First Coast News reported Tuesday evening that charges have been refiled against the five defendants in the St. Johns County voter guide prosecution. The station’s account states that the five will now face the charges in county court, and that sentence is the whole of what it publishes. The fact of the refiling, the court and the number of defendants are attributed to the station, which published the item at 4:48 p.m.

County court is the court a circuit judge said the misdemeanor counts belonged in when he dismissed them without prejudice last month. All five sets of charges were filed in circuit court in July of this year, and Circuit Judge William E. Davis dismissed the first four sets of misdemeanor counts on Oct. 2 for want of jurisdiction. The dismissed counts were against County Commissioners Christian Whitehurst and Sarah Arnold, Beach Commissioner and former Mayor Dylan Rumrell, and a consultant this paper does not name. The last three counts, against a campaign manager this paper also does not name, were dismissed on Oct. 16 in the order that ended the circuit case. That order dismissed her felony evidence tampering count with prejudice, which is permanent, and it ruled that misdemeanors standing alone belong in county court. A dismissal without prejudice leaves refiling open only as far as the law of limitations allows, and no order the public can read has decided that question.

What the refiling contains is not readable from this newsroom tonight, because the station’s item does not print the counts and the Clerk’s search requires authentication. Which counts came back, against which of the five defendants, on what filing dates and under what case numbers are facts that live in the charging documents. The paper will report those documents when a readable record exists, and it will say plainly whether the state addressed the limitations question in bringing the counts.

The counts the circuit court dismissed were misdemeanor conspiracy and unauthorized voter guide charges, brought under Florida’s voter guide statute. The guides at the center of the case resembled official St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee materials while promoting candidates the local party had not endorsed, according to the Citizen’s account of the orders. The circuit judge rejected the defense challenge to the constitutionality of the voter guide statute in the same Oct. 16 order that ended his court’s part of the case. Whether the refiled counts rest on the same alleged conduct is a question only the charging documents can answer.

This newsroom asked the Eighth Circuit State Attorney’s office in writing on Oct. 22 whether it intended to refile any of the dismissed counts in county court. The same letter asked who made the decision to file the misdemeanors in circuit court in July, and whether the office considered that filing an error. The office transmitted investigative records against the paper’s standing records request the following day, and it has answered none of those questions to date. The station’s account now answers the refiling question in the only form the public has, which is a report of the filing itself.

Every refiled count goes onto this paper’s disposition watch tonight, and the outcome of each one will be published at the prominence of the original story. That promise followed the original counts to their dismissals last month, and it attaches to whatever the state has now brought back.

A criminal charge is an accusation. All defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The Tattler tracks the cases it reports and publishes the outcome, including when charges are dropped or reduced. If you are named in this story and the case has resolved, write to corrections@stjohnstattler.org and we will update it.