TO: L. E.

Hutton, Chief ASA

FROM: Pam Hazel, Director, Clay SAO
RE: Clay County Incident
DATE: May 7, 2019

MATTER REGARDING THE SHERIFF

On 5/6/19, at 9:48 pm, I was contacted by Hector Murcia Bustos regarding an

incident in Clay County involving Sheriff Daniels. I then contacted Lieutenant
Alexander who relayed the following information to me:

The sheriff has been having a long term affair with a JSO officer (since 2012). Last
week, the sheriff informed his wife about the affair which led his wife to contact the
woman and threaten to kill her. The woman then filed a report with JSO. Tonight,
the sheriff was at a community event where the woman showed up and followed him
when he left. The sheriff contacted his wife who also began following the woman.
All three were driving through the Oakleaf subdivision when the sheriff called in a
suspicious car following him, which led to the woman being pulled over by the
police at Oakleaf Junior High School. The sheriff then directed the sergeant on scene
to arrest the woman for stalking. The sheriff was standing beside his wife and would
provide no further details. The sergeant then did as instructed and arrested the
woman. As the sergeant was driving the woman to the police station, he informed
his command of the situation. The woman was taken to the police station and was
not booked into the jail or taken to the jail at all. The officers questioned the woman
who provided the above information regarding the affair and the evening events.
The woman also informed the officers that she was pregnant but would not answer
when asked if the baby belonged to the sheriff.

Lieutenant Alexander told me that he did not feel comfortable putting this woman in
jail and did not believe there was probable cause for the arrest at this point. He told
me that the Undersheriff and the chief were in agreement with him and that all
believed they should let her go and drive her home at this point. I asked if she had
been arrested or if she was detained for further investigation. He informed me that
she had been arrested but had not been booked into the jail. I gave no advice as to
whether there was probable cause for the arrest. I did inform the lieutenant that
stalking required a course of conduct. The lieutenant stated that, at this point, they
did not have that. His question for our office was whether our office would
investigate the case by speaking to the sheriff. I told him that they needed to contact
FDLE since they have a conflict and that I did not believe we would speak to him or
have any part of the investigation as that was not our role. He told me that they
would be writing an incident report, and I told him that he could bring it to me in the
morning for review. I let him know that I would speak with Leh Hutton and call
him back in the morning regarding our involvement in the investigation.

On 5/7/19, at 9:30 am, I contacted Lieutenant Alexander by phone and let him
know that they would need to refer the matter to FDLE as we would not be taking
part in the investigation. He told me that he figured we would not be involved. He
then said since the sheriff was the victim, the sheriff could just tell them that he did
not want to proceed and that would be the end of it. I made no comment to that
statement. There was no further mention of a report being brought to me during this
conversation. I was not provided a report.

I spoke to Hector after writing this memo to verify that he recalled the details of the
incident in the manner that it was written above. Hector verified the above and
further informed me the lieutenant told him that the woman wrote a four page
statement that “creamed” the sheriff. The written statement was not mentioned
during my conversation with the lieutenant.

I sent a follow up email to the lieutenant regarding this matter dated 5/7/19. In the
email, I verified our phone conversation regarding FDLE follow up and asked if they
were still going to provide the report.