SANFORD, Fla. -- I was subjected to death threats over the phone from a Volusia County politician 40 miles away who wanted a story I had planned to publish deep-sixed or as he put it, "I'll drive over there to Sanford and hunt your mother (expletive) ass down and I will shoot you until you are no longer breathing -- until you are dead. Don't write that story. I mean it. I will (expletive) kill you mother (expletive)."
The threats were ALLEGEDLY made by Jeff Bracy, a city commissioner and vice mayor in Oak Hill, the little coastal city that is home to Miami Superbowl hero Larry Csonka and some of the best fishing and boating worldwide in Mosquito Lagoon.
I say "allegedly" because Bracy has not been charged with committing a misdemeanor or felony criminal offense or even a ticketed non-criminal infraction of the law. But I know what was said as I was on the receiving end of a vile and menacing call in which he ALLEGEDLY tried to get me to do what he wanted by use of threats and coercion, laced with profanity and even a racial slur, clearly directed at the love of my life, was for the love of my life, my beautiful, intelligent and loving wife of six years, Serafina, who is Puerto Rican,
And then my wife suffering the same fate, if not terrorized in unspeakable terms first? With profanity accentuating the threats and fear with such coercion and even a racial slur directed at the woman I married and have shared my life with for seven years.
And you, an assistant state attorney say there's no crime?
So we're supposed to wait until this (ALLEGED) "prosecutor-protected" shotgun-carrying loudmouth shows up at our front door -- perhaps in the middle of the night under cover of darkness without making a sound.
Then he cuts the door in half with the first blast, awakening us from a deep sleep and casting us instantly into living nightmares, if we even have a precious few seconds to react, scrambling for one of the cell phones to dial 9-1-1.
By then, he's made his way through the small living room and into the master bedroom. And here, fires the second blast, snuffing out my life first because I dared to stand up to his (ALLEGED) death threat and published the story.
Or maybe the love of my life is murdered first because she has dark brown skin, reinforcing the previously-spoken hatred for non-whites. Or as he (ALLEGEDLY) yelled into the phone, or as he (ALLEGEDLY) minimized her -- Regardless of which of us is first, the other sees their spouse blasted into Kingdom Come, blood sprayed on the blankets headboard and walls. And in the other spouse's final seconds -- if even that long -- snuffed out. And what of the Yorkie?
Then what, counselor? Read him his Miranda warnings, if he's even apprehended before he turns the shotgun on himself and blows his own head off? Or maybe kills a responding cop or two first befgore he's blown away by the cavalcade -- uniform, K-9, maybe even SWAT?
And all because an assistant state attorny tells a cop assigned to investigate there's no crime?
It gets worse still. Not only do Sanford cops not talk to (ALLEGED) perpetrator Jeff Bracy, the Oak Hill vice mayor and city commissioner, they don't even bother to look at the telephone records of the calls made of the day in qustion when I had to jump through hoops with AT&T to get the data to begin with.
So here were the two questions I asked Assistant State Attorney
had Jeff Bracy and at least give him a chance to deny the allegations or refuse to cooperate voluntarily. In the meantime, you allow the cop to file the charge, get the capeus (warrant) and make the arrest. If there's no case, then it get gets no infoed. But to do nothing and then have the audacity to tell me no crime was committed is an insult to me as a resident of the City of Sanford and of the State of Florida and as an American citizen. So now, my wife and I are forced to obtain concealed weapions permits, arm ourselvs with a pair of loaded semi-automatics and pray that this (ALLEGED) despicable abuser who not only has told me he won't have a problem taking my wife and that he values even less the life of my wife because of the color of her skin, that you Ms. Prosecutor can't even quote me statute, section and ferse, or should I say, you refuse to do so.
You must be so confident that no crime occurred on the phone and that no bloodshed will follow. subsection have to State of write time speak or invoke his rights against self-incriminination.
You have no clue who I am. I seriously doubt you could even begin to comprehend what I have seen and experienced on the street, in the courtroom and even in Florida's death chamber.
I am no lawyer, but I know a little something about the law. These were the two questions I had over the phone on Thursday afternoon for W
hat I've covered as a cops and courts reporter for 25 years years at two metro newspapers and a two-year stint as a city editor while frightened neighbors and cuts it I asked the 18th circuit prosecutor for the Sanford cops two questions,
neither of which she would answer because to do so would demonstrate that the rights of abusers are paramount to those of the victims they prey on. those who pthose w others have victim's rights are trumped by the abusers. show politics is far more important.
1. Show me anywhere in the Florida statutes where cops are forbidden from attempting to ask the accused in a criminal complaint if he or she told the other party in a phone conversation they would drive to where they lived and blst away with a shotgun until they were no longer breathing?
2. Making such a statement doesn't constitute a crime? Put it in writing!
She refused that, too.
ed note: this needs to be cleaned up...