Florida Center for Government Accountability

In the early hours of Saturday, May 18, 2024, a cascade of failures within the Florida criminal justice system led to a heartbreaking tragedy: one man dead, his brother—a star running back for the Auburn University football program—partially paralyzed, and a grieving community. At the heart of the chaos was the shooter, Darryl Bernard Brookins, Jr., a five-time convicted felon with prior arrests for violent crimes, who remained free despite an arrest just three months earlier for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor.

Bonita Springs jeweler Ken Romano didn’t hide his association with Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno.The two men were allegedly close friends who shared a taste for gambling, bling and high-end cars. The 55-year-old Romano defended the sheriff in social media posts and displayed a framed “Keep Carmine Marceno Sheriff” campaign poster and badge-bedecked plaque from the sheriff’s office at his jewelry store on Bonita Beach Road.But the friendship blew up recently, and audio recordings allegedly show Romano making serious allegations against the sheriff involving Romano’s own employment as a “consultant” with LCSO. In the recordings, Romano alleged Marceno gave him a no-work contract at LCSO paying him $5,700 a month, $1,700 of which was paid to the sheriff’s father, Carmine Marceno Sr., for car payments on a Mercedes Benz.

Members of the government board overseeing the Sebring Regional Airport — which includes the historic Sebring International Raceway — tend to speak slowly in a southern drawl, but they pulled a fast one last year with the sale of 17 acres of publicly owned land.Without properly notifying the public of the proposed sale or opening it up for competitive bids, the city-appointed Sebring Airport Authority sold the land to a partnership that included local developer Mark Gose, who has private business ties to several board members, and former board member John Haviland.

The Florida Trident, a publication of the Florida Center for Government Accountability, called a statement, made by the DeSantis Administration Friday, "a masterpiece of spin and understatement" that credited “overwhelming interest” for temporarily pausing a scheme to put golf courses, hotels and pickleball courts on nine of Florida’s pristine state parks.

The most notable losers in Tuesday’s primary elections in Manatee and Sarasota counties weren’t even on the ballot.Governor Ron DeSantis, GOP political consultant Anthony Pedicini, and a trio of prominent local developers were not candidates themselves, yet voters delivered them a clear rebuke, with six out of seven candidates they supported facing defeat.

Tampa political consultant Anthony Pedicini is at the height of his success. The single 44-year-old Republican operative with the trademark shaved head lives in a million-dollar six-bedroom home in Tampa’s upscale Beach Park neighborhood. He drives luxury cars and enjoys “fine wines,” “finer scotches” and the “finest cigars” as he boasts on X. And he has achieved all this by winning elections across the state.

A Florida Trident analysis of candidate filing information and voter registration data found that more than 2 million voters across Florida have been shut out from at least one state or local election this year because of the loophole in the Florida Constitution that allows write-in candidates to close primaries.

Sarasota County Commission chair Mike Moran has slashed funding for early learning and childcare programs, calling them “socialism.” Now running for county tax collector, his campaign emphasizes a focus on “making government accountable to the taxpayers.”But a ledger obtained by the Florida Trident through a public records request raises questions about Moran’s accountability. According to the records, Moran spent more than $36,000 of taxpayers’ money during a recent 18-month period on lavish trips to Las Vegas, New York City, and California, indulging in expensive steakhouses, wine, and tequila shots.

In an exclusive story, The Florida Center for Government Accountability's Florida Trident reports that Trump VP hopeful Byron Donalds’ ex-wife shares her story, says what he’s doing is “super-dangerous.”

According to some national law enforcement agencies and policing experts, a PIT maneuver performed that night — such as the one that lead to the deaths of four teenagers in Alachua County, is anything but proper.