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. As Sheriff, I am chairman of Homeland Security for all of South Florida. If that was the plan, it worked. Our command staff has an excellent relationship with our road-patrol deputies. Dougan resurrected the site on a Russian web address. 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? Dougan started patrolling Belle Glade in 2008 after four years on easier turf. It was the largest settlement ever reached by PBSO. He won temporary political asylum in February 2017, and last December the Russian government made his status permanentan honor not even granted to Edward Snowden. Jack Furnari is a husband, father, entrepreneur, publisher, columnist, and former political consultant. In 2001, Borodin was briefly detained in New York on Swiss money-laundering charges en route to George W. Bushs inauguration. Endorsement: Easy call in Palm Beach County, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Endorsement: Easy call in Palm Beach County Sheriffs race: Ric Bradshaw, Key things to know about Floridas pending abortion ruling, DeSantis oversight board votes to sue Disney, Known for laughs, White House Correspondents dinner takes a turn and spotlights risks to journalism. I dont know what it is, but I feel so comfortable talking to you, and I enjoy our conversations.. In short, we have demonstrated our ability to make needed changes quickly and most of our policies/practices are established well before we encounter a crisis or have to navigate through challenging times. Further discussion is warranted on this issue. While acknowledging the optics are real bad, Bradshaw said it really wasnt a big thing at the time. (The Daily Beast turned up no evidence of a link between Borodin and Flyman.). Opinion Dougan says hed reached out to Borodin in advance of his trip, primarily because he wanted to meet as many interesting people as possible on his first visit to Russia. U.S. Senate U.S. House District 18 State Senate District 29 State Senate District 30 . I havent felt any effect from it, but just knowing it was breached its a mental thing, he says. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. In May, according to Dougan, the Kremlins RT network shot video for a feature-length documentary on Dougan. Special work. Given what we now know, this is a poor response. Lifestyle Dougan had nowhere left to go. Like the version he ultimately published, the draft opens with a tease about a Washington, D.C., meeting with a whistle-blower. Nearly two dozen sheriff's deputies will soon be available to guard Palm Beach County schools if the school board approves a million-dollar agreement Wednesday.. 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. No, Dougan says quickly. Similarly, when Bradshaw ran four years ago, the office faced a wave of lawsuits from deputy-involved shootings. Its none of my business One day if I ever get my Russian citizenship, maybe thatll change.. The audio dump went off like a bombshell in Palm Beach County. On one occasion he was written up for insubordination. 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. JW Marriott Tampa Water Street Antisemitism has been on the minds of local authorities as the number of incidents being reported has been going up. Hed just gotten his kids off to school when he noticed a suspicious pickup truck with tinted windows idling in front of his house. He claims the record shows otherwise only because Shinjuro outsources its domain registration service to the Romanian hosting company THCservers. They could find no trace of this BadVolf character in their networks. A PBSO deputy shot and wounded a man wielding two knives at a Boynton-area shopping plaza, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says. This falls race for Palm Beach County Sheriff has four-term incumbent Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, a Democrat, being challenged by former Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office Capt. Staff writer Chris Persaud and researcher Melanie Mena contributed to this story. Hes saying hes for body cameras, Freeman said. We provide them with the best equipment, the best training, the best technology, which translates into the best service for the public, he said. They wanted to know why Dougan had started traveling to Russia. His tale ends with a big reveal that wont surprise anyone familiar with the deep lore built up around Russiagate on the alt-right. 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. Does that mean that in a couple of years Dougan might start treating Putin to the same tactics he used on Sheriff Bradshaw? Years ago the Florida legislature recognized two classes of people who might face danger if their home address showed up in the states famously open public records repositories: abuse victims, and government officials like police and judges. Voters here in 2002 cast ballots in support of making the races for Sheriff, Property Appraiser and Supervisor of Elections non-partisan. Its like magic, he said. His Muscovite girlfriend traveled to Florida about as often, he says. The county property appraisers office was baffled by the address leak. They all needed a taste of their own medicine, and he knew just how to deliver it. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw has said a rise in calls for service is part of the reason why his agency's budget has risen sharply in recent years and now accounts for nearly . WPTV- West Palm Beach Scripps. That includes this election cycle. Settling in Moscow was hard at first, Dougan says, and he struggled to make ends meet. Sheriff Bradshaw has extensive knowledge and training in all aspects of law enforcement with a special emphasis on Domestic Security, Field Operations and community based policing. 1:07. Bradshaws fund-raising prowess isnt his only source of political strength. Do you support or oppose cash bail for misdemeanor charges? Ill always have his back, said Kerner. The agents had a search warrant to seize all his electronics and any and all records, data or materials pertaining to the computer networks of 24 different Florida county governments and confidential property records within these counties.. As he began his third year in the sheriffs office he put in for a transfer to Belle Glade. Dougan had resigned from the sheriffs office in 2009 after nearly four years in a police cruiser. Sheriff Bradshaw was first elected to office in the first year that the race was non-partisan, 2004. Mr. Epstein was allowed to engage in sexual behavior with underage girls. That is why our Police Benevolent Association has endorsed me. Eventually someone in the county government seems to have figured out the flaw in the countys address confidentiality system. Dougan stands by his story about registering the domain through the Malaysian hosting firm Shinjuro. Michael Gauger, the longtime chief deputy to Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, wants to run against his old boss in the 2024 election for county sheriff. I arrived, but the embassy was shuttered until Monday. 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 . 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 . Lauro Diaz, the Republican nominee. He has really made some powerful people extremely angry. 0:00. He commented, in explicit terms, about the sexual attractiveness of the women he encountered on the job, the lawsuit alleged. Creepy.. We have to have the ability to listen and understandand we do. The election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 3 with mail-in voting getting underway in late September. Then on April 29 the operators pointed it to a hosting company based in Iceland called FlokiNET, which marketed secure, stable and anonymous web hosting for journalists and whistle-blowers. The penchant for engaging in unethical behaviour was so deep-rooted among his colleagues that he left the force and launched a personal crusade against them. I was pissed off, says Dougan. Hes so much involved in this gutter talk, he cant figure it out.. For Dougan, that was the last straw. I have served in nearly every position in law enforcement, from patrolman to police chief. Through July 25, Bradshaws reelection campaign had pulled in a massive haul of $692,658 about 23 times the amount Freemans campaign has raised. And if so, what changes could be made to ensure that police are sent to where theyre truly needed? It is not. Sometimes called Putins mentor, Borodin had been Boris Yeltsins top aide. Now I see a sheriff leader in American government trying to be dictator like Stalin.. 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. I have commanded two of the largest law enforcement agencies in the county with the West Palm Beach Police Department as Chief and now as Sheriff. Regardless of what you think of calls to defund law enforcement agencies and spend that money on other programs, do you believe that law enforcement officers are often called to scenes where a social worker or similar government employee would be better suited? Lewis told Jessica all about his career. Finally, on Dec. 29, 2008, Dougan resigned from the force, firing off a flurry of pseudonymous emails to department brass on his way out, with screenshots of the Facebook posts and a photo of Raban in his punishment cap. He would look at females breasts, lick his lips, and say umumumum, wrote Nelson. He too fell down some stairs last night, and his medical clearance took a while But like a good batterer I know the areas that hide the marks well.. He says PBSO has succeeded in keeping crime down and that he is a regional and national leader in law enforcement. 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. 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. Dougan made clips from the juicy parts of the recordings, and, in BadVolfs broken English, wrote it all out as a narrative. (A spokesman for the FBIs Miami office declined comment.). I would love to run into him in a dark alley, said Lewis. Dougan, though, was soon in hot water of his own. Bradshaw took 61 percent of the vote to Freemans 39 percent. 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. In October 2017 Dougan posted a story to one his fake news sites claiming that Ric Bradshaws second-in-command was a white supremacist nursing fantasies about killing a black man or a Jew. The post was widely circulated, and proved convincing enough that the genuine news outlet RawStory picked it up and ran with it. The contrast with his opponent is stark. Last year, Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Dougan with extortion and wiretapping, the latter presumably for recording the Jessica calls. He said he is suspicious that Bradshaw recently gave employees a 1 percent across-the-board bonus days before the primary election. It was just awful.. 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. Dougan says he was disgusted with the behavior, but feared the reprisals hed face if he made a stink. He says he walked into the Miami FBIs satellite office in West Palm Beach carrying the recordings on a thumb drive, and demanded the bureau investigate Bradshaws office for hacking him. Memes Sometimes at night he visits Moscows bars and clubs with his friends. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to you. Obscure as those details are from the outside, theyd likely be well known to the person who set up DC Leaks and secured its hosting. The man who burned down his life in a crusade against someone he regarded as a corrupt despot now lives free only by the grace of the Putin regime. Bradshaw advanced to the general election after defeating retired Riviera Beach Police Major Alex Freeman in the Democratic primary. 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. Diaz, who was unchallenged for the Republican nomination, said that Bradshaw is a better politician than a sheriff. 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. Those emails never appeared on DC Leaks. This time Dougan was sure Bradshaw was going down. About the election: Early voting will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 3 through Aug. 16 at 18 locations; election day polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 18. Under Bradshaw, the department has come far. 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? 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. PBSOtalk.com vanished in the wake of the address leak, after a Broward County prosecutor pressured GoDaddy to take away the domain. In truth, there was no Russian hackerand there were no hacks. Diaz said he wants to serve all people, not just a few, and treat everyone equally, with respect, professionalism, integrity, compassion and courage in order to achieve a stronger and safer Palm Beach County. Had a guy run from me, he wrote in one post. After that it didnt take much digging to confirm what Rodriguez had already come to suspect. The DC Leaks domain name was really registered two weeks after Dougans arrival in Moscow, just as in his story. There are calls that can be answered by civilians. And the sheriffs office opened yet another investigation. 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. So far he says hes shipped 20 of them from his newest startup, BadVolf Serious Systems. The perpetrator claimed to be stealing the data from county networks from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale. It was an unusual movenobody volunteered for Belle Glade. The Icelandic hosting apparently didnt work out, and whoever controlled DC Leaks moved it to Malaysia five days later, on May 5th, where it stayed for the remainder of election season. One sheriffs official carried on an intimate 10-day telephonic flirtation with a woman who turned out to be Dougan using a voice changer. Rodriguez did not respond to repeated emails and phone messages). By the end of the 40-minute call Lewis and Rodriguez had agreed to do some paid freelance work on Jessicas behalf and obtain her gold-diggers private Facebook messages and web browsing history. The Democratic Sheriff was elected to a four-year term in 2020. If they wanted a Russian hacker, he would give them one. 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. He got fired, though he got his job back after a hearing. Population: 1,492,191 Dougan didnt appreciate how successful until the morning of March 14, 2016. Once it was registered, the domain lay dormant for 10 days, according to DNS resolution records from multiple sources. 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. 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. For several years in the 1980s Belle Glade was notorious for having the highest per-capita HIV infection rate in the country. 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. Before he got into the construction business hed worked at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office for 23 years, retiring in 2005 as a lieutenant detective. Like a bad version of Miami Vice, he wrote, where you drive a blacked-out Toyota Corolla and dont catch any of the bad guys.. For these he turned not to property records, but to a similar vulnerability in the states voter registration rolls. 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? Then I registered DC Leaks and uploaded the documents and gave the guy the credentials.. The hacker turned out to be Anthony Rodriguez, a social media specialist in PBSOs media relations office. Finally, we must mention the case of Jeffrey Epstein. Early release of inmates in not my decision and is up to the Chief Judge and the State Attorney. So to track down the home of someone with a confidential address in PAPA, you just had to make note of their parcel number, and then look it up in SITUS. His first job in law enforcement was on a small-town police force in Mangonia Park, Florida, where he distinguished himself by writing more traffic tickets than the other 11 officers combined. Gauger has filed papers to run as a Republican.. Dougans cockiness faded after the FBI search. It was too small a case for the FBI. Bradshaw is the most politically powerful persona in the county. In June, Dougan self-published his autobiography, BadVolf: The true story of an American cops retaliation against a corrupt system of justice and politics, forcing him to seek political asylum in Russia. Sometimes called Muck City for the slimy run-off from the local sugarcane farms, Belle Glade is best understood as a developing-world-style shantytown plunked down 40 miles west of Mar-a-Lago. If yes, please explain. Technology 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. Dougan spammed out an election-day email under the name of a prominent county commissioner slamming Bradshaw for immoral and criminal activities. Bradshaws second-in-command filed suit against Dougan for defamation, dragging him through years of litigation before the case was voluntarily dismissed by both parties. Other Political Experience; Florida Sheriffs Task Force for Region 7, Chairman ; ". He moved into an apartment in the western part of the city near the Moscow River and about eight miles from the Kremlin. It reached the mainstream by way of a since-retracted Fox News story, and then on the back of Fox personality Sean Hannity. Prosecutors want to investigate whether Krischer's office has ever told the grand jury the full scale of Epstein's crimes, or whether the prosecutor's office is interfering with the judiciary . Lauro Diaz, the Republican nominee. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is a career law enforcement professional responsible for leading the largest law enforcement agency in Palm Beach County. The elder Freeman was sentenced in 2016 to three years in prison for trying to extort the head of Palm Beach County public schools. 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.