Sheriff Ric Bradshaw Undergoes Heart Procedure And the sheriffs office opened yet another investigation. It included current and retired federal agents, prosecutors, local cops and judges. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw - Sheriff - Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office I really dont care. (Lewis declined repeated interview requests from The Daily Beast. 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. The two exchanged photos and texted frequently, and before long they were talking until 1:00 in the morning. The talk of Russian hackers inspired Dougan as he was pondering how to release the 10 hours of recordings hed made while posing as Jessica. It is not. Sheriff Bradshaw On Newly Partisan Race & Jeffrey Epstein's Work Dougan says he was disgusted with the behavior, but feared the reprisals hed face if he made a stink. 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. Sheriff Ric L. Bradshaw (D) West Palm Beach Education Lake Worth High School; 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, Southern Police Institute, University of Louisville. 2023 www.palmbeachpost.com. 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. Our in-house medical unit all follows the same process with our correctional staff. Just sit back and watch psychological mindfuck unfold when you mess with !. More recently, news reports linked Freeman to the firing of a Riviera Beach city manager in an attempt to become chief. Click to Tweet 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. Jul 14, 2020 at 2:01 pm. The feed reopened five months later with the confidential addresses now masked. Our Campaigns - Candidate - Ric L. Bradshaw I would love to run into him in a dark alley, said Lewis. "People that come to the county jail are supposed to be here for a year or less. Hillsborough County, Address: 3228 Gun Club Rd. I am your sheriff, he said. Diaz, who was unchallenged for the Republican nomination, said that Bradshaw is a better politician than a sheriff. I have served in nearly every position in law enforcement, from patrolman to police chief. Dougan expected nothing but ass-covering from the sheriffs office anyway. Sheriff Bradshaw has a successful track record of forty-nine (49) years in law enforcement. None of the DNC emails did. PBSO budget rises faster than calls for service - The Palm Beach Post In press interviews and public posts he claimed to be a government IT worker in Moscow with an interest in exposing police corruption. Florida Gov. Staff writer Chris Persaud and researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story. The leak put Dougan back in the news. But Dougan was an unusual cop. Send it to The Daily Beasthere. Hes so uninformed its unbelievable. They all needed a taste of their own medicine, and he knew just how to deliver it. 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. For someone who claims to dislike politics, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has made himself into a political force. The bureau held off at the last minute, though, and Lewis believed he knew why. Sheriff Ric L. Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach . 'Constitutional Sheriff' Wayne Ivey says he's a patriot. Others see Sputnik News ran a lengthy piece on him highlighting his daring escape to Moscow. Palm Beach Sheriff hospitalized, but returning to work 'soon' after two I went to Michigan, I went to Canada, I went all over the place, Lewis told Jessica. Crime Youre a big guy too!, In another call, Lewis wondered aloud why Dougan hadnt been killed yet. Mr. Epstein was allowed to engage in sexual behavior with underage girls. Former West Palm Beach police chief. 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. Given what we now know, this is a poor response. Since winning his first term in 2004, Bradshaw has not faced a credible opponent. Ric L. Bradshaw Biographical Profile and Positions on the Issues. The investigations surround claims that the money manager was allowed to arrange for sex while on work-release at his West Palm Beach office. The actions of law enforcement officers are being scrutinized more closely, and the public is calling for policy changes and policing reform. I am the person thats been keeping you and your family safe for the past 16 years.. 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. If he really wanted body cameras which are not failsafe, but can protect deputies and suspects the department would have them. At a Friday afternoon news conference, Sheriff Bradshaw said this tragedy could have been avoided if someone had stepped forward and notified police about his strange behavior. 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? PBSO, you think your hacker is great but he is amateur. His office provides the local security detail when President Trump visits Mar-a-Lago. 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. Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. His biological father, Clarence Shahid Freeman, was a well-known Democratic Party political operative in the county. Neal H. Moritz's Original Film (Fast & Furious franchise) will produce with Rocket Science, as well as Stallone and Braden Aftergood's Balboa Productions. Deputies at the time said they intervened to keep protesters from blocking traffic and endangering the public. I said, you know what? I have a whole file cabinet dedicated to this, nothing but this guy, Lewis said. They were just beating the minorities bloody, says Dougan. During the last few weeks, demonstrations locally and nationwide have called attention to the issue of law enforcement reform. It was just awful.. In early April he borrowed a car from a friend and a wig from his mother. Once theyd patted him down and confiscated his cell phone, they told Dougan he was free to go. He could imagined how it could unfold, a sheriffs officer holding a hushed conversation with an inmate: Hey dude, well drop your charges if you kill this guy.. 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. Phone:(561) 688-3000 Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. Vote-USA | Ric L. Bradshaw | Currently Elected Palm Beach County Then I registered DC Leaks and uploaded the documents and gave the guy the credentials.. Lewis defended himself on the broadcast and claimed that he knew the calls were a setup from the start and was just playing along. Our policies and practices have to be sound, fair, clear, and understood. (A spokesman for the FBIs Miami office declined comment.). 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. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is running for re-election in Florida's August 2020 primary election. Two weeks after he said that, in late May, Dougan offered The Daily Beast a peek at an early draft of his book. Lake Worth High School; 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, Southern Police Institute, University of Louisville. Population: 1,492,191 But Dougan hadnt yet updated Chapter 32, which offered an altogether different account of the trip. His message to voters: Who do you trust to keep you safe?. PBC Jolt Exclusive: Sheriff Ric Bradshaw to run for Reelection Bradshaw said hes proud of how his deputies handled the protests. But his story is full of holes. 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. They could find no trace of this BadVolf character in their networks. Now living in Moscow, Dougan is winding up an audacious third act. For someone who claims to dislike politics, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has made himself into a political force. Keep us online. When Dougan traveled abroad, Lewis was able to electronically monitor his quarry from the comfort of Palm Beach County, even seeing the photos Dougan snapped before they appeared on Facebook. (TRACEY) Editor's note: Sheriff Bradshaw completed . Before he ever came back we had all the pictures., The talk of hacking perked up Jessicas interest even more. Dougan claims that Nelson made everything up to retaliate for complaints he made about her performance, and that Windham officials only fired him because theyd learned about his Belle Glade whistle-blowing. 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. The Daily Beast asked Dougan about the discrepancies. Reports of the treatment drew national scorn. Dougan raised money to put a light aircraft in the skies over Palm Beach, a banner with an anti-Bradshaw slogan trailing behind it. Opinion At no point, though, did officials warn the victims of the leak, according to several people on the list who spoke with The Daily Beast. 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. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3 with mail-in voting getting underway in late September. Palm Beach County. His own reelection website touts his 50 years of experience in law enforcement, and he says total crime is down nearly 26 percent since 2016. Thats when he started exacting his own brand of justice. This time Dougan was sure Bradshaw was going down. While law enforcement agencies across the country have employed body cameras, PBSO deputies still dont have them. 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. The only reason conspiracy mongers fixed on Rich, rather than any of hundreds of his fellow DNC workers, is because he was killed. The Sheriff's Office has nearly 1,800 civilian employees about 45 percent of Bradshaw's workforce. Rising Sheriff's Office salaries pose budget challenge While acknowledging the optics are real bad, Bradshaw said it really wasnt a big thing at the time. PBSO's Ric Bradshaw seeks fifth term as sheriff against rival he beat DeSantis' move comes as Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has come under increasing scrutiny for his decision in 2008 to give Epstein, . The perpetrator claimed to be stealing the data from county networks from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. 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. If the contract makes it difficult for supervisors to discipline officers, what can and should the sheriff do? His enemies were on a frantic hunt for a Russian hacker who didnt exist, and investigating computer intrusions that never occurred. I havent felt any effect from it, but just knowing it was breached its a mental thing, he says. The book now includes both the embassy visit and the claimed thumb-drive handoff. But he has become a typical self-serving politician. The name and address went right into BadVolfs next data dump. It was too small a case for the FBI. It took a few days for me to get my head on straight and apply for asylum. In 2004, Bradshaw worked hard as a sheriff to fix problems he inherited, but has now become an experienced politician and working the system to his benefit and the benefit of the democrat party, not the benefit of the community. Antisemitism has been on the minds of local authorities as the number of incidents being reported has been going up. Sheriff who allowed Jeffrey Epstein liberal work release privileges 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. 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. On Feb. 13, 2016, Dougan posted the list on PBSOtalk as an Excel file named confidential addresses. Slipping into the skin of his Russian hacker persona, he explained that BadVolf was back on the hunt. I was pissed off, says Dougan. Bradshaw serves on regional task forces that deal with homeland security and emergency management. As far as Dougan was concerned, they were all culpable. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. Settling in Moscow was hard at first, Dougan says, and he struggled to make ends meet. I am called BadVolf, the page announced. In mid-2005 he moved up to the Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office, a department with 4,000 employees covering a territory the size of Delaware. View Map I dont know what it is, but I feel so comfortable talking to you, and I enjoy our conversations.. No other candidate running has run an agency or has the qualifications I have to serve. Sheriff Bradshaw, Lauro Diaz Face Off In The General Election In truth, there was no Russian hackerand there were no hacks. He had Lewis on tape boasting about hacking him, with no mention of getting a warrant first. Public safety is about a quarter of Palm Beach Countys 2020 fiscal year budget. Intelligence agencies and security professionals believe it was set up by Russias military intelligence arm, the GRU, to publish stolen material as part of the Kremlins election interference campaign. Bradshaw is the most politically powerful persona in the county. 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. Palm Beach County Sheriff candidates Ric Bradshaw and Alex Freeman. On one occasion he was written up for insubordination. 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. 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. He claims the company had long been his preferred choice for hosting his whistle-blower sites. Id just had a little girl, my daughter, he recalls. We are constantly evaluating our hiring practices. 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. Its like magic, he said. He has served as sheriff for 16 years. Bradshaw also asked the independent Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Commission to conduct a formal review of the work release program. Another was scorched with accusations linking him to a white supremacist group, reported from a fake news site so convincing that the legitimate press picked up the false story. The Russian capital felt free and ungoverned, a place where you could get away with almost anything, as if the internet itself had suddenly transformed into a major metropolis. If this is what you call experience, then no thanks, he said. Dougan moved back to Palm Beach County with a burning sense of injustice. Hed just gotten his kids off to school when he noticed a suspicious pickup truck with tinted windows idling in front of his house. 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. 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. 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. Its easy to envision Dougan bluffing his way into a meeting with an important Russian and then leaking it to a friendly gossip site, if only to make his enemies wonder. Bradshaw has expanded the PBSO empire over the years, taking over patrol duties in tiny cities such as Palm Beach Shores, Westlake and South Palm Beach in 2019 to add to a network that includes Lake Worth Beach, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Lake Park and the three Glades cities. Similarly, Bradshaw has resisted the push to issue civil citations, rather than make an arrest, for offenses such as a marijuana possession. It was so convincing that Bradshaws office had to issue a denial, leading to a cycle of real news headlines like Sheriff Bradshaw Wrongly Accused of Telling Boynton Residents to Run Over Protesters?, There are rules to making good fake news, Dougan learned. 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. 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. And if there was any mistakes made eleven years ago, if there's anybody still here that was working eleven years ago, then we'll address that.". PBSO was prepared to handle this unprecedent challenge. Bradshaw, Ric L. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. Those emails never appeared on DC Leaks. Its just that simple, Bradshaw said. Ric Bradshaw wins fifth term as Palm Beach County sheriff - WPTV But now that the recordings were public by way of his BadVolf persona, he could use them freely. I am running for re-election to ensure the Sheriffs Office maintains this level of excellence and continues the critical safety programs needed in the fight against gangs, opioid overdose reduction, Homeland Security, mental health challenges, community policing, and advancement in technology. Hes also mentioned in former CIA officer Bob Baers 2002 autobiography See No Evil. Hed given the FBI clear evidence that the sheriffs office had been stalking him for years, even hacking into his stuff, all because it didnt approve of his constitutionally protected free speech. It is such sadness this must be done to protect a friend but we see no other way to do this. Im shocked how he is still alive., Jessica couldnt get enough of it. But Bradshaw never has been shy about pushing a big budget and has noted that sheriffs can ask the governor to overrule county commissions. He moved into an apartment in the western part of the city near the Moscow River and about eight miles from the Kremlin. . 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 . 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. But its not my fight here. ", If the meeting was about adoptions, that detail didnt make it into the GossipExtra story that first broke the news of the power lunch. He rose through the ranks of the West Palm Beach Police Department and in 1996 was appointed . A deputy shot Adams after a struggle outside the family business in Loxahatchee Groves in 2012. Some very wealthy, powerful people. 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. After a two-year investigation, I got him. Donahue had been forced to exit the race, and the charges were dropped by election day. In interviews with The Daily Beast, Dougan insisted there was no other purpose to his frenzied drive to the capitol. Its none of my business One day if I ever get my Russian citizenship, maybe thatll change.. 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. But they dont feature at all in Dougans story. WPTV- West Palm Beach Scripps. In other races, we have endorsed candidates who have answered yes. He rose through the ranks of the West Palm Beach Police Department and in 1996 was appointed Chief of Police. 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. 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. On August 24, 2015, BadVolf made his debut. Chairman, Florida Sheriffs Emergency Task Force, Region 7; member, chairman, Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Region 7; FBIs Joint Terrorist Task Force Executive Board; Palm Beach County Chiefs of Police, Law Enforcement Planning Council, Police Executive Research Forum, Florida Sheriffs Association; Whos Who in Academic Excellence in America. Oh I bet, Jessica trilled. A recent one took the form of a mock treatment for an imagined TV series about the West Palm Beach FBI. What do you hear in the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd, and what specifically needs to come from it? Gov. 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. He could easily see being arrested now, and if he was thrown in Palm Beach County Jail he doubted hed ever make it to trial. He kept going, slathering layers of disinformation over his citizen journalism. 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. Jack Furnari is a husband, father, entrepreneur, publisher, columnist, and former political consultant. We have strict disciplinary rules that work at removing officers who do not uphold our values and mission. We refer throughout this opinion to "Deputy Lin" and "Sheriff Bradshaw" individually, as each pertinent issue and defense pertains to these defendants separately. Using his web skills, he began erecting revenge websites like WindhamTalk.com, which claimed to have the real scoop on corruption in the town of Windham and featured a prominent photo of Nelson with the caption Liar at the top. The records of Jeffrey Epstein's grand jury remain sealed for the time The late sex trafficker served only 13 months of his ridiculously light, 18-month sentence in the Palm Beach County Jail on work release. 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. 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.