*Sheriff Darryl Daniels of Clay County, Florida can no longer be referred to with that title because it was stripped from him by Governor Ron DeSantis after being arrested due to an investigation of a sex scandal.
Daniels, one of 48 sheriffs to give an endorsement to the Trump/Pence re-election, was charged with tampering with evidence in addition to three misdemeanor counts of giving false information to law enforcement, reports the Florida Times-Union.
As far as Daniels is concerned, his arrest and investigation is nothing more than “dirty politics” at work. He stated that any issues with the scandal were personal and didn’t affect his job as sheriff, although the sex scandal included an order he gave to staff.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, where Daniels had previously worked as the jail’s director, announced an internal investigation into a corrections officer who had sex with Daniels. Daniels directed his deputies to arrest the corrections officer back in May 2019 on allegations of stalking him. His staff told prosecutors they didn’t feel there was just cause to arrest the woman.
“I find the timing of the obtaining of a warrant and pressing of charges suspicious in light of an election that’s pending five days from now,” Daniels’ attorney Matt Kachergus told the Times-Union. “It would appear that the timing of this is designed to influence the outcome of that election.”
“I want you to look past the smokescreen of dirty politics,” Daniels also stated. “One thing I take ownership of as a man is my failures as a husband. That has nothing to do with me as a sheriff.”
Unfortunately, Daniels’ self-pronouncement of innocence wasn’t enough to convince Gov. Ron DeSantis who issued an executive order removing Daniels from his elected position as Clay County Sheriff.
Speaking of which, Daniels was up for re-election, but that didn’t work out either as Michelle Cook has defeated him in the Republican primary for sheriff of Clay County.
Cook, a Clay County resident who worked at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office for more than 20 years and most recently was chief of the Atlantic Beach Police Department, got 37% of the vote in a six-way race. Daniels got 29%, according to News4jax.com.
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