In my view, the most pressing issue with our modern “system” of governance is that no one in a position of authority is ever held responsible for their actions. 

Not ever.

The very concept of holding the power structure accountable for their acts and omissions is anathema in an age of Cover Your Ass politics, where, for the right price, any irresponsible decision, malfeasance, or error in judgement can be cleaned, polished, and molded into something different.

This week we learned that in July, a former Volusia County School District employee had the courage to file formal allegations of waste and mismanagement with the Florida Department of Education following repeat deadline extensions, change orders, and cost increases surrounding a new finance and human resources software system.

According to an informative piece by News-Journal education reporter Cassidy Alexander, “… the original price tag was $5.2 million for implementation. Three change orders have added $2.2 million to that cost — and that doesn’t count the additional $1 million license fee the district must also pay each year.”

Ultimately, under the management and direction of our All-Stars in the Ivory Tower of Power in DeLand, the implementation of the financial software is expected to cost you and me more than $10 million. . . 

Oh, did I mention that the project is now nearly two-years behind schedule?  Yeah. 

Inexplicably, upon receiving the whistleblower’s complaint, the state Department of Education directed that the Volusia County School Board investigate itself.

You read that right. 

So, the district hired a sharp labor and employment attorney from the mammoth legal/lobbying/consulting firm GrayRobinson – a one-stop government big box store – who took a look and determined the complaint should be dismissed with a finding of “no waste, fraud or financial mismanagement.”

Far be it from me to second-guess, but it appears our detective’s investigative efforts were limited to reviewing the complainant’s timeline of events and supporting documentation, then interviewing a paid “Project Manager/Consultant” – and everyone associated with this expensive debacle with “Chief,” “Director,” or “Senior” before their names. 

The whistleblower refused to participate in the district’s “investigation.”

That’s okay, the senior management team explained everything away quite handily. . . 

My ass.  

In the final report, our intrepid investigator explained, “This monumental task was proposed on an aggressive timeline,” “…against a backdrop of limited staff resources (some of whom are naturally resistant to change) without the necessary institutional knowledge and technology expertise needed for a project of this magnitude.”

In other words, it was not the fault of senior leadership – it was those obstructionist jacklegs and malcontented misfits they hired to serve the district’s information technology needs who screwed the pooch. . .

Apparently, we, the long-suffering taxpayers, were fools to think a project of this “monumental” magnitude could be had for a paltry $5.2 million.

As our learned sleuth deduced, “…it’s typical for projects like this to cost $6-to-$10 million,” lauding the district as, “thoughtful, diligent, and responsive in this process,” including salving our fears with the knowledge, “The VCSB has adjusted its team and methodology to ensure Phase 2 is implemented with fewer issues in 2021.”

I think “implemented with fewer issues” translates to, “We’ve learned from our mistakes – and we promise Phase 2 won’t be the same unmitigated shit show Phase 1 was. . .”

Right.

I was surprised that our detective took the district consultant’s word on the $6 to $10 million estimate. 

However, I was not so shocked that, “…no one interviewed raised any concerns about the cost of the implementation of the Oracle products.”

Nothing to see here, folks.  Simply hardworking senior bureaucrats going about the people’s business since 2017 in a thoughtful, diligent, and responsive manner – two million here, a million there – nothing to be concerned with. 

Now, move along. . . 

According to the News-Journal report, the complainant reported that he was fired from his position at Volusia County Schools after bringing his serious concerns to light. 

Not surprisingly, the scope of the district’s “investigation” did not include a review of allegations related to “…termination of employment or claims of whistleblower retaliation.”

In my view, We, The People, who pay the bills and suffer in silence, simply should not be asked to accept an investigation of the Volusia County School Board and its staff – when the investigator is selected and paid for by the Volusia County School Board.

I’m weird that way. . .

Whatever.

Let this serve as another valuable lesson to any potential whistleblower concerned about waste, fraud, and mismanagement at the massive money pit that is Volusia County Schools: 

Take your concerns and evidence directly to a state or federal law enforcement agency with the power to flash a badge, subpoena records, serve search warrants, and interrogate people under oath!

You would be amazed at what that combination of investigative tools can accomplish.

In my view, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General has, once again, shirked its responsibility and weakened our system of checks-and-balances that protect taxpayers, students, teachers, and staff – and it is quickly losing the trust of those it serves.    

Tragic.  

If you thought things couldn’t get worse – think again. 

At yesterday’s Volusia County School Board meeting in an “off the agenda” ambush –  our elected dullards gifted our “new” Superintendent, Dr. Carmen “Blundering” Balgobin, a massive $50,000 pay raise commensurate with her title (we currently pay her $579.00 per day). 

As you may recall, in September, Blundering Balgobin, in concert with our heartless elected officials, pulled something of a bloodless coup d’état undermining School Superintendent Dr. Scott Fritz as he recuperates from cancer treatment.

With little fanfare, the School Board simply dropped the word “Interim” from Balgobin’s title – and, just like magic – we have a “new” superintendent.

And things have been an abject dumpster fire since she took command. . .   

At a time when the School Board just took $11 million from reserves to balance a bloated budget approaching $1 Billion – despite internal warnings of a looming “financial crisis” – those we have elected to represent our interests lavish an obscene pay increase on a ghostlike failed senior administrator?

Did no one on the dais of power realize that Blundering Balgobin’s $50,000 bump eclipses the annual household income of the average Volusia County family – and could have been used to support teachers, paraprofessionals, and staff members – who are struggling to make ends meet on pitifully inadequate salaries?  

Is it just me, or is anyone else bothered by the massive exodus of teachers and staff from the district for “personal reasons”?   

My God.  

Fortunately, political novice Anita Burnette trounced entrenched School Board Chair Ida Wright last week, largely on a refreshing platform of “changing district culture by improving communication and making sure educators feel valued; prioritizing spending on classroom needs and tightening spending in administrative budgets; and closing the achievement gap for minority students.”

Amen. 

In coming months, it will be interesting to watch as our current elected officials – and their overpaid senior staff – set about beating any sense of independent thought out of Ms. Burnette in favor of the lock-step conformity that perpetuates this culture of malignant mediocrity. 

Good luck, Ms. Burnette.  You’re gonna need it. . .

Sometimes I am astounded at just how tone-deaf our Halifax area ‘movers-and-shakers’ can be. 

Call it an obtuse insensitivity to what the average Volusia County resident is feeling – or a complete inability to grasp what those trying desperately to eke out a living in this artificial economy experience in a skewed marketplace, where incentives and cash infusions go to some well-connected businesses, while others are allowed to wither and die – and you see just how out-of-touch some “very important people” in our community truly are.   

In his usually cogent piece in Sunday’s Daytona Beach News-Journal, editor Pat Rice voiced the opinion that newly elected Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower is the one who needs to “mend fences” with the same uber-wealthy political insiders who did everything in their sizeable power to block his election while pouring massive amounts of cash into his challenger’s campaign account – collectively pissing away hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in the worse investment of their lives.

Now, Mr. Brower is the one who should make-nice and mend fences?

My ass.

Despite Mr. Rice’s pathological need to publicly smooch the backsides of King J. Hyatt Brown, Mori Hosseini, Glenn Ritchey, and their cronies at that mysterious camera stellata over at the Volusia CEO Business Alliance – the fact is, Volusia County voters just sent a resounding message that they are sick and tired of business as usual – and, through their sacred vote – are actively throwing off the traces of pay-to-play politics and the long-standing good ol’ boy network that facilitates it.

Frankly, I find it rich that Mr. Rice, who lightly veiled his active support for Mr. Brower’s opponent in a gauzy attempt to avoid the appearance of bias, believes that our new County Chair should immediately acquiesce to the status quo, and embrace a system where a mega-developer – not those we elect to represent our interests – controls the flow of funding from the state legislature – and gazillionaires feed greedily at the public trough as they pad their private projects with our tax dollars and act like they’re doing us a favor. 

And don’t get me started on that sham known as Team Volusia – which is little more than a publicly funded international travel club for its upper-crust do-nothings – who never met a low-hanging warehouse job they didn’t like. . .

When Mr. Rice mewls about how difficult it is to attract new business to Volusia County – and those elusive “high-paying jobs” that always seem just beyond our grasp – perhaps he should consider that many companies don’t want to locate their operation in an environment where a few well-heeled insiders have suppressed civic, social, and economic progress in favor of private profits, monopolized the political landscape by insulating city/county executives, and skewed the local marketplace for decades. 

“In the end, the county chair is just another member of the County Council. The position’s power is largely symbolic.  And mandates are fleeting.”

I wonder how different that quote from Mr. Rice’s lecture might have been had Dishonest Deb Denys come away from this knife-fight victorious? 

In my view, it is high time that the editor of what’s left of our local newspaper – and those who have used wealth, power, and the privilege that comes when smart people in public office equate the size of one’s bank account with the clarity of their civic vision – comes to the realization that We, The Little People, have spoken.

And that rallying cry was not limited to the Volusia County Council.

In Daytona Beach, political newcomer Stacy Cantu routed entrenched incumbent Rob Gilliland – who never met a massive theme development he didn’t like – and championed the sprawl which now blankets our aquifer recharge areas off Boomtown Boulevard west of I-95.  

Clearly, taxpayers are no longer content to discuss decades-old issues at contrived coffee klatches while our core tourist area and beachside gateway continues to rot – a malignant blight that is repellant to entrepreneurial investment – while established businesses find a way to relocate to surrounding communities who are welcoming them with open arms. 

In Sunday’s News-Journal editorial, “A county faces change,” which was collocated next to Mr. Rice’s piece, our local newspaper opined:

“Brower, in particular, should reach out to groups like the CEO Business Alliance, ensuring the county’s participation on the economic-development team that helps recruit good jobs. He may have run against the local power structure, but as county chair he has a duty to build alliances that work toward Volusia County’s best interests.”

Bullshit.

For far too long the power dynamic in Volusia County has required the peoples elected representatives kowtow before the insiders who hold title on their political future as they obsequiously genuflect before their monarchial overseers, hat in hand, and seek permission before invariably acting contrary to the interests of their constituents. 

Now, it is time for our greedy former ‘power brokers’ to assume their place in line – no better or worse than any other taxpaying citizen of Volusia County – and participate in a true democratic system of governance where massive campaign contributions to hand-select candidates no longer rules the day – or influences lopsided policies that control our lives and livelihoods.

In my view, Mr. Rice should understand that Jeff Brower isn’t beholden to anyone but those elected him to high office – and he isn’t required to grovel to special interests – especially those who worked (and spent) so desperately to silence his message, besmirch his character, and protect the status quo.

The balance of power just returned where it rightfully belongs – with the citizens of Volusia County. 

Get used to it.  

“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters, musicians, and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him.  Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses.  A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”

– Gen. George S. Patton

I am a realist – a pragmatic seeker of that which is real and possible – and I tend to dismiss those who live in some chimerical fantasyland where ‘hope’ is the operative strategy. 

For me, genuineness has always been infinitely more fascinating than make-believe.  Perhaps because the truth is such a rare and precious commodity in modern life. 

Even as a kid, I was never frightened by Halloween haunted houses – or mesmerized by the “magic” of Disney World – because I was always poking my head behind-the-scenes, pointing out the rods, pullies and animatronics that most pretend don’t exist in their desire to be willingly fooled and “entertained.”     

My life experience, which includes graduating magna cum laude from the prestigious Institut des Coups Durs, has taught me that things are never quite as good – or bad – as we think they are. 

But it has made me hyper-suspicious of politicians, magicians, and snake oil salesmen (sorry for the redundancy) who spin the truth and use deceptive persuasion, half-truths, and exaggerated sleight-of-hand to create an alternate reality that, over time, we come to accept as fact.

Look, don’t take my word for it. 

Turn on any network news sideshow – or open a major newspaper this morning – and you tell me if anything you hear, see, or read materially comports with known facts? 

In the aftermath of our local elections, I read with interest the pie-in-the-sky goals of some of our newly elected officials – many of whom are about to experience their first sweet taste of unbridled power and influence in the microcosm of city or county government – where the haughty trappings of office and the obsequious fawning of their “new friends” with ulterior motives can be more intoxicating than 101 proof bourbon. 

Meeting those highfalutin goals won’t be easy for most – and downright impossible for some – and they will have no one to blame but themselves.

In a previous life, I once heard a story about a newly minted elected official who was invited to a congratulatory dinner following his election by a prominent real estate developer, and how incredibly impressed the neophyte politician – a service industry worker by trade – was when the wealthy businessman paid for dinner and drinks with a “black” American Express Centurion card.

I thought how easily alliances are changed, ethics compromised, and campaign promises broken when the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker enter this heady new world – where they are finally treated like “equals” and everyone laughs at their jokes – a slippery slope where they are told anything is possible with the right application of the people’s money.  

An ultimately cruel and unforgiving place where they are immediately forgotten, like so much worthless rubbish, when they lose an election and no longer hold value for those once backslapping “friends” who stand at the nexus of public funds and private profit motives. 

Nobody said public service would be easy.

If I were to purchase one gift for first term politicians preparing to take their seat on the dais of power, it would be a hand mirror.

When the time comes – and it will – when the crown lays heavy and the feeling of infallibility overcomes the willingness to listen, when their neighbors are screaming and chippie critics like me are bitching about how they screwed up the difficult calls, when compromising their ethics would be the easiest course, or those times when special interests are lobbying for a controversial policy or perquisite – they could take a hard look in that mirror and remember why they sought and fought to serve in the first place.  

To those who have just ascended to high office, here are some things I learned from three-decades in public life that may help once the euphoria of the big win and well-deserved celebrations have ended.

And its some pretty good advice for anyone who currently holds public office.

Consider it a heartfelt gift from me to you – a primer on “How to succeed in government without really trying”:

Rubber-chicken dinners and galas with haughty awards, ego massage, and goofy accolades are not important – coffee with a concerned constituent is.

Humility and a true willingness to admit honest mistakes – then correcting them – is omnipotent to winning and keeping the public’s trust – because people can forgive those errors and omissions they see themselves making.

The loudest person in the room is not always right.  They are not always wrong, either.   

Your constituents understand that you are human, but they expect and deserve a commitment to the ultimate in ethical, moral and honorable behavior that respects human dignity, obeys the rule of law, and brings honor to public service.

And citizens demand that elected officials hold themselves, and others in positions of power, accountable for their actions – because anything less weakens the system.

It is also important to support career civil servants – listen to their suggestions and recommendations for improving service delivery – and never use them as pawns or scapegoats for political expediency. 

Demand a high standard of excellence from the city/county manager – he or she holds more of the cards than any one elected official – and give the executive the courtesy of frequent, fair, and objective performance reviews so they know where they stand, what you expect, and how they can improve. 

In public service, courage is defined as the mental, moral, and physical strength that sees us through challenges and allows us to do the right thing – for the right reason – and lead by personal example as you make the difficult decisions that touch the lives and livelihoods of those you serve under incredible internal and external pressures.

Find that inner courage – hold firm to your sacred oath of office and core values – and take pride in the fact your neighbors, staff, and fellow citizens have put their confidence in your ability to lead – and your vision for our collective future.

And never lose sight of the impermanence of power and position. 

“All glory is fleeting. . .” 

That is the reality of politics. 

As I write this, perhaps the strangest election of our lifetime is over, and we still do not know who our next president will be, and probably won’t for the foreseeable future.

What we do know is that in Volusia County record numbers of informed voters stood firm and let our entrenched power structure know that there is some shit we won’t eat.

And it feels damn good to win one for a change, eh? 

Our County Chair race was a clear referendum on pay-to-play politics – an oligarchical system that for far too long has allowed a small coterie of well-heeled insiders to control our lives and livelihoods through the infusion of massive amounts of cash into the campaign coffers of hand-select candidates for public office. 

In essence, We, The Little People, have been told who (and what) we would be voting for as both the candidates – and the message – were wholly controlled by those seeking to retain their suckling order at the public teat. 

Finally, the blatancy of the manipulation became a sick joke, and many residents became apathetic – almost accepting – of a system that abhorred citizen input and destroyed anyone who attempted to expose the sham.    

In time, the spirit of democracy was slowly replaced by a support system for uber-wealthy insiders with a profit motive.

The depth of the problem became evident when District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post was elected following a hard-fought campaign in 2016. 

Almost immediately, our doddering fool of a lame duck County Chair, Ed Kelley, began the process of beating any independent thought or action out of her – and with the help of Councilwoman Deb Denys and others – we watched as the status quo fought desperately against all attempts to change the self-serving nature of county government. 

But on Tuesday, the overwhelming majority of Volusia County voters sent a resounding demand for fundamental change – and our outstanding candidate, Jeff “Plan B” Brower, a gentleman farmer from DeLeon Springs, stomped across this salty piece of land like a champion – bringing a message of hope and inspiration for a better, more prosperous, future for everyone. 

In doing so, he exposed a skewed system where his politically malleable opponent, Dishonest Deb Denys, amassed hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in corporate campaign contributions – and thousands more in a shadowy Political Action Committee – as our powerful overseers made the worst investment of their lives.

In turn, Councilwoman Heather Post earned a well-deserved return to the dais of power as she trounced Old Ed’s handpicked handmaiden Barbara Bonarrigo – a nice lady who seemed totally out of her element from day-one – clueless about the challenges facing Volusia County families – more inclined to lunch with her party’s upper crust, rub-elbows with wealthy benefactors, and have her picture taken with B-List politicians than get her hands dirty.

At the end of the day, the excruciating heat and withering desperation of the campaign exposed many arrogant perennial politicians for exactly who, and what, they are.

Look, I admit it – I am not very magnanimous in victory.

It’s just one of my many character flaws. . .

However, in my view, Deb Denys was a political monster – a sleazy shill for power-hungry special interests – who represented everything I abhor, capable of turning her back on her constituents (and her party) when it served her egotistic needs or those of her political puppeteers.

I have no sympathy for her.  

Now that she has the stench of defeat about her – I suspect this will mark the end of Ms. Denys ambitious political aspirations – and she has no one to blame but herself – and that addle-brained asshole, Chairman Ed Kelley. . .

Good riddance to both of them. . .

Now, it is up to Chairman-elect Brower, Councilwoman Post, and the other candidates who were elevated to public office this week to hold firm to their high campaign promises, ignore the trappings of office (and the new fawning friends they are about to make) and remember that character counts – and that returning a transparent and accessible government of the people, by the people, and for the people to Volusia County is their sole mandate.     

There is a lot about this election left to unpack and I will get to all of it in coming days and weeks.  

I don’t know about you, but I plan to take a few days off to reflect on all we have gained – and what we have lost – in the aftermath of this strange and brutal election season.

So, absent something extraordinary, I won’t be publishing Angels & Assholes this week.

If you voted this year – the sacred civic obligation of all free citizens – consider yourself a true Angel. 

Thank you to all candidates and voters for participating in the greatest form of governance on the face of the earth – and congratulations to everyone on this hard-won victory!

“The genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I am one of them. Election day – especially when it’s a presidential election – is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major election days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to them.”

–Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Hello. My name is Mark, and I am a political junkie.

And whenever I look for a clear perspective on politics, I immediately return to the works of Dr. Thompson. 

Say what you will about his personal habits – the man had amazing insight into what passes for modern political contests – and the death of the American Dream.  

I write this alternative opinion blog to purge my civic and political frustrations – which reach a crescendo at election time – and the fact so many of you find them beneficial in helping form an independent opinion on the issues and candidates is both unexpected and incredibly humbling. 

That said, I have no idea how things will shake out tonight. 

No one does. 

The Daytona Beach News-Journal used their editorial space today to calm our fears (and take a final swipe at the Trump campaign) asking that we “get used to” the fact we may, or may not, see the results of the presidential election tonight.

I believe that’s because many states have compromised the system to permit votes to be counted until they get the results they want.

Its why I focus solely on local politics. 

That is where our true fate lies – those we elect to city commissions and the county council – our neighbors who we elevate to high office and entrust in them the power to permit or control growth, spend our hard-earned tax dollars on the infrastructure and essential services that effect our everyday lives, educate our children, police our streets and set the public policies that govern our lives and livelihoods. 

In Volusia County, our system of governance has dissolved into something ugly and different – a Turkish bazaar – where a few uber-wealthy power brokers control everything but the ebb and flow of the Atlantic tide through massive campaign contributions to hand-select candidates. 

The return on investment is direct access to the nexus of public funds and incentives that ensure the profit motive of private projects – while We, The Little People, are totally ignored, and treated like an annoyance whenever we attempt to participate in our local government.

Unfortunately, Volusia County has been historically plagued by civic apathy.

A feeling among those who struggle mightily to earn a living in this artificial economy, where bought-and-paid-for elected officials tilt the playing field, picking winners and losers in the marketplace with tax supported incentives and giveaways, that they no longer have a chip in the game. 

Because they don’t.

It’s worse in places like Palm Coast today, where voters face the frightening dilemma of choosing between an incumbent Mayor many believe used her elective position for personal advantage – or a former Sovereign Citizen with a wacky past who has never voted in an election before. . .

My God.

Fortunately, in the Volusia County Chair race, we have a clear choice between the tired status quo – a legalized quid pro quo pay-to-pay system – that always favors the wants and whims of political insiders – while shitting on the dreams of families, many of whom have lived at or below the poverty line for far too long.  

That’s why I have so enthusiastically supported the grassroots candidacy of Jeff “Plan B” Brower, someone I believe possesses the vision, integrity and focus to return a citizen-centric government to Volusia County, protect our threatened natural resources, prioritize fiscal responsibility, control unchecked growth, and make good on the tired promise of quality jobs.

To my neighbors and friends, I would like to make a personal appeal. 

I ask that you take a moment from your busy lives and careers to reflect quietly on what transparent and accessible local government mean to all of us.

I believe there remains one fundamental mechanism which will allow us to prevail over the insiders and well-heeled donor class that seem intent on taking our lifestyle and heritage away from us and handing it to outside speculators for backdoor personal enrichment:

It is the ultimate power of the ballot box.

We still have a democratic process that allows one person, one vote. 

I believe that if enough like-minded citizens hold firm to the basic belief that we can control our destiny by electing strong, ethical, and visionary members of our community to high public office, we can once again balance political power and restore transparency, fairness, and the spirit of democracy in Volusia County government.

If you haven’t already – I am asking you to go to the polls and cast your ballot today.

Take a friend with you. Hell, take two.

Vote like your lives and livelihoods depend upon it.

And, regardless of who is ultimately elected tonight, I promise you I will be here to hold them accountable – without fear or favor – stirring the pot, standing up to the bullies, keeping things equal (and interesting), and ensuring that those who hold themselves out for public office serve our highest and best interests – not the mercenary desires of a few wealthy power brokers who, up to now, have controlled our elections with their checkbook. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our sacred political process – candidates and voters alike.

Now, we wait. . .

Godspeed – and good luck. 

Interpersonal communication experts will tell you that no response is still a response – and it sends a strong message.

With the election just days away, incumbent politicians are spending heavily to convince you and me that, if we return them to high office, they will be accessible – and responsive – to our needs.

While some live up to their obligations, unfortunately, many elected officials have proven that, once they ascend to the dais of power, unless you have given thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, neither your concerns – nor opinion – seem to matter.

It is called pay-to-play politics, and the pernicious effects of this legal quid pro quo system is evident throughout Volusia County. 

For instance, a frequent criticism of incumbent Volusia County Councilwoman Deb Denys is her arrogant habit of ignoring the concerns and requests of her constituents, refusing to return telephone calls or emails, shutting off access, and sending a crystal clear message that her time is best spent servicing the wants and whims of those who stuff large sums of money into her campaign coffers.   

Now, Dishonest Deb is in the race of her life with political newcomer Jeff “Plan B” Brower for the County Chair seat – the Big Enchilada of local politics – and her haughty practice of ignoring her constituents is coming back to haunt her. . .  

Rather than even try and appear approachable, or within reach of John Q. Public, inexplicably, Ms. Denys continues to engage in whale-shit level politics, a weird no-holds-barred campaign that uses a murky Political Action Committee to foment lies and launch smear tactics – not to elevate her position on the issues – but to teardown her opponent personally and politically.

But just when you thought Ms. Denys could not stoop any lower – she did.

This weekend, The Daytona Beach News-Journal ran a story by Mark Harper entitled, “Attack tying Brower to Trump raises questions,” that attempted to explain a repulsive glossy mailer sent to some Democratic and nonaffiliated voters by Dishonest Deb which insinuated the worst form of party politics into the nonpartisan County Chair race.

The mailer referred to Jeff Brower as “A radical, rightwing puppet publicly supporting President Trump & his radical agenda!” (?) – essentially painting Ms. Denys – the darling of the local Republican apparatus – as a left-leaning democrat as she pretends to be all things to all people.  

Even if it means shitting on everything her fellow Republicans hold dear – including slamming her party’s presidential candidate during a hotly contested race – just to gain a few votes in her own local contest. 

My God. 

In my view, this skeevy mailer best characterizes the self-serving, win at all cost, strategy that Ms. Denys and her well-heeled political benefactors have prosecuted since Mr. Brower beat her like a gong in the primary.

Now, how will Ms. Denys politically accountable supporters – like the uber-wealthy State Senator Tom Wright, Congressman Michael Waltz or Committeewoman Debbie Phillips – staunch Republican standard-bearers who enthusiastically endorsed Dishonest Deb’s campaign – reconcile the fact she turned on them with harsh criticism of republican values and a clear willingness to besmirch their presidential candidate for personal gain?    

I don’t care which party’s candidate you support in the presidential race no one likes a backstabbing turncoat.

Clearly, when it comes to Ms. Denys propensity for wallowing in the mud, nothing is out of bounds – and this hypocritical horseshit that allows local GOP leadership to turn a blind eye is just one reason I, and many like me, have left the Republican Party to become proud No Party Affiliates. . .   

Whatever.  

Perhaps most telling was the fact Ms. Denys refused to return the News-Journal’s telephone calls on Friday.

I guess with over $244,000 in a campaign account (for a County Chair race?) – and some $82,000 in a shadowy Political Action Committee chaired by a political hitman who calls himself “The Prince of Darkness” – Ms. Denys no longer feels an obligation to answer inquiries from the working press – or her constituents. . .

No response truly is a powerful response – because it lets you know where you stand. 

And it speaks volumes about the sense of entitlement and base arrogance that has defined Dishonest Deb’s eight year parasitic hold a Volusia County Council seat – with absolutely nothing to show for it – beyond a egoistic need to promote her own self-serving political aspirations.

Vote Jeff Brower. 

Hi, kids!

It’s time once again to turn a jaundiced eye toward the newsmakers of the day – the winners and losers – who, in my cynical opinion, either contributed to our quality of life, or detracted from it, in some significant way.

Here’s a special thanks to everyone who took the time to read my series “The Barker Files: The Case of Mark Scribner,” an examination of a brutal murder which occurred 25 years ago this month. 

Like I promised – this was not a contrived “feel-good” story – and readers have told me that the conclusion stayed with them for a while. 

I understand.

This was not the first homicide I investigated during my law enforcement career, and it would not be the last, but I think the indiscriminate nature of the killing makes for a compelling story. 

I hope it serves as a fitting memorial for Mr. Scribner as well.   

Writing the story and transcribing the report was cathartic, bringing memories and remembrances of working relationships back to the surface so they can be properly sorted and packed away – and a renewed sense of pride in playing a small role in bringing those responsible for this senseless crime to justice.   

If you have not had the opportunity, the three-part series can be found in the October 2020 Barker’s View archive. 

Thanks again for reading. 

Let’s look at who tried to screw us – and who tried to save us – during the week that was:

Asshole           Daytona Beach City Commission

One of the many pitfalls of writing an alternative opinion blog is that the groups and officials you rail about often defend themselves by pigeonholing you as a chronic complainer.

Barker the Bitcher – a naysaying malcontent who obnoxiously whines about the issues without ever offering up a solution.

For the most part, they’re right. 

But it does not negate the fact that the underlying issues exist.

After all, I don’t make this shit up. 

While it shouldn’t come as a surprise that those who have invested heavily – politically and financially – are champing at the bit to put the first brushstrokes on the revitalization of downtown Daytona – the overpowering stench of the age-old intrigues required to obtain the lucrative government incentives that ensure a profit margin have once again come wafting from the inner sanctum at City Hall.       

Now it has become apparent to everyone – including those long-time enablers on the editorial board of The Daytona Beach News-Journal – that something is terribly wrong at Daytona Beach City Hall. 

Better late than never, I suppose.

Last Sunday, in his piece “Daytona City Hall’s bad communication,” editor Pat Rice expressed his views on the mysterious attempts by a senior faction in Daytona Beach government to facilitate millions of dollars in public incentives for a Tampa-based developer seeking to build an apartment complex and parking garage on the site of the former First Baptist Church. 

I disagree with Mr. Rice on one point – this goes far beyond bad communication.

At an October meeting, Daytona Beach city commissioners were asked to discuss and take action on a plan that would see the developer, Framework Group, receive a $10.5 million tax break in exchange for a few public parking spaces and the potential of moving people into downtrodden downtown. 

Interestingly, city staff provided the elected officials with support materials just six-hours before the meeting. 

You read that right. 

After a year of behind-the-scenes wrangling, Deputy City Manager Dru Driscoll, who also serves as the city’s fire chief, gave little explanation, beyond “…some of the documents were out of date.”

In my view, this represents one more backroom deal by City Manager Jim Chisholm, who openly put the screws to his city commission when he pressured them to make an important decision with little, if any, substantive information – and a flashlight-under-the-chin scary story about the dearth of developers eager to make a buck downtown. 

“This is the only developer we’ve had come to us who’s willing to do a project,” Chisholm said. “It’s up to you if you want to let it go.”

Bullshit.

Clearly, Chief Driscoll is out of his element – and, if he thinks Mr. Chisholm cares who takes the blame as he shuffles out the door, he should think again. . . 

To their credit, the Daytona Beach City Commission rightfully decided to take a deep breath and ask city staff and the Framework Group to go back to the drawing board and develop hard answers before the matter comes back in early November. 

Unfortunately, the damage is done – and I cannot understand why the elected representatives failed to take definitive action to ensure this type of public/private chicanery does not happen in the future?   

In my view, both the City of Daytona Beach – and the developer – have now lost the trust and faith of the people.

And they have no one to blame but themselves. 

Eventually, I believe the City of Daytona Beach will come to the inexorable conclusion that the design and planning of public spaces is best accomplished with the input of citizens and stakeholders in an open and transparent process.

While that might not do much for the bottom line of some local powerbroker with a profit motive, it will ultimately produce something we can all take civic pride in – and develop a creative atmosphere and clear vision for the future of the Halifax area that these backroom machinations can never produce. 

Angel               Pictona at Holly Hill and the City of Holly Hill

Last week, the City of Holly Hill played host to the Pictona Fall Vintage Pickleball Tournament at the beautiful Pictona at Holly Hill complex on Ridgewood Avenue.   

It was a true community effort. 

With City Manager Joe Forte and Commissioner John Penny staffing the bar-b-que grill – other city officials worked hand-in-glove with some 50 Pictona members who signed on as volunteers for the event as the facility hosted 650 players and hundreds of spectators for the three-day event.

Now, we have received the exciting news that Pictona at Holly Hill will host the International Federation of Pickleball’s 4^th Annual Bainbridge Cup Tournament, April 7-11, 2021. 

The international competition is expected to draw some 700 players to the area. 

In my view, the pickleball courts and fitness complex is one of the most electrifying additions to the Halifax area in decades – and we owe a collective debt of gratitude to area residents Rainer and Julie Martens, who made a multi-million-dollar personal investment to see the project become a reality. 

In my view, this is an outstanding example of what a true public/private partnership should be, as the Martens’ investment was supported with a $1.2 million contribution from the City of Holly Hill – bolstered by a $400,000 ECHO grant from Volusia County and $50,000 in sponsorships and private donations.

Well done.

This wonderful facility showcases just one unique way Volusia County’s tax supported ECHO and Forever funds have enhanced our quality of life.

I hope you will join me in voting to preserve these important programs on Tuesday.   

Asshole           Volusia County District Schools

Sometimes I read the news of the day and shake my head in quiet disbelief – other times my incendiary temper gets the best of me as I slam my fists and scream – hoping I never come to accept the near constant gaffes, maladministration and good old-fashioned foul-ups that have become the operative characteristic of the Volusia County School Board and its senior administration.

Imagine the horror of Volusia County residents who perused the International edition of the British newspaper Daily Mail (or The Hill, Newsweek, most national electronic media, etc.) this week and found an article detailing the travails of Tyler Maxwell, 18, a Spruce Creek High student whose parking permit was brusquely suspended when he exercised his first amendment right and placed an elephant figure emblazoned “Trump” in the bed of his pickup truck and went to school.

You read that right. 

The youth didn’t start a fight, disrupt a class, engage in a disturbance, or saunter onto the Spruce Creek campus armed with a knife and take a seat in an occupied classroom to “test school security” like some ambulatory drunk did a year ago – he was naturally proud of the fact this is his first vote in a presidential election – and merely parked in the designated lot without removing a clever sign supporting his candidate. 

That apparently triggered the school’s high-handed administration.

Now, he is rightfully defending his right to free expression in a court of law. . .   

According to reports, “Twenty minutes into his first class at Spruce Creek High School, Maxwell said he was called to the principal’s office and was asked to move his car off campus.”

“His father then drove to the school to demand a reason in writing for why the student couldn’t leave his car on campus with the elephant in the truck. After he said his father did not get a written explanation, Maxwell drove to school the next day with the figurine.”

“Tuesday morning, my parking pass was taken away,” Maxwell said.”

In turn, Maxwell’s family filed a federal lawsuit accusing Volusia County Schools of violating his freedom of speech.

Good for him.

I don’t particularly care who you support in the presidential race – but everyone should take offense when officious school administrators take it upon themselves to suppress free and constitutionally protected expression. 

It also bugs me when my hard-earned tax dollars – which support a groaning district budget now approaching one-billion-dollars – are shunted to defend lawsuits because some shithead decided to flex his or her muscles because, “A passerby could interpret a large sign in a school parking lot to be an endorsement by the school district…”

My ass.  

Add to that the debacle at Tuesday’s School Board meeting, which was marred when DeLand Police were given the overbearing order to physically remove a group of Volusia County mothers who wished to attend the public meeting – sans face coverings – and speak on possible changes to the district’s mask regulations. 

It was ugly. 

In the spirit of the district’s hypocritical “do as I say, not as I do” culture, I found it interesting that both School Board Vice Chairman Linda Cuthbert – and the bungling Chief Operating Officer Greg Akin – removed their masks and spoke barefaced as they groveled for CARES Act funding before the Volusia County Council earlier this month.  

I don’t recall either of them being manhandled out of the council chamber by a uniformed law enforcement officer. . .  

After trespassing the young moms from the public building – effectively barring them from the Ivory Tower of Power for one-year – the tone-deaf School Board Chair Ida Wright had the cheek to say, “Thank you for being patient, but we live in a country where everyone is able to say his or her piece and we want to respect that.”

Bullshit. 

The last thing the Volusia County School Board does is respect their constituents right to free expression and public participation. 

That’s why teachers and staff are forced to use anonymous social media sites to avoid retribution when they communicate valuable information and insight to families and colleagues.      

If Ms. Wright meant what she said, taxpayers would not be under threat of a federal lawsuit to ensure a student’s first amendment protections – or shocked by the sight of a nursing mother being forced from a public meeting on the diktat of the board’s tyrannical Chairwoman. 

Whatever.

When will someone – anyone – on the Volusia County School Board come to the realization that taxpayers have had enough international embarrassments from the ham-fisted antics of badge-heavy administrators and senior officials who seem totally incapable of making logical, diplomatic, and fact-based decisions? 

Asshole           Volusia Council Chair Ed Kelley

Look, I’m not running for anything. 

It’s safe to say you won’t be seeing “Mr. Barker Goes to Washington,” (Unless you want a Wilber Mills type, ripped-to-the-tits on cheap vodka, chasing Argentinian strippers around the Tidal Basin – then I’m your man!)

Frankly, what passes for our political process in this foul year 2020 is nothing I want to be associated with. 

It’s downright dirty.  And depressing. . .

During this campaign season, we’ve been told, ad nauseum, that the Volusia County Council has very little impact on the “growth at all cost” sprawl that is destroying our natural places, threatening our water supply, and exceeding the capacity of our transportation infrastructure as our elected officials cravenly adopt the Three Wise Monkeys maxim toward growth and the influence of mega-developers – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.   

That’s horseshit. 

I believe our elected officials on the Volusia County Council know exactly what they are doing in facilitating the wants and needs of real estate speculators. 

For example:  

Earlier this month, the intrepid Edgewater environmental advocate Libby Lavette attempted to address the Volusia County Council during a scheduled public hearing to determine compliance with the Farmton Local Plan and Master Development of Regional Impact – essentially granting approval for the sprawling 66,000 acre project’s eastern gateway section to move forward. 

In an blatant effort to keep the public hearing free of pesky public input, Chairman Ed Kelley forced Ms. Lavette to speak during the public comment section at the beginning of the meeting – then openly quibbled with her over petty aspects of her presentation, trifling over the designation of the agenda item, wasting time, and confusing everyone involved – including Ms. Lavette and the citizens looking on.     

In my view, Old Ed clearly designed his meddlesome interference to suppress and confuse Ms. Lavette’s message.   

According to a social media post, Ms. Lavette advised that following her allotted three-minutes, she left the council chamber – only to be chased down by County Attorney Mike Dyer, who explained Old Ed was “incorrect,” and invited her to speak during the public hearing on Farmton. . . 

Ultimately, Ms. Lavette was able to make her point that the hearing should be postponed until current hydrology and environmental impact studies for the project can be reviewed. 

Typically, when Councilwoman Heather Post saw the logic in Ms. Lavette’s request and moved to table the issue until the next meeting in November, her motion failed for lack of a second. 

The Farmton development has been in the planning stage for 60 years, with building not expected to begin until 2026.  Would postponing the hearing a few weeks to ensure environmental protections – and hold the developer accountable for promises made – have been that big of a deal?

Apparently.   

Ultimately, the measure was approved 6-1 with Ms. Post dissenting.

Anyone see a pattern here? 

I guess running interference – putting dust in the air at critical points to obscure the public’s view of development decisions – while ensuring that concerned citizens are suitably blocked and castigated whenever they attempt to have substantive input in their government is just one of the benefits developers and corporations receive in Volusia County. 

Disgusting.  

Quote of the Week

“I would like to say “thank you” to Daytona Beach Police Captain Scott Lee. Lee took over at Code Enforcement a couple years ago. He met with neighborhood groups, and was willing to listen to residents and business owners who were fatigued by the lack of progress cleaning up our blighted beachside. He patiently heard plenty of suggestions and complaints from yours truly.

A big problem beachside is the blighted appearance of vacant lots and abandoned buildings. Sometimes used for paid parking without a permit, the owners make money and have no incentive to improve or build. We’re used to looking at broken walls and fences, trash and graffiti.

We’ve heard the excuse that owners are “out of state” but not all are. These properties should be held to redevelopment area standards just like our homes and businesses are.

Two of these properties are on the beach. The seawalls have long been compromised and dangerous. There is always graffiti, homeless people, and trash. But that is changing! These lots are now being cleaned up and the seawalls rebuilt. I know this is thanks to our intrepid Captain Lee.

The city can intervene to clean up properties – and get paid through an ad valorem assessment on the tax bill – if the property owner can’t be reached or is unwilling. Let’s use this method to remove more blight on the beachside, and other areas of the city. I’m hoping this is just the beginning.”

–Civic Activist Amy Pyle, writing in Letters to the Editor, The Daytona Beach News-Journal, “Cleaning up beachside,” Sunday, October 26, 2020

Good work, Captain Lee! 

Thank you for your diligence in overseeing this difficult, but infinitely necessary, essential service for the citizens of Daytona Beach.  

And Another Thing!

There is a reason I do not accept advertising on this blogsite.

And I damn sure don’t take money to express opinions with a certain slant – favoring one candidate over another – or advocating for some convoluted tax increase or goofy public policy that always seems to favor the wants of a few over the needs of many. 

That kind of bought-and-paid-for content is readily available if you want it. 

Just not here.   

The views expressed on Barker’s View are my own.

If I endorse one candidate over others – it means I have done some research and come to believe that the politician will serve in the public interest – rather than act as a malleable marionette for all the right last names.

I’m not infallible – subject to being duped like anyone else – and I make my share of mistakes; but I still believe that past performance is the most accurate predictor of future performance.

In short, a leopard rarely changes its spots. 

That is why I support Jeff Brower for Volusia County Chair. 

By any metric, the County Chair race has been an acrimonious shit show – with the incumbent Dishonest Deb Denys throwing everything in her sizeable arsenal at Mr. Brower – including some low blows that landed far outside the bounds of honesty and fairness. 

With over $208,000 already filling her campaign coffers – along with tens-of-thousands more being hoarded in a shadowy Political Action Committee which Ms. Denys personally chaired, until she didn’t – Dishonest Deb continues to hold elegant fundraisers with well-heeled benefactors right up to the eleventh hour, clearly positioning herself for a future run for even higher office.

God help us. . .

In my view, Jeff Brower represents the kind of grassroots, substantive change and inspired vision Volusia County desperately needs at this critical crossroads in our history – a rejection of the oligarchical pay-to-play politics that uses massive campaign contributions to return hand-select perennial politicians to the dais of power – then uses them like dull tools to see the every want and whim of political insiders attended to. 

All while We, The Little People are treated like a damnable annoyance whenever we approach our Monarchial rulers for redress of real grievances – or seek to improve our lot here on the Fun Coast.

Do not take my word for it. 

I encourage everyone to watch archived video of Volusia County Council meetings and see for yourself how commoners – a.k.a. taxpaying citizens without a title of nobility or a chip in the game – are treated whenever we attempt to participate in our government.

It is despicable.  And it needs to stop.      

I also believe that District 4 Councilwoman Heather Post deserves to continue her service to the citizens of Volusia County – because both she, and her long-suffering constituents, have been denied equal and effective representation since she took office four-years ago.

That is not Ms. Post’s fault. 

It is horrifying to watch as Dishonest Deb and her guru, that doddering fool Old Ed Kelley, try desperately to defend the status quo by beating any sense of independence out of Ms. Post – effectively blocking her every effort – making a mockery out of our representative democracy in the process.      

For instance, at their October 20 meeting, it was frustrating to watch as Old Ed publicly ghosted Ms. Post – acting like an addlepated asshole – as he repeatedly feigned that he could not hear her on the monitor whenever she tried to participate. 

It was sloppy.  And painfully obvious.

Turn-up the Beltone, Ed. . .    

Whatever. 

Now we have reached the nut-cutting hour – and every vote counts. 

In my view, we have a good start in changing this rotten culture with Councilman-elect Danny Robins, who won the District 3 seat formerly occupied by Dishonest Deb in the primary. 

Let’s continue the purge of this malignant mediocrity.      

In my view, we need committed servant-leaders like Jeff Brower – and Heather Post – to change the tone and tenor of an elected body run amok and restore the public’s trust in Volusia County government.   

As Mr. Brower recently said:

“Don’t let a career politician who only represents those able to produce the largest campaign contributions lie and buy her way into a seat.”

I agree.

Vote your conscience.  Vote Jeff Brower. 

That’s all for me.  Happy Halloween, y’all!

Last weekend, I saw a photograph on social media that made me angry. 

So, I reposted it – helping fuel something of a tempest in a teapot in the process.

Mission accomplished.

Five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, some fifteen area residents became members of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary – Flotilla 44 – and guarded our coastline from the threat of German submarines and coastal infiltrators from the wooden watch tower at Ormond-by-the-Sea. 

Armed only with a pair of binoculars, these intrepid citizens stood their post for the duration of the war. 

In the early 1950’s – when Ormond-by-the-Sea was a much different place than it is today – locals used the tower to post gaudy real estate signs and, in a 1955 article in The Daytona Beach News-Journal, it was described as “…the biggest eyesore in three counties.” 

After public outcry, those signs came down – and there was talk of removing the tower altogether to prevent it “interfering with or detracting from the ocean.”

Fortunately, the signs went and the tower stayed.

The watch tower was refurbished around 2007, and a plaque was placed at its base explaining the structures significance to the local wartime effort. 

Relatively recently, mega-developer Mori Hosseini’s ICI Homes developed the Verona subdivision on the west side of A-1-A, immediately adjacent to the tower – replacing what had been an old filling station and mobile home park.

Inexplicably, some jackleg in the ICI Homes marketing department thought it would be appropriate to repeat history and affix hideous advertising signage to the north and south facing sides of this historic structure – complete with a large arrow pointing toward the subdivision. 

My initial reaction was one of shock – this time-honored part of our local heritage being used as a cheap billboard struck me as a slap-in-the-face to those brave men and women who stood watch there during World War II – and a horrific example of how little some developers care about protecting and preserving that which is important to local residents. 

I understand that a number of area residents placed calls to ICI Homes and local media outlets to express their concerns – taking a personal stake in preserving our quality of life and the scenic view on one of the last unspoiled sections of A-1-A.

Then, one of my personal heroes – the intrepid WESH-TV reporter Claire Metz got to the bottom of it – as did the incredible investigative reporter Mike Springer from WFTV Channel 9.

According to Claire, upon contacting ICI Homes, she learned that the advertising had been erected on the watch tower without the knowledge of ICI Home’s senior management – and representatives for the developer advised it would be removed immediately – with apologies to local residents who were rightfully offended by the defacement. 

According to a release from ICI Homes:

“In light of the concerns raised from local residents over the few days, we have decided to take down the signs that were recently installed on the Watchtower across from our Verona Oceanside subdivision on A1A. The signs were modeled after historical photographs depicting signage on the tower.

ICI Homes wants to be a good neighbor and acted promptly once we realized the impact it was having on area residents.”

Wow. 

Now, that part about the signs being “modeled after historical photographs depicting signage on the tower” is complete horseshit – but I appreciate the sentiment – and the quick removal of the offensive billboards. 

Frankly, Mr. Hosseini didn’t have to do anything – other than obtain a sign permit.

According to reports, when ICI Homes purchased the property, it included the watch tower – along with the traditional parking area at its base that was recently fenced off to public use by our friends at Volusia County.

Last night I had the pleasure of speaking with Clayton Park, business editor for The Daytona Beach News-Journal, who is doing a piece on the “Great Northshore Sign Debate of 2020.”   

Through Mr. Park, I expressed my appreciation to Mori Hosseini for listening to the concerns of area residents and restoring this important piece of our local landscape to its pristine – if not slightly weathered – condition.

That truly is being a good neighbor.   

Thanks to everyone who let their voices be heard.

In my view, this is the essence of civic involvement.   

And kudos to ICI Homes for taking positive steps to correct a mistake that caused such a visceral reaction with Ormond-by-the-Sea residents who care deeply about preserving those historic, cultural, and environmental sites and amenities that make our area so unique. 

“When daylight came, M.K. recalled that he an C.N. left the Mobile Avenue home.  According to M.K., he vividly remembered how Benson openly bragged about the killing and said he “enjoyed it.” 

After obtaining a sworn statement from M.K. detailing his knowledge of the incident, he was asked to review the still photographs and video taken from the 7-Eleven store, and, without hesitation, M.K. pointed to the first person seen entering the store as “Kris” – later positively identified as Kris Benson – then identified the second subject as being one of the Keith brothers. 

In addition, M.K. was shown the knife that was discovered at the 7-Eleven convenience store, and he advised he could not identify the knife as having been at 527 Mobile Avenue; however, M.K. advised that the home contained numerous military or fighting-style knives.

The investigative strategy called for C.N to be interviewed independent of M.K. in attempt to verify his version of the events. 

In order to facilitate this interview, C.N. would need to be approached away from the suspects’ home.

At approximately 23:30hrs, M.K. made a controlled telephone call to 527 Mobile Avenue and an unidentified male advised M.K. that C.N. was not at the home.  At approximately 00:20hrs, M.K. was outfitted with a concealed transmitter of the type capable of monitoring and recording verbal communications and investigators drove him to a location near the Mobile Avenue home. 

With this Investigator in constant visual contact from a vantage point on Silver Beach Boulevard, M.K. was observed approaching the house at 527 Mobile Avenue.  The door was answered by a subject positively identified as Josh Keith, who advised that C.N. was not at the home.

M.K. then left the residence and was transported back to the Holly Hill Police Department.

On October 13, 1995, at approximately 11:00hrs, M.K. was again outfitted with the concealed transmitter and transported back to 527 Mobile Avenue where he would once again attempt to contact C.N. 

With this Investigator and Inv. James Patton monitoring the conversation, M.K. approached the Mobile Avenue home where he contacted C.N. 

At the time, the home was occupied by C.N., Kris Benson, K.S., Josh Keith, and a female acquaintance later identified as L.M. 

Approximately one-hour later at 12:15hrs, C.N., M.K., and L.M entered C.N.’s Ford Thunderbird and departed the residence.  With investigators conducting close surveillance, C.N. drove across the Seabreeze Bridge into the City of Holly Hill where Officer Wayne Race performed a traffic stop on C.N.’s vehicle near the intersection of Second Street and Daytona Avenue.

This Investigator approached C.N. and identified myself with police credentials. 

I advised C.N. that I was investigating the death of Mark Scribner, and C.N. immediately stated that she wanted to cooperate. 

Without prompting, C.N. stated she first heard about Kris Benson and Jason Keith’s involvement in the murder at approximately 02:00hrs on Tuesday, October 10, 1995, and agreed to voluntarily accompany investigators to the Holly Hill Police Department where a sworn statement was obtained.

In addition, investigators spoke with L.M. independent of C.N., who stated that her knowledge of the homicide came from her friend, K.S., who lives at the 527 Mobile Avenue home with Benson and Keith. 

L.M. agreed to accompany investigators to the police department where a sworn statement was obtained. 

During a recorded interview with C.N., she stated that at approximately 02:00hrs on Tuesday, October 10, 1995, while sitting outside the Mobile Avenue home she shares with Benson, the Keith brothers, and K.S., Kris Benson and Jason Keith arrived home, sweating profusely, while acting intermittently happy, nervous, and “paranoid.” 

According to C.N., when she asked the pair what they had been doing, each replied, “nothing.” 

After a while, C.N. advised she went inside the house and again confronted Benson and Keith about what they were doing earlier in the evening and became angry when she felt the pair were keeping a secret from her.

In turn, K.S. (described by C.N. as Benson’s ex-girlfriend) took C.N. outside the home and asked, “Remember what Kris said yesterday?” recalling that Benson had been discussing plans to kill someone.  K.S. then described how the victim was a cab driver and that Benson had stabbed him to death earlier in the evening. 

Later in the evening, C.N. spoke to Jason Keith alone and he described to her how earlier in the evening he and Kris Benson called a taxi and took it to the area of “Publix” at the Halifax Shopping Center. 

According to C.N., Jason Keith told her he was seated immediately next to the driver in the front seat, while Kris Benson was directly behind the driver in the rear seat, and Benson initiated his attack by stabbing the victim in the back of the head with a knife he carried with him, describing the wound to C.N. as “pretty deep.” 

C.N. stated that Keith told her Benson continued the attack by stabbing the driver in the back from behind. 

When the victim exited the taxi and staggered away in an attempt to escape, Benson attacked again. 

During this phase of the attack, Jason Keith told C.N. he observed blood “squirting” onto Benson, and when he looked back, the driver was laying on the ground “In a pool of his own blood.”

According to C.N., Keith then explained how the pair wiped down the taxi with their t-shirts to destroy fingerprints, and Benson wiped blood off his face, hands, and knife.  The pair then threw the knife into the Halifax river, “really far, where no one would find it.  Where there was a lot of mud.”

After disposing of the murder weapon, Jason Keith advised C.N. the pair walked home, taking backroads to avoid police.”

____________________

It is difficult to describe the living conditions at the Mobile Avenue home. 

While monitoring the concealed transmitter that M.K. courageously agreed to wear, the background was near constant “death metal” shock-rock music played at top volume – an atmosphere where essentially feral teenagers – 16 and 17 years old – lived without any adult supervision. 

During our investigation, we learned that 17-year old Kris Benson had become angry and depressed after one of his roommates, 16-year old K.S., rejected his desire for a more involved romantic relationship. 

Benson’s reaction to rejection was increasingly despondent behaviors, including using a knife to carve designs into his own flesh. 

“We were just dating.  We weren’t serious,” K.S. said, “I didn’t want a serious relationship with him – told him I didn’t want any type of serious relationship, that we could date each other, you know.  Be friends and occasionally go out on a date and stuff.  And I guess he got, I don’t know, I guess attached or something.  I don’t know what I did to make him all obsessed or whatever.”   

On Monday, October 9, 1995, K.S. advised that Benson appeared depressed and told her that “life meant nothing to him” – that he did not care anymore – and nothing mattered. 

During the discussion, K.S. recalled that Benson told her he planned to kill someone that night – something she felt was a meaningless boast designed to put her on a “guilt trip” so she would reconsider their relationship. 

According to K.S., Benson talked about the murder all day, and eventually Jason Keith asked Benson if he could go along. 

Eventually, Benson armed himself with a large, heavy-bladed knife and left the Mobile Avenue home to find a victim. . . 

Having obtained the corroborating testimony of the suspects’ friends and roommates, investigators obtained a search warrant for the home at 527 Mobile Avenue signed by Circuit Judge James Foxman.   

At 18:00hrs on Friday, October 13, 1995, I placed a call to the Daytona Beach Police Department and arranged for Inv. R.B. to meet with DBPD Inv. Paul Barnett and Inv. M. G. White – two of the best detectives I have ever known – at a predetermined location to coordinate the arrest of Kris Benson and Jason Keith. 

While I maintained visual surveillance on the Mobile Avenue home from an unmarked vehicle, a perimeter of officers and investigators were staged around the residence, as M.K. was again outfitted with a concealed transmitter and entered the home to confirm both suspects were present.

At approximately 18:33hrs, I transmitted a signal directing the arrest of the suspects – and officers of the Daytona Beach Police Department expertly moved on the home – with Officer Robert Blackwell first observing the pair in the kitchen area as he moved through the backyard.   

When Benson and Keith attempted to escape out a back door, Officer Blackwell – a brawny, gregarious veteran officer who epitomized the term “a good cop” – physically grabbed both subjects at once and ordered them to the floor. 

I then entered the home and identified myself to both Benson and Keith with police credentials before advising them they were under arrest for the murder of Mark Clyde Scribner.

During the subsequent search of the premises by Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, and Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators and crime scene technicians, a black t-shirt of the type worn by Benson on the night of the murder was located in a bedroom of the home. 

A forensic test performed on the shirt by FDLE Technician Kelly May showed presumptive positive for the presence of blood.

“Inside a trashcan near the bedroom dresser was a section of what appeared to be a driver’s license which contained the victim’s first name and a portion of the driver’s license number.  This item was discovered by Inv. James Patton and collected by Technician Kelly May. 

Inv. Patton discovered a second section of the same driver’s license was located near the doorway to the bedroom on the floor.  This section contained the victim’s last name and the remainder of the driver’s license number and was collected as evidence by Technician May.” 

Once at Holly Hill Police Department, Benson and Keith were secured in separate holding cells under constant observation while investigators began the arduous process of conducting interviews with witnesses, obtaining written statements, logging evidence, notifying the suspects’ parents, completing evidence reports, and preparing charging affidavits. 

At approximately 23:30hrs, Kris Benson was brought from the holding cell into the Criminal Investigation Division by Inv. R.B. 

In the presence of Officer J.G., Inv. R.B. explained the Miranda warning to Benson – and asked if he wanted to have his parents, attorney or anyone else present – and he said he did not have any relatives, or anyone else he wanted to contact, and he did not wish to use the telephone.

Inv. R.B. presented a waiver to Benson confirming that he did not wish to have an attorney present during any subsequent questioning which he signed. 

When Inv. R.B. began presenting the evidence against him, Benson said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and he was returned to the holding area. 

At approximately 23:45hrs, Mr. John Keith, the father of Jason and Josh Keith, arrived at the police department and was briefed on his son’s involvement in the homicide. 

According to Mr. Keith, he had spent some time with Jason earlier in the week and reported his son had not mentioned anything about the killing.

Given the circumstances, Mr. Keith was extremely upset, and asked me how he should proceed.

I explained to Mr. Keith that I was not his son’s advocate and suggested that he seek the advice and counsel of an attorney as soon as possible. 

The crushing weight he was feeling as a father was palpable. 

I told Mr. Keith that Jason would not be questioned in this matter until he had spoken to an attorney, then arranged for him to have monitored access to his son.  During this limited contact, Jason told his father that he did not know anything about the killing of Mark Scribner.

At approximately 02:30hrs, I was told Jason Keith had a question, and I walked into the holding area where the suspects were being held, and Jason asked how much longer the pair would remain at the police department before transfer to the juvenile detention facility.

When I explained that the charging documents were being prepared, Kris Benson called out from an adjacent cell and asked that I approach his door. 

Benson began by asking that I turn up the air conditioner, stating he was cold, and I explained that I had no control over the temperature as the thermostat was locked. 

Then, Benson turned and sat down on the metal bench and again stated that he did not know anything about the murder he was being charged with.   

I explained that the testimony of witnesses and physical evidence suggested no one else could have committed the killing – and advised that he should try to bring some closure to the incident in his own mind, explaining that the other tragedy of this event was his young age, and that two lives have been lost – his figuratively and Scribner’s literally. 

Benson began to sob, holding his head in his hands, as I explained that each of his friends and roommates were giving statements detailing their knowledge of the murder.   

I then asked Benson if he wanted me to contact his parents or anyone else to be with him during this time, and he responded, “I’ve never met my Dad, and I don’t get along with my Mom,” explaining his mother lived “somewhere in Virginia,” reiterating that he did not want her notified.

He continued to cry and stare at the floor.   

I then explained to Benson that I did not know what to tell the victim’s family – I could not explain to them why Mark died – and he tearfully explained:

“Tell them a stupid kid killed him for no reason.”

Hearing the suspect in a violent crime admit their involvement is a major turning point – emotionally and strategically.  In this case, the brutal and indiscriminate nature of the killing – coupled with the young age of those responsible – stunned me for a moment as I stared at the young man seating in the stark holding cell. 

Benson looked me in the eye and said, “So talk.”

When asked why he killed Mr. Scribner, Benson said he could not explain the motivation, other than it was “…something that just came into my head and I couldn’t get it out,” and when asked how it happened, Benson said “I stabbed him in the skull.”

According to the investigative report:

“Benson went on to say that he had directed Scribner to drive him and Jason Keith to the marina behind the Halifax Shopping Center, then “One minute is wasn’t happening, the next minute it was.” 

From the cell, Benson explained that Scribner said nothing to him after he delivered the first stab wound to the back of his head, then he attempted to escape, “But I had ahold of him,” stating that when the victim attempted to run away, “I chased him down in two seconds and started stabbing him in the back.”

When I asked whether the attack occurred closer to the rear wall of the shopping center or to the marina complex, Benson said, “both places,” and explained that, after the murder, “It felt like the best thing that ever happened, but the next morning I felt like shit for what I did.”

Benson told me that he had been having recurring nightmares of the killing. 

He then looked in the direction of Jason Keith’s cell and stated, “He’s just a stupid kid who followed me, he wanted to come along.” 

According to Benson, following the murder, he and Keith walked from the scene south to the 600 block of North Beach Street in Daytona Beach where he threw the knife “200 to 300 feet” into a canal.

As he spoke, Benson appeared to draw out the area where the knife was thrown with his feet on the cell floor before becoming quiet.

Then, he began crying hard, dissolving into racking sobs, before dropping his head into his hands Benson lamented, “There’s nothing I can do about it now. . .”

____________________

17-year-old confesses to killing cab driver – Remorse no comfort to victim’s mother

The Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Brendan Smith

Kris Benson, a 17-year-old kid with a fascination for knives and a penchant for murder, didn’t feel so brave after spending a few hours in jail Friday night. 

After breaking down and crying at the Holly Hill Police Department jail, Benson confessed at about 3:00am Saturday to the brutal stabbing murder of cab driver Mark Scribner Monday night, police said. 

“(Benson) said he had no reason why he did it,” Sgt. Mark Barker said.  “He said, ‘I should tell his family a stupid kid killed him for no reason.” 

That didn’t offer much comfort for Johanna Scriber, who buried her only son Saturday in Taunton, Massachusetts.  Ms. Scribner said she had pictures of her son taken in the coffin because she still can’t believe he is dead. 

“I’m so disgusted that kids like this can do that,” she said in a tearful telephone interview Saturday.  “Mark gave them the money.  They still wanted to kill him just for killing.” 

It was Benson’s bragging about the crime to friends that led police to arrest him and accused accomplice Jason Taylor Keith, 15, at 527 Mobile Avenue Friday at about 6:30pm

Following a first appearance hearing Saturday the youths were taken to a high-security area of the juvenile detention facility on Red John Road.

After signing a waiver of his rights and declining the presence of an attorney, Benson told police Saturday he began thinking about murder after his girlfriend broke up with him, Barker said.

The girlfriend told police Benson began obsessing about the idea and used a knife to carve designs on his arms, Barker said.  “She felt he was trying to elicit some sympathy from her,” Barker said.  “She didn’t take it seriously until he came back to the house and showed her Mr. Scribner’s driver’s license.”

Benson then matched the driver’s license photo to a picture of the 39-year-old Scribner that ran in The News-Journal to prove to his friends he had done the deed.

Pieces of the license were found by police in a trash can at the youths’ house along with bloody clothes matching the description of the suspects’ attire. 

Benson and Keith decided to target a cab driver after rejecting the idea of killing a nighttime stroller on the beach, Barker said. 

Scribner, a driver for Checker Cabs for 18 months, happened to answer the call at the 7-Eleven convenience store, 301 S. Peninsula Drive in Daytona Beach at 10:13pm Monday.

According to Benson’s account to police, the two youths’ told Scribner they wanted to go to the Aloha Marina behind the Halifax Shopping Center, 231 Riverside Drive in Holly Hill.

When Scribner pulled in behind the center, Benson stabbed him twice in the head.  Thinking he was being robbed, Scribner threw his money at the boys before staggering out of the cab. 

“(Benson) said he chased him down in two seconds and continued to stab him in the back,” Barker said.  “It was just a very sad and very brutal crime.”

While Keith tried to wipe fingerprints from the interior of the cab, Benson stooped in a rain puddle and washed the blood from his face, hands and hair before throwing the knife in the Intracoastal Waterway, Barker said. 

They went home to the small, one-story beachside house they shared with Keith’s older brother, Josh, and two female teenagers.  A friend of one of the girls came forward to police Thursday after hearing Benson brag about the murder. 

John Keith, the boy’s father, used to live in the house but had moved in with a girlfriend in Ormond Beach, Barker said.  Keith could not be reached for comment Saturday night.

Benson told police he did not know his father, and he was estranged from his mother, who had left him with the Keiths. 

Some neighbors on Mobile Avenue said they were shocked by the crime.  Others weren’t surprised.

Villie Bacev, owner of the Tropic Aire Motel which abuts the youths’ house, said he began carrying a gun with him because of run-ins with Keith. 

Bacev said Keith’s father told him Keith had been arrested more than 30 times for shoplifting, but little was done by authorities. 

“I’m not surprised at all.  I’m disgusted,” Dacev said of the murder.  “They didn’t even get slapped on the wrist (for past crimes).  That’s now called batter on a minor.”

Bacev and several other neighbors said they suspected the youths in several break-ins and petty thefts in the neighborhood. 

A grand jury will consider whether to indict Benson for murder and Keith on a charge of principal to murder.  Barker said he did not know if prosecutors would try the youths as adults due to the seriousness of the crime. 

Mrs. Scribner said it was too late for apologies from Benson. 

“I just know my son is down in the ground and what can I say?” she said.  “He was my only son.  He was here two months ago.  We laughed together.  I can see his face in front of me.”

____________________

In September 1996, I reported to the FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia, for three months of intensive law enforcement leadership training, graduating from the 187^th Session in December of that year. 

I remained as supervisor of the Criminal Investigations Division, and in November 1997 was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.    

In the spring of 1998, the trial of Kris Benson began in the Daytona Beach courtroom of Circuit Judge William C. Johnson, Jr.   

Veteran Assistant State Attorney Noah McKinnon was assigned to prosecute the case by then State Attorney John Tanner with the assistance of the very capable Assistant State Attorney Richard Whitson.

During trial preparation, I was amazed by the hours of study and research Mr. McKinnon spent examining and questioning every aspect of the investigation, all while I sat quietly in a conference room ready to provide context or explanation. 

We spent many hours together and I learned much from Mr. McKinnon’s extensive legal experience.  One late night, Noah McKinnon imparted a valuable piece of wisdom that I have never forgotten:

“Luck favors the prepared mind.” 

The prosecution of this case was not cut-and-dried.  Far from it.       

The court appointed veteran Daytona Beach trial attorney Jeffrey Dees, a graduate of Harvard Law, to defend Kris Benson at trial – and Mr. Dees provided his client a competent, aggressive, and passionate advocacy. 

During pre-trial motions, Mr. Dees moved to have Benson’s confession thrown out on legal grounds. 

Judge Johnson granted the motion. 

According to the ruling, Benson was held at the Holly Hill Police Department for the better part of eight hours without a shirt, shoes, or socks and with nothing to eat. 

As the supervisor in charge of the investigation, I should have had Benson and Keith transferred to the Juvenile Detention Center within six hours of their arrest per the regulations governing juvenile suspects.    

“These statutes are not mere technicalities, but must be presumed to be the expression of the will of the people of this state,” Judge Johnson wrote. 

He was right. 

I made a mistake, and it cost the prosecution a vital piece of evidence.  The fault lies with me alone. 

____________________

Defense: Teen killed cabbie out of anger 

The Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Joseph Ditzler

Mark Scribner died a bloody death, stumbling and falling as he fled the killer who stabbed him up to nine times in the back, according to the Volusia County Medical Examiner. 

Five hours later, a policeman found the 39-year-old cabdriver’s body laying in a damp, secluded alley 242 feet from his cab.  The can had been left in drive and its lights left on, had drained the battery. 

The night’s receipts were gone.

But Scribner’s killer didn’t set out to kill or rob him, or anyone else, said the lawyer defending him against a murder charge Wednesday. 

“This is a classic tale of a family gone wrong and the consequences on the children,” attorney Jeffrey Dees told jurors. 

Dees didn’t deny his client, Kris Benson, 19, killed Scribner on October 9, 1995.  But he explained to jurors in his opening statement that Benson, a child left to fend for himself, killed out of impulse and anger. 

His mother, a serious crack cocaine user, abandoned the boy after moving around the country from house to house and boyfriend to boyfriend, Dees said. 

“She neglected him for drugs,” Dees said. 

Authorities charged Benson, 17 at the time of Scribner’s death, with first-degree murder and robbery. 

If he is convicted, Assistant State Attorneys Noah McKinnon and Richard Whitson plan to ask the same jury to recommend the death penalty. 

What jurors accept as Benson’s frame of mind at the time could prove crucial.  If he intended to rob or kill Scribner, a first-degree murder conviction looms.

If not, then he faces second-degree murder or less. 

His mother gone to Virginia in 1995, Benson moved in with the Keith family – Jason, 15, and Josh, 17, and their father John – on Mobile Avenue.  Shortly afterward, the father moved out, Dees said. 

The boys were left alone.  Two 16-year-old girls, K.S. and C.N., moved in shortly afterward, Dees said. He said K.S. and her boyfriend kept them all supplied with LSD. 

Benson and Jason Keith ingested two or three doses of LSD each the night of Scribner’s killing, he said. 

And their housemates at 527 Mobile were under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug when the pair arrived home late that night.

They’re expected to testify Benson bragged of killing the cabdriver in order to impress K.S., who had dumped him after a brief romantic fling. 

Dees cautioned their testimony may be suspect and said he would call an expert to testify about the effects of LSD. 

The jury also viewed 35 photographs of the scene where Holly Hill police found Scribner’s body behind the Halifax Shopping Center at 231 Riverside Drive.  Police Lt. Mark Barker described the blood-smeared 1985 Dodge cab and a blood-splattered wall nearby.  Finally, he described Scribner’s body, his shirt soaked with blood and torn by a knife. 

Dr. Ronald Reeves, district medical examiner, followed Barker to the stand to describe numerous abrasions on Scribner’s face and elbows, along with incisions in his scalp and stab wounds in his back. 

“He died as a combination of all the injuries he sustained, a large loss of blood within a short period causing shock and ultimately death,” Reeves said. 

____________________

Ultimately, Jason Keith pleaded guilty to lesser related charges and agreed to testify at Benson’s trial. 

During his testimony, Keith recalled how Benson chased the victim down, who turned to face his killer and tossed a wad of cash at him, before backing up into a wall of the shopping center. 

Keith said he turned away for 10 or 15 seconds, then looked again to see Benson standing over Scrinber’s body. 

“What the fuck is going on here,” Keith recalled thinking. 

“You saw Kris Benson kill this man?” asked prosecutor Richard Whitson. 

“Yes, I did,” Keith said. 

Keith then described how Benson walked to a pothole filled with rainwater and stooped to wash his bloody hands. 

“Are you going to keep your mouth shut about this?” he said Benson asked.  “You’d better or you’ll end up like the cabdriver.” 

Keith testified that after the killing, the pair walked across the Main Street bridge to a convenience store where Benson, who had to borrow a quarter earlier in the night to call the taxi, bought each of them a fountain drink. . . 

During his closing argument, prosecutor Noah McKinnon said Benson knew he wanted to go to a dark, secluded area behind the Halifax Shopping Center.  “It is a place where a murder could occur,” he said. 

“He wanted more than money.  He wanted his very life.” 

____________________

Jury urges life term for cabbie’s killer – The convicted murderer said he was on LSD when he committed the murder and robbery in 1995

The Orlando Sentinel

By Ludmilla Lelis

After hearing a Daytona Beach teen testify that he killed a cabdriver “to take him out of his pain,” a Volusia County jury recommended Wednesday the convicted murderer spend the rest of his life in prison. 

Circuit Judge William C. Johnson will decide today whether Kris William Benson, 19, will be sentenced to life in prison for the death of cabdriver Mark Scribner, 39. 

Earlier this week, the 12-member jury found Benson guilty of first-degree murder for the October 9, 1995, slaying and armed robbery with a deadly weapon.  Benson, who was 17 at the time and high on LSD, stabbed Scribner to death from the back seat of the taxicab. 

Testifying for the first time Wednesday, he said he now realizes what he did was wrong. 

After striking Scribner in the head, Benson tried to hold him in the cab and continued stabbing him.  The cab driver ran 200 feet away, but Benson chased him down and continued stabbing him. 

“I had to finish it,” Benson said, trying to hide his face while he cried.  “I couldn’t let him sit there and be in pain.” 

“I don’t remember feeling anything,” he testified.  “It’s my fault…I really don’t have a reason for it.”

Though he said he regrets his actions now, Benson admitted that he didn’t have remorse as he repeatedly stabbed Scribner.  When asked by Assistant State Attorney Noah McKinnon whether he took mercy or had any pity for Scribner, Benson answered with a faint, “No.” 

Scribner’s mother, Johanna Scribner, 63, of East Taunton, Massachusetts, said she could not forgive Benson because of that answer. 

“I can say sometimes that I felt sorry for him, but when it came back to what he did to Mark and that he showed no pity, no, I can never forgive him,” she said. 

In a letter read to the jury, she said Mark was her only son – an Army veteran and a music graduate of Purdue University who composed music and played the drums, keyboards and guitar.  He enjoyed playing chess and volunteered for the Salvation Army every Christmas season. 

“I’m glad justice is done,” she said, adding that she doesn’t think the death penalty was necessary for Benson.  “I think he would suffer more in prison.”

Benson’s attorney Jeffrey Dees argued Wednesday that Benson had already suffered much in his short lifetime and eventually fell into drug abuse, like his mother.  Jurors learned how he was ignored and mistreated by his crack cocaine-addicted mother and forced to fend for himself. 

His parents divorced when he was 3, and his father lives in California. 

After his parents divorced, Benson moved constantly, whenever his mother had a new boyfriend. His aunt, Julie Hines, and his mother’s former boss, Mary Shearer, remembered Benson as a sweet boy who was starved for attention, and for food.

Hines said Benson’s mother, Suzanne, smoked opium and took pills when she was 17 years old.  Throughout his childhood, he lived in terrible conditions sleeping in closets, eating squirrels and living under bridges while his mother partied all night or was in jail. 

“She wasn’t there for him,” Hines said.  “She didn’t give him a stable home – nothing all his life.” 

Shearer remembered that as an adolescent, Benson often came to the beauty salon where his mom worked, looking for food.  “He was so kind and so loveable.  I never heard any ill words out of his mouth.” 

____________________

Following his conviction at trial, Circuit Judge William C. Johnson, Jr. sentenced Kris William Benson to life in prison.  The judge also directed that Benson serve a concurrent sentence of 5 years and 4 months for armed robbery with a deadly weapon. 

Due to his age at the time of the murder, Benson’s sentence was later changed to 40 years in prison. 

On April 28, 1998, Jason Taylor Keith was sentenced to 4 years in prison for accessory after the fact to premeditated murder. 

Following his release, in 2002, Keith was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months for a burglary in Volusia County. 

Then, Keith was sentenced to 3 years, 8 months and 1 day in prison for another Volusia County burglary.

Jason Keith is currently serving a 16-year sentence for a robbery conviction in Seminole County. 

He is currently being held at the Avon Park Work Camp and is scheduled for release on March 6, 2024.    

____________________

Epilogue   

In 2009, I was appointed Chief of Police for the Holly Hill Police Department.  I had the distinct pleasure of serving the citizens of that wonderful community for a total of 31-years. 

In March 2014, following my retirement, Inv. Stephen K. Aldrich was appointed Chief of Police for the City of Holly Hill Police Department – an incredibly talented law enforcement officer and true servant-leader who epitomizes honor, integrity and dedicated service.    

Inv. R.B. continues to serve, having made a career conducting and supervising sensitive narcotics investigations for a law enforcement agency in Central Florida. 

Officer Richard Klein honorably retired from active service with the Holly Hill Police Department and currently lives in quiet solitude in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Richard recently wrote:

Mark, Thank you for the kind words you wrote about me and for your accurate recounting of an event, some 25 years after the fact, that is still fresh in my memory.

Until reading this article a few minutes ago, I never realized how deeply you delved into the victim’s background in an effort to learn all you could about his family, friends, interests and education in order for you to speak knowingly and passionately on his behalf during the upcoming hearings and trial that would inevitably follow this heinous murder.

I will not spoil the ending for your many readers, but I will say that this is a tale worth re-telling and it does provide the reader with a unique inside view of police procedure…the human side as well as the technical side.

Even though I was there through it all, your ability to paint an artful word picture of these events provides all your readers (including me) a clearer understanding of why we chose to become law enforcement officers in the first place. Stay safe.”

Thank you, Richard. . .

Inv. James Patton honorably retired from active service with the Holly Hill Police Department and currently lives with his wife in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter Brendan Smith is now a freelance journalist in Washington D.C. – his help with this case was immeasurable.

Former Orlando Sentinel reporter Ludmilla Lelis now serves as the Court Communications Officer for the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Florida. 

M.K. – the brave young man who so courageously came forward to provide information and assistance critical to bringing Benson and Keith to justice still lives in the Daytona Beach area.  He can forever live his life with the pride of knowing that he did the right thing, for the right reason, under dangerous and difficult circumstances to see justice for the victim of this horribly violent crime.    

The location of the other witnesses is unknown.   

On June 13, 2020, after 25-years in prison for the murder of Mark Clyde Scribner, Kris Benson committed suicide at Columbia Correctional Institution at Lake City, Florida.

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment.”

George Orwell, 1984

Ed Kelley – Facebook

October 21, 2020 8:42am

You may or may not see these placed at the Ormond Beach Library but they will see you! We will file charges if you are seen destroying signs.

I had not planned on publishing an Angels and Assholes this morning. 

In fact, I took a short vacation this week – a brief pause to get far away from the abject madness that has passed for a campaign season in this foul year 2020 – but sometimes the kooky acts of a King Hell Asshole simply cannot be ignored. . .   

On Wednesday, our doddering fool of a lame duck County Chair-turned-Chief Inspector of the Sign Police, Ed Kelley, posted the above threat on social media essentially detailing the surreptitious placement of motion activated-night vision capable camouflaged video cameras at the Ormond Beach Library polling place, ostensibly to catch political sign snatchers in the act. 

The fact our County Chairman – who has been extremely involved in the campaign of Dishonest Deb Denys as his preferred replacement – is running a covert private surveillance operation at a polling place should have a chilling effect on every registered voter in Volusia County. 

In fact, after Secret Agent Kelley’s snooping was brought to light – many area voters I spoke with felt truly intimidated. 

Perhaps that was Mr. Kelley’s intent?

Once I exposed the fact that people are uncomfortable having their image captured, presumably as they enter or exit the voting booth, then potentially used for nefarious purposes, Old Ed immediately started the patented Kelley Flip-Flop, quibbling about whether the cameras were placed on public property or private – then using the tyrants “only the guilty should fear my omnipresent watching eye” dictatorial excuse:

“Only those taking and destroying signs should be concerned of cameras on city property. You surely are aware of security cameras there and surrounding properties.”

Bullshit.

Then, Mr. Kelley equivocated on whether he placed his eye in the sky on County owned property – or on adjacent private property:

“Not set up on County property! No permit required to video on public places.”

So, was Old Ed lying when he specifically said the cameras were “placed at the Ormond Beach Library,” or when he said they were not? 

What a scumbag. . .

If Chairman Kelley wants to sit his sizeable ass in the parking lot of a polling place and play security guard all night protecting Dishonest Debs goofy signs – so be it – but keep your beady eyes off me and other law abiding citizens as we engage in our most sacred democratic freedom – which should remain safe from a government surveillance operation orchestrated by some befuddled old politician with a demonstrable bias.

Look, the theft of political signs is despicable. 

Should not happen – but it does. 

In all candor, I could give two-shits about Deb Denys campaign signs – or any other candidates for that matter.

What I do care about is preserving the sanctity of the voting environment – the ability to cast my ballot free from being spied upon by some addlepated Inspector Clouseau.   

In my view, when the highest elected official in Volusia County takes it upon himself – with whatever assistance the mysterious “We” means – to set up secret video devices, spying on voters like the proverbial ‘owl in the ivy’ – casting a very wide net to capture a sneak thief while violating the already limited privacy of a polling place – it epitomizes the whale-shit level politics Mr. Kelley is infamous for. 

I wonder when Ms. Denys’ was soundly defeated by Jeff Brower in the primary if her campaign ever once considered the pasty-faced liability that has been sitting next to her on the dais for the past four years?

On Thursday morning, I filed a verbal complaint with Volusia County Supervisor of Elections Lisa Lewis. 

Why? 

Because – while it is apparently legal in Florida to surreptitiously videotape voters entering and exiting a polling place (it remains illegal to photograph inside a polling place) in my view, when it is done by a sitting elected official/operative for an active political campaign, it smacks of intimidation – and demonstrates the depth to which the cheapjack politician he supports will stoop to win an election.

To her credit, Ms. Lewis and the members of her staff I spoke with could not be more helpful – or understanding – and I sincerely appreciate their efforts during this busy time.

If there is a potential positive:

Following this election, We, The Little People, of Volusia County will soon be shed of this arrogantly oppressive asshole once and for all, as Old Ed Kelley shuffles off to that fetid manure pile where washed-up political hacks go when their damage is finally done. 

What we are left with is up to us. 

In my view, Jeff “Plan B” Brower represents the kind of positive change Volusia County residents deserve. 

This truly is a match between two diametrically opposed philosophies – the difference between substantive change in Volusia County’s fiscal, environmental and civic policies – and the stagnant status quo – which always places the wants of uber-wealthy insiders over the needs of many.

Trust me.  Unlike Dishonest Deb, you will not find Jeff smooching the wrinkled backsides of well-heeled political benefactors at some lavish soiree at the Halifax Yacht Club. 

I don’t know how you and your family feel, but I plan to stand firm in my conviction that clean water, greenspace, wildlife and natural places are more important to the lives of our children and grandchildren than the overstuffed pocketbooks of uber-wealthy land speculators and the sutlers who make their living on the crumbs left in their wake.

Always more, more, more – while our clueless elected “leadership” continues, full speed ahead, with no thought (or plan) for keeping our transportation and utilities infrastructure on pace with out-of-control development from Farmton to the Flagler County line.

I believe it is time we elect strong, ethical leadership who will stop the abuse, neglect and unfair manipulation of the marketplace that has become a malignancy on many areas of the Fun Coast that has left thousands of Volusia County families living at or below the poverty level.

In my view, Jeff Brower represents the passion and positive change we desperately need in Volusia County.

Clearly, Jeff Brower cannot be bought.

He has worked diligently to identify waste and mismanagement in County government, and has served as a tireless advocate for accountability, responsive representation, and the environmental protections that have been considered a nuisance by his opponent. 

I also admire his active volunteerism and commitment to preserving our unique heritage of beach driving and access.

Most important, Jeff Brower knows that character counts.

I believe his impressive dedication to the highest ideals of the public service – ethical leadership, accessibility, and fairness – will serve the best interests of ALL citizens of Volusia County.

I strongly urge you to vote for Jeff Brower and support his bright vision for returning government to the people of Volusia County, Florida.

That’s all for me.  Have a great weekend, y’all!