UPDATE: State Attorney Skip Jarvis Under Investigation
UPDATE July, 26, 2012
Attorneys for State Attorney Skip Jarvis question the motivation for the complaints against their client.
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/State-Attorney-Under-Investigation-163773906.html
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7-25-12
Skip Jarvis has been the State Attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit of Florida since 2008. That district includes Suwanee, Taylor and Madison counties.
Peasant and Sydney: Love that show. Aaron Sorkin is the Shakespeare of his day, really. (Had it for “free” for the summer as part of a bundle promo– lest you think one of those people who can “afford HBO.” I wish. Loved Game of Thrones, also! Peter Dinklage: what an actor!
I will go away when Skip Jarvis does his job and add additional counts of animal cruelty against Grant and his co-defendant. This has not been done yet. Grant committed hundreds of counts of animal cruelty and some of that evidene was revealed in the custody hearing of the cats.
You can see the photographic evidence from the custody hearing.
http://www.caboodleranch.net
Now that the criminal case is ready for trial, why hasn’t Skip Jarvis’ office added the additional counts of animal cruelty against Craig Grant and his co-defendant???? And in light of the fact that Craig Grant’s attorney is now representing Skip Jarvis, its a HUGE conflict of interest of interest. So in essence, Grant’s attorney is representing Grant and the person charged with the decision to additional animal cruelty charges. Is this another example of Skip Jarvis abusing his public office?
The State’s Evidence Exhibit lists and evidence from the custody of the cats makes it clear that there were a lot more counts of animal cruelty than the four Grant was originally arrested for. However when subpoenas were sent out for the August trial, only persons to get those subpoenas are the ones who can testify to the orignial animal cruelty charges, but not those who can testify to the crimes discovered during the seizure, such as the ASPCA, Dr. Levy, Dr. Miller, the other informants, and Dr. Lewis (to authenticate his vet records of CR cats). None of them got a subpoena to testify at the trial on August 21st. This tells me that Skip Jarvis has no intention of filing additional charges of animal abuse against Grant and the “co-defendant” named in the State’s pleading.
Here’s the State’s Evidence Exhibit List.
http://caboodleranch.net/Documents/Criminal/StatesDiscoveryExhibit_redacted.pdf
Usually, in these types of animal cruelty cases, once the custody issue of the cats or animals have been legally resolved (which happened on July 23rd), the state attorney will re-arrest and arrest the co-defendant for the additional animal cruelty charges discovered when the seizure of the animals occurred during the last week of February within a week. However, this is NOT being done.
I will not go away until the criminal case is over and ALL legitimate charges against Grant and his co-defendant have been charged.
Due to Grant’s failure to properly quarantine sick animals as required by law, in essence, he committed 653 counts of midemeaner animal cruelty at the least. That does not include the 29 dead cats found on the property and all the starving, sick and dying cats that had to be put to sleep because of the neglect by Grant which the ASPCA said at least 13 had to be put down.
So why is Skip Jarvis’ office not prosecuting Craig Grant and his “co-defendant” for ALL their crimes?
Skip Jarvis can prove me wrong and arrest Grant on the additional animal cruelty charges and arrest his co-defendant who ever that might be.
That would prove me wrong and shut me up. And in this case I WOULD LOVE TO BE PROVEN WRONG!!!!!
Elise. There are more pressing issues ….sound like obama…
I love animals tooooo
Elise,
You’ve saved the cats, now please leave Madison (and it’s online paper) in peace…
Don’t go away mad, just go away!
Trapper:
Thank you for your comment. It is greatly appreciated and helpful.
I am contacting the Govener about Skip Jarvis still working. It is extremely unethical for him to be under investigation to the point he had to hire a criminal attorney. And that attorney has criminal cases with Skip Jarvis’ circuit and in essense the attorney is representing both sides for any criminal client he has.
Also if the Gov. does not want to place Skip Jarvis on paid leave until his grand jury inquiry, then I will have to file a complaint with the Florida Bar notifying them of Skip Jarvis’ attorney taking on a client that is a conflict of interest for all his criminal clients at his law firm that are being heard in Skip Jarvis’ Third Circuit. You cannot represent both parties in any lawsuit, let alone in criminal cases. If Skip Jarvis was ethical, he would place himself on paid leave until the Grand Jury hands down their decision so his attorney does not have to get in trouble with the Florida Bar and lose all his clients.
If Skip Jarvis was not the State attorney in the Third Judicial Circuit (i.e. in charge of it), he would have been placed on adiminatrative paid leave by his boss, but since Skip is the boss, he is not doing the ethical thing and is violating the Florida Bar Code of Ethics. I have talked to two attorneys about this and both said THIS IS HIGHLY unethical and a clear conflict of interest what these two attorneys are doing. But since Skip Jarvis is an elected official the only one who can force him to take paid leave is the Governor. Gov. Rick Scott was probably not aware of this when he appointed the special prosecutor that he should have placed Jarvis on paid administrative leave because he is an elected official.
If I do not hear from the Governor’s office by tomorrow at 5:00 p.m., I will file complaints with the Florida Bar against both attorneys for violating the Florida Bar Code of Conduct and Ethics.
Elsie, do not feel slighted that Skip did not call you back. He is selective about phone calls he returns the same way he is selective about who he prosecutes. While he could indict a ham sandwich if he wanted, he might let one with mayonnaise slide while hammering one with mustard. Just depends. Skip has a long history of not going after friends, business associates or people that support him. But, to be fair, that is all prosecutors and he is nothing more but one truly bad example from a bad lot. Willie Meggs is another, the big difference is that Willlie is smarter than Skip. But again, Elsie, don’t feel bad.
To Skip Jarvis,
Please answer this question “Why when I called you telephone line personally at the State’s attoreny’s office and left a message that I had clear and convincing evidence that Caboodle Ranch was committing animal cruelty on a large scale basis, why did you have your assistant call me back and tell me “As far as the Skip’s district is concerned the problems at Caboodle Ranch were fixed and there are no problems.” Who told you that there were no problems at Caboodle Ranch?
Also, when I pressed further for an appointment or to send the evidence, I was told it was not necessary because everything was OK at Caboodle Ranch. Of course, we now know that was not the case and there were large scale problems and animal neglect going on. If you cannot answer the question I understand, but I would like to know who lied to you.
I sure hope you continue to do your job and charge Grant with additional animal cruelty charges soon due to the evidence list I have seen, especially since 29 dead cats were found on his property. I am surprised it has not been done yet considering the pre-trial was yesterday and the trial is a little over two weeks away.
I wish you luck at your Grand Jury inquiry and justice and truth will prevail.
Perhaps because they are true?
Mr. Jarvis , local law enforcement told me there is a revolving door as to the prosecutors they work with . Some of these people are your fellow north Florida Democrats . Why would they say this ? From fellow Dems this would not be political . Also , on non violent felonies these same people said your office is known for bundling charges , offering these criminals sweet plea bargains so you do not have to take the charges to trial . If the deal is good for the criminal they obviously take it , you get credit for a conviction on your record & avoid going to trial therefore eliminating the chance for a loss in court . Keeps a high conviction rate on paper for you . I do not know why these fellow Dems are saying these things .
Would you believe that this is the crazy season. Anything goes. It’s not whether you win or lose, winning is everything. Goethe in Faust relates a story worth noting. When you lose your soul, you have lost everything.
Intrigrity counts. We need statesmen, men and women of principle in office.
Skip – Thank you for commenting.
Just a couple of comments. First, no “sizable turnover” in staff. One quit when I would not let her use her position to support her personal politics. One was fired because she got drunk and showed out at St. Johns County Sheriffs Office personnel in St. Augustine. Mr. San Filippo was fired for a number of reasons that were written about in the Madison newpaper when he tried to portray himself as some sort of victim. No, I don’t think three people is a “sizable turnover”.
Second, regarding the current San Filippo claim, I wrote the letter asking the Gov. to appoint a special prosecutor. If I am the subject of the investigation, I cannot oversee it. That led to Mr. King being assigned to handle it.
Third. this is precisely what a grand jury is for, to look at the facts to determine whether there is or is not a basis for any criminal charge. I will be appearing on Aug. 20th to answer any questions they might have of me. I expect to be fully exonerated of any wrongdoing.
I have asked my staff to relax, to consider the source of the complaint, and to let the investigation go forward. I am fully confident that this will be recognized for what it is- simply politics.
The old saw that a prosecutor can indict a ham sandwich is true. On the other hand, once in a while they over reach, over step their boundaries and get caught. Skip Jarivs should reflect on the fate of Mike Nifong, another overzealous prosecutor that indicted 3 of the Duke Lacrosse Team. Mr. Nifongs big mistake was getting too big for his britches. One of those boys had a Dad worth a couple billion and he did not cotton to his son being railroaded by a prostitute with a long rap sheet that some drunk boys ill advisedly hired to strip at a beer party. Mr. Nifong, after being arrested for prosecutorial misconduct, was removed from office and disbarred. We should be so lucky here.
Peasant speaks of a youtube clip from the award winning series “The Newsroom” currently running on HBO. Doubt many peasants can afford HBO. Also not sure of the relevance to this story about the State Attorney. Good clip however that I heartily recommend for viewing by one and all.
@ peasant: that you tube video, undoubtedly promulgates one of the most patriotically painful statements that I, as an American, care to hear. The truth can surely sting. Thank you for posting.
John (Voice). All I can say, is keep up the good work. It seems to me that you are being as fair to all people as possible.
Voice,
Sorry my last post was unrelated to this topic. Just so your readers know, the peasant believes this situation if similar to the Jada Woods incident. Folks are gonna be convicted in the press long before the investigations are completed.
Been going on for a long time, shame folks die at an early age. Cause if they lived to be old folks like me they would see the rhythm. Both Jada and this man are innocent, but rumor and innuendo will see that they are replaced by more predictable “public servants.”
JMG
“a country full of millions of people who have nothing to lose is a very dangerous place to be rich and powerful.”
OK Voice,
How about this? I understand you do not want to put up links to controversial, strong language, videos. But as you know I like to link to video and quote sources which tell the story much more eloquently and accurately than I. I assume, can’t remember, cause I spend most of my time on other sitese, my most recent deleted post was one to our friend Wayne. It included a link to a youtube video which is labeled “The most honest three and a half minutes of television, EVER… It is the opening scene to a new HBO series that I am told started about a month ago.
Wonder if you would agree to allow just the name of the video to be posted so curious readers could go to youtube and look it up to see what this delusional old man is talking about. If your readers do go to this site and listen very carefully they will understand its relevance to the discussion about the way we treat poor people. So everyone, if the voice permits it and posts this, go to youtube and type in “The most honest three and a half minutes of television, EVER… The truth hurts, but ……..
cheers,
PS, John you knew when you started this thing that it would require dealing with nuts. I have spent much time trying to get around some of your rules. We gonna meet one day, and I promise to buy you a cup of coffee.
Karma is exactly what this is. This has just made my day even better and I thought that could not happen.
Great reporting. Keep up posted on what he is being investigated for.
Do we know if he is still working on cases and going to work, or has he been suspended while this action occurs or has he taken a leave of absence? Thanks.
Hahaha! No, the last line could be considered political advertisement. It wouldn’t be fair to the politicians that are paying for ads.
@Voice,
Got to think about it.
Seems to me you are telling me I gotta yield to your rules.
Story of my life. Posted some interesting messages in the last few minutes you have not posted. Tell you what, post everything I send in the next days and i will leave you along for ever! Promise!
Think about it no Peasant! Your site will grow to thousands of ……..
cheers,
@ the peasant: take out the last line of your comment for this post and I will approve it.
Karma.
One of the more venal political hacks to ascend to that position. Hopefully, between the charges and the election we can see his coat tails as he leaves. If there was really any justice, it would be to do a stint at Eglin.
Ain’t nothing but political blow back from the tea party party.
I have heard he has a sizable turnover rate in staff plus the people he has forced out .