The charges in this case were filed on July 7, 2026 and dismissed on Oct. 2.
Friday’s hearing left one ruling still owed, and it is due in two days. News4JAX reported that the judge heard a First Amendment challenge from the remaining defendant’s attorney. The state answered that the offence was presenting the guide as authorized, not the political message inside it. The judge said he wanted more time with the case law and should have a decision by Monday, which is Oct. 5. The Tattler will publish what he decides, and what becomes of the four counts that came out of circuit court on Friday.
Loading comments…