DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ed Kelley, Billie Egger Wheeler, Heather Post, Deb Denys, Joyce Cusack, Pat Patterson & Fred Lowry all have 2 things in common: 1. They are elected members of the Volusia County Council; 2. They have said nothing -- not one word publicly -- about Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood's spiteful exclusion of HeadlineSurfer.com from his law enforcement agency's email media alerts and banning from press conferences.
These abuses started Jan. 3, when Chitwood was sworn into office, and have continued now for 200 consecutive days. This is Chitwood's way of exacting revenge against this small media outlet -- for us having the audacity of writing an investigative reporting story in 2012, on the alleged abuses of several women cops by a patrol supervisor Chitwood promoted to captain when he was chief of police in Daytona PD.
This despite lengthy accusations of harassing several female cops. The story won two awards later that year in the Florida Press Club's annual statewide journalism contest (categories of public safety reporting & general news writing.
County Manager Jim Dinneen also has said nothing publicly.