I am pausing the Santa Rosa County Scandal series. There is a vast amount of info I have gained that I am not able to share. This case is crucial for so many people. It can potentially kick over the rock of corruption in the Panhandle. That is my main goal with this blog.
I also don’t want to “leak” info that can possibly harm the people involved (other than the bad guys). Frankly, I don’t trust myself to expound on some of the people involved as I normally would.
But please note, day by day, this case is becoming more complex. As most people know, the FBI is working at their own pace. NO ONE is getting away from their crimes.
BTW, my blog has been remotely tampered with, emails are missing and text conversations have been deleted on my phone.
*I apologize for the time it took to publish this post. In an effort to make sure I represent all the facts of the case as accurately as possible, I have been laboring over the best way to tell this story. This case is integral to exposing the corruption throughout the panhandle. Please bear with me. A great deal of information has come my way and was originally going to be part of this post, but it would be extremely long. So, to keep things simple, I have broken my original post into smaller bits that will be coming out this week.
In order to understand the dynamics of this scandal, there must be understanding of who the people are and how they are connected to one another.
Here’s the cast:
Ms. Dot aka Dorothy Rogers is a 91-year-old business owner in Santa Rosa County, Florida, and is the epicenter of the fraud. She has run the Eastern Gate Trailer Ranch for as long as people remember.
Here biological relatives are as follows:
Daughters–
Lana Skirpan (Carl) Coleman
Judith Skirpan Groelinger
Cindy Skirpan Willey
Son–
Michael V. Skirpan
Grandson–
Matthew Groelinger
Anyone else claiming to be legally and/or biologically related to Ms. Dot, is not being truthful. Many people believe the Haines Brothers (Eric & Scott) are grandsons of Ms. Dot. That isn’t true and there is no real clarity as to whether Ms. Dot believes that they are related or whether she is replacing her family in adopting the “Haines” family. According to her own doctor and the doctor who evaluated her when she was Baker Acted, she was given the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). She was evaluated with mild dementia. This must be a factor despite Ms. Dot’s statement at one of the depositions in this case, that she wasn’t saying she was really related to Scott. However, during the APS investigation, the social worker was so sure Ms. Dot was biologically related to Scott that she continually questioned this fact when talking to legal counsel.
All the conflict with this group is family related issues. Conflicts between Ms. Dot and her kids have had stormy relationships for years. Falling in and out of favor, was typical. Because of this, Ms. Dot made her grandson, the trustee of the irrevocable trust. They never had the drama between themselves, grandmother to grandson, in their history. This designation of Matt being appointed trustee, created resentment between him and his aunts and uncle. He quickly became the target of the family animus, especially in the Coleman household. The generational friction in the family allowed a chasm for Scott to exploit in this family. He sided with the Colemans and the rest is history.
Scott Peter Haines is a 49-year-old “retired in lieu of termination” Santa Rosa County Florida Sheriff’s Lieutenant Deputy and is the core of grift.
Brother-
Eric Haines
Facilitators-
Sheriff Robert W. “Bob” Johnson
Chris Watson
Marshall Kilburn
Forest Neff
Jerry Utsey
Legal Representation as to Family Trust –
Jason Mosely
Brian Hoffman
Eric Haines is Scott’s older brother. He was a Chief Deputy in the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. When Sheriff Morgan was about to leave office, Eric self-demoted to Lieutenant in an attempt to retain protections of the Police Benevolence Association. He feared incoming Sheriff Chip Simmons would fire him. He now works in Cybercrimes. Morgan purchased elaborate equipment, software and training for Eric, which is feared to have been abused to help his brother and to fend off his own enemies, ie people who have been trying to shine a light on the duplicitous acts he does in the shadows.
Sheriff Robert W. “Bob” Johnson is a fairly new sheriff in Santa Rosa County. He has been a career deputy who has not been associated with the Sheriff he replaced nor Sheriff Morgan in Escambia. Bob has gone out of his way to protect Scott. He has lied to local media, misrepresenting the search warrant executed by the FBI on Scott’s residence. The claims were there was nothing to see here but since that time Scott has been arrested and it looks like Bob is a part of the cadre of people enabling Scott to commit crimes of exploitation and fraud. There is much more to say about this in the next installment.
Major Chris Watson is a deputy at the SRSO. He has covered up for crimes, policy violations and sexual harassment perpetrated by Scott. He is just one officer who has been willing to put their careers on the line for Scott.
Deputy Forrest Neff was the officer who took the “Grand Theft” report on October 21, 2015. Ms. Dot was Baker Acted by her daughter, Cindy Willey. When Ms. Dot was released, she claimed her trailer was broken into and several trailer titles, money, and her car were taken. He allowed Scott to write the victim statement for Ms. Dot. Curiously, when the call came in that Neff responded to, he responded as “arrived” 3 seconds from the time the call came in.
Deputy Jerry Utsey spoke to Matt on October 23, 2015. Matt stated Utsey claimed he was a “trust expert” but was unable to understand the documents pertaining to the trust paperwork Matt presented. The importance of this is that the business that owned the trailer park was owned by the trust and Matt was the trustee. He could not “steal” anything pertaining to the business or assets of the trust. This negated the “crime” the SRSO said he committed and invalidated the arrest warrant that came from that false assumption.
Marshall Kilburn was a deputy under Scott. He notified Matt of the arrest warrant on November 24, 2015, for exploitation of the elderly. Without taking a statement from Matt regarding this accusation. He was the one who built the case for exploitation using Scott as a source of the information. Scott had power of attorney for Ms. Dot and Scott used that to make claims on her behalf that were used to create probable cause and thereby, the arrest warrant.
Jason Moseley was the attorney who represented Ms. Dot and the trust. He was hired around 2009 and continued to represent her until 2016. He was the one who corroborated Matt’s legal rights to the assets of the trust and thus the totality of the business. Therefore, he could not steal from Ms. Dot as the business address was her address. The business operated within the trust, and it was irrevocable.
Brian Hoffman is currently a candidate for Pensacola City Council, District 2. He is an attorney hired by Ms. Dot & Scott to replace Mosely. Scott convinced Ms. Dot that Mosely was conspiring with her daughter Cindy Willey, son, Michael Skirpan and grandson, Matt. They were attempting to take everything she had and put her away. Believing this to be true, she hired Hoffman to get the irrevocable trust, revoked. The only way to do that was to claim Matt was exploiting her. There is much more to come on Hoffman.
This is literally just the bare bones of the story. There is so much that has not been told.
**Addition to Part 4- Eric Haines. There are sources that confirm Eric & Scott (and all the families, including mom and dad with Eric’s daughter as well) were on a cruise the first week of March 2020. The cruise left out of New Orleans, with the ports of call included Cozumel, Mexico, Roatan, Bay Islands, Harvest Key, Belize & Costa Maya, Mexico.
Getting to Sheriff Bob Johnson, although he only enters the story a bit later, his involvement is imperative for Scott to fleece Ms. Dot. Unequivocally, without the consent of Sheriff Bob, there would be no way Scott would have been able to do as much as he has. If there was an unbiased Sheriff elected in 2016, we would not be here today. Sheriff Bob could and should have disciplined Scott for all his indiscretions. By not doing that Bob has violated the public’s trust. According to the DOJ,
“ Public corruption is a breach of the public’s trust by government officials who use their public office to obtain personal gain. It is a violation of federal law for any federal, state, or local government official to ask for or receive anything of value in exchange for, or because of, any official act. Under federal law, any person who offers or pays a bribe is also guilty.
It is not readily clear as to what Scott gave to Sheriff Bob in return for his crimes to continue. Although I have to say his financials sure beg a lot of questions. Most of the time Bob has been in office he has a fairly steady net worth, roughly around $405K .
2016 financials courtesy of the Florida Ethics Commission2016 financials cont’d
.
Most all the years look similar, except the 2021 disclosure of assets from Jan. 1, 2020 – Dec. 31, 2020.
2020 financials courtesy of the Florida Ethics Commission.
To me, this is unexplainable, considering his income and source of income don’t reflect how the hell that kind of jump could be legitimate.
Clearly, Sheriff Bob is prospering somehow. It seems his business is corruption, and business is booming.
The red flags Sheriff Bob ignored:
The 2020 stalking of Marivel Meister which is not documented in by the SRSO despite the fact ECSO did contact them.
Open, blatant sexual harassment (dildo panties)
Pattern of behavior in abusing law enforcement resources for personal gain
Perjury –Scott lied about everything.
Abuse of power, also a pattern of behavior
Documented interference in Ms. Dot’s affairs
I’m sure there are more but these incidences should have resulted in termination. The question is why? Why would Sheriff Bob taint his legacy/career?
There has been speculation that Eric has been a part of Scott’s circle of cadres, but both of them claimed to have nothing to do with the other. I have suspected it was a smoke screen but without proof, it was just a theory.
Well now there is definitive proof. I requested a Master Name Index Lookup on Scott in Escambia County. This is what I found:
So what this shows is that Eric Adam Haines was actively looking at his brother’s info in real time during the 10/28/20 stalking of Marivel Meister. He had no legitimate reason for using his resources. This shows a violation of policy and possibly, a violation of law, to check up on his brother. That establishes a connection to include Eric in this conspiracy.
What is intriguing to me is that Matt was falsely arrested in Dec. 2015 for exploitation of the elderly. During this same approximate time in Escambia, that same allegation was being leveraged by Eric on Philip Nix. Ultimately resulting in Phil being terminated. The irony of this is when Matt first contacted me about his grandmother and Scott, I immediately conferenced in Phil Nix to listen to Matt’s story. Phil ended up getting Marie Mattox to represent Matt. Now this all happened after this dual accusation, but it seems to be a pattern of behavior, similarity in thinking. Although in Phil’s case, APS was never contacted by the ECSO, which should have been done. Matt had APS investigating already in his case and had a determination of no wrong doing. But it was only a half-hearted attempt on Eric’s part as he didn’t follow his own accusation. It would have been fruitless but the effort should have been made to seriously think anyone would believe his concern. Also, FDLE found no cause for termination in Phil’s case, just as APS and, in time, the Santa Rosa court system in Matt’s case. Just an observation.
Next installment will address the “Facilitators”, beginning with Sheriff Bob Johnson
1, Scott Haines was never named trustee. Ms. Dot was and still is the trustee based on her deposition and her attorney Brian Hoffman’s court filings.
2. Ms. Dot grossed almost 2 million dollars in rental proceeds in 2005, when she was healthy. The rental proceeds continually diminished as her health declined, but there is still a large amount of rental income and potential to make over 2 million in gross rental proceeds if the business was back to running like it did when DR was healthy, BUT rents have all gone up and it’s easily possible to make 3 million.
To add clarification and context:
1. Scott Haines met Ms. Dot in 2012, when he was working off duty for her, through the SRSO. Groelinger was with Ms. Dot when she first met Haines in 2012; it was around Groelinger’s birthday. At this time, Haines said he was getting out of law enforcement due to being caught in the middle of “porn gate”. It’s worth mentioning that Groelinger witnessed the first conversation between Haines and his grandma, Ms. Dot. Haines told Ms. Dot that he wanted to learn the rental business, and she agreed to teach Haines. This is how Haines learned the income and assets of the elderly widow had. This knowledge was not even known to her family, outside of Groelinger. Haines worked a total of 6 times as an off duty SRSO from 2012-2015, and in that time he was able to become extremely close to Ms. Dot, because he was learning her business, as well asthe family dynamics.
2. When Groelinger reported Haines to the SRSO- Bob Johnson oversaw the “unfounded complaint” that should have shown Haines was targeting Groelinger. The FBI is who reported that Groelinger’s 2015 citizens complaint was valid- and Sheriff Johnson did not correct the situation by readdressing Groelinger’s 2015 citizens complaint and taking corrective action because they should have investigated the citizens complaint. A valid investigation would have found that Haines had committed crimes that he was finally charged for in 2022, specifically, abuse of official equipment.
3. Kilburn and Watson as deputies and Bob Johnson is Sheriff Bob Johnson. More details to come.
4. Groelinger reported Haines to the FDLE, but according to sources, the special agent in charge, Chris Williams, would not open a case. When Groelinger reported Haines to FDLE repeatedly in 2015/2016/2017,which saw Williams do nothing to investigate what would have lead to the arrest of Haines. As well validating the wrongs done to Groelinger is what ultimately let to Haines arrest for his actions against Groelinger in 2021. This is something that Williams could have stopped way earlier, but Williams comradery with Haines & Kilburn through his time at the SRSO, with whom Williams is still friends on FB with Kilburn, to this date, seems to have influenced his ability to perform his job.
The shitshow that is the SRSO is very complex; therefore, I will attempt to present the situation and the actors involved. You can’t keep up if you don’t know how interactions between people is affecting the case. You have to know who is who, or why the relationship, or actions, may be improper.
First, let’s recap the narrative. Scott Haines manipulated his way into a family business, Skirpan Properties. The main asset of the company is the Eastgate Mobile Home Ranch. It brings in roughly $1 million in revenue, per year, from trailer rentals. The property is also an asset because it is located at the back gate of Whiting Field. In fact, many offers have been made over the years by federal and county representatives who wanted to purchase the parcels that make up the trailer park, which includes some vacant parcels that are behind the trailer park.
Scott moved into the trailer park during his divorce. He befriended the owner, Dorothy Rogers, aka Ms. Dot. She appreciated having a deputy living there because the knowledge of a law enforcement officer living there would deter crime and provide security to the residents & Ms. Dot, as well. At this point, there is a mutually reciprocating relationship. Ms. Dot feels safe; Scott gets to act like the protector. But that doesn’t last long. Scott doesn’t know how dysfunctional Ms. Dot’s family was. Being the matriarch of the family and a widow, Ms. Dot realized prior to this that she didn’t want to be vulnerable to people trying to swindle her, nor was she did she want in-fighting or mishandling of the entire family’s legacy, so she met with an attorney and created an irrevocable trust, to preserve the assets in her possession.
As I said, the family was dysfunctional, there was bad blood with Ms. Dot & her kids for various reasons. That is why she made her grandson, Matthew Groelinger the trustee. A trustee has the fiduciary duty and legal responsibility to manage the assets of the trusts, ie the trailer park. Ms. Dot is the trustor and Matt was the trustee. The trustor and the trustee work hand-in-hand to manage the trust. In many cases, the trustor and the trustee are the same person. Unless otherwise defined, they have symbiotic responsibilities to manage the trust’s assets.
Scott watched as the family dynamics of mistrust & miscommunication created a rift in the family, even more so than before. He also endeared himself to Ms. Dot. Surely, he heard all the family drama. One situation that he heard was that Matt was “into” drugs. Matt was young. His life was changing due to this particular family responsibility. It must be said that mishandling a trust is a crime. Matt had his head on straight, worrying he could go to jail if he screwed this up. At the same time, Ms. Dot’s health was in noticeable decline. She was in a wheelchair and her hygiene was slipping resulting in urinary issues. She had marked cognitive dysfunction and memory loss. Matt was the favored one to Ms. Dot. Scott saw that. He took over Matt’s spot in Ms. Dot’s life. Even when APS investigated, they believed Scott was Ms. Dot’s grandson. Many people still believe that. She has pictures in her home of her at Haines family events and according to one source in a deposition, Ms. Dot “was very generous to the whole family”. She paid for cruises and much more–not limited to just Scott.
To get into the trust, Scott had to get an irrevocable trust, revocable. The process he used was filing a complaint (via Ms. Dot) that her grandson was stealing from her and guilty of exploiting her. This makes him unfit to be the trustee. So as soon as Matt was arrested, Scott, again on behalf of Ms. Dot (he wrote what she told him to, according to him), filed a civil suit and the criminal suit within minutes of the first attempt to arrest after hours (17:39pm). The civil case was filed at 17:39 pm (or 5:39 on 12/7/2015). The civil case was specifically to remove Matt from the trust. Matt via his attorney at the time Michael Grifith, turned himself in to the ECSO the next day.
Ultimately the charges against Matt are dropped in September 2016. However, Scott was made Power of Attorney and Trustee of Ms. Dot’s trust in the days after Matt’s arrest. Oct 28, 2015 this was filed:
So Scott, effectively, stole Matt’s life. He was Ms. Dot’s ‘grandson”. He was introduced as such to renters who Scott took rent payments from every month. He put people up in trailers, allegedly, prostitutes and people he picked up on Craigslist. Renters assert that they paid Scott, in cash and money orders, which never made it to Ms. Dot. This resulted in evictions without basis. It has also been confirmed that Scott had cameras throughout Ms. Dot’s residence, monitoring her communications with family. In the FBI, search warrant, several hard drives were taken and what was on them is pure speculation, but sources have reported his home looked like an IT department with multiple monitors.
In 2018, 2 parcels were sold to Scott for $10 each. These parcels are on the back side of the trailer park. They are the optimum parcels that feds want for expansion of Whiting Field, and Santa Rosa County officials for the new industrial park.
In November 2021, Ms. Dot sold the trailer park, even though, there is litigation regarding who has the right to sell it. She sold the entire complex for $700 K. She made $1 million in rents in the last several years. Not to mention there is a high premium on the value of the property. On top of the rents taken in., this is a gross undervaluation of the property and its assets. The company who bought it is Palantine LLC, which is a shell LLC, that is owned by other LLC’s in various states. Ultimately, in Googling the address listed on the deed and the signer on said deed, I was able to track the property to Smooth Property , owned by Prashant Patel of AJ Hospitality. According to Corporationwiki.com, here are all the corporations attached to Patel:
Beaufort Management is one of the shell companies that own Palantine LLC.
The shell companies are located all across the country, including Palatine, which is said to be running out of Utah, Beaufort has an Alaska address but it ultimately connects to Smooth Property and the Patels.
The questions just roll out. Why did Bob Johnson, who knowingly covered up for Scott would do so? Why did Watson & Kilburn also back him up? Is there a financial incentive to this? Who brought Palantine into the picture?
Coming soon: Part 2- Who are the characters in this grift?
Most people know Scott Haines was arrested by federal marshals. He was eventually turned over to FDLE. Other than the following press release, I haven’t gotten a straight answer on so many things regarding this arrest and Scott’s subsequent release. Here is the Justice Dept’s press release:
Strangely, he was released later that night from jail yet arraigned the next morning in federal custody. Curiously there is no court record anywhere of anything other than this.
Some Back Story:
In 2017, Matt Groelinger called me because no one was even willing to listen to him and what was going on. Scott Haines had him falsely arrested in order to have a reason to make an irrevocable trust, revocable. The charges were bogus and dropped but not before Scott Haines SRSO officer convinced Matt’s elderly grandma that Matt was trying to take her family’s legacy. He was made the trustee over a huge trust because of his grandma’s decline. When Matt was arrested, after hours, SRSO filed criminal charges and a civil case within mere minutes of one another after hours.
Over the years, Scott “assumed” Matt’s position in grandma’s life. She even tells people Scott is her grandson. There are pictures in her home of her at his family events. Most people at the trailer park where Scott collected rent for grandma. When APS investigated this case, they truly believed Scott was her grandson. This farce has been going on since 2015. Scott got 2 parcels of grandma’s land worth a considerable amount of money for $10 each. These parcels are on the back side of her property and are at Whiting Field’s back gate and now across the street from the new Santa Rosa industrial complex.
A situation Santa Rosa County Commissioner has tried to purchase these lots for years. In a move very much like the Escambia Soccer Complex Scandal. This commissioner saw the value of this land and the potential value of the land to the county. Sound familiar??
Getting back to the story, grandma has been very generous to Scott “and his whole family” according to people close to him. This opens up the potential involvement of Eric Haines. They were seen on a cruise 4 years ago. Despite each of them telling people they dislike each other, they have been close for years.
Scott’s arrest is absolutely a good thing. No question. It is just a measure of justice. Nothing can be restored for the family. Grandma believes her children and grandchildren are trying to put her away. That is thanks to Scott. He’s isolated her from her family. She isn’t being cared for. She can’t take care of her personal needs without help. Scott didn’t help and the family were estranged due to him. For a supposed Christian man, Scott has done the most deplorable thing he could do in his actions. That brings me to all the people that facilitated him. How many people covered his crimes up? Chris Watson? Without question this guy claims Scott did nothing wrong. What about Bob Johnson? Indisputably, the buck stops with him. He allowed these cover ups. He lied to the press by saying there was nothing to see here. So many others perjured themselves, for what? Their careers are now going down the toliet.
Matt, the grandson, came to me because he had nowhere else to go. I brought in Philip Nix whom I work with on everything. Phil got him to Marie Mattox who has made all this possible. The FBI saw the criminality in this case. They are still pursuing people that aided Scott. That makes me smile because Eric will be a target of their investigation. That string may unravel all the corruption in both Santa Rosa & Escambia.
But this is all due to the diligence of small amount of people who were not afraid to speak out. We are family. While the 25th of January is a huge milestone for all the efforts, it comes with some melancholy. Phil’s dad passed the night Scott was arrested. This is personally devastating to all of us. Ultimately, grandma loses. She is completely isolated. Scott was ordered not to go back to the trailer he lives in and is to have no contact with grandma.
All of this is a lot to take in for a person who has tried numerous times to get FDLE and the FBI to look into the corruption in this case, I feel we are finally heard and validated. There is a continuing victimization of people who aren’t heard. This is why I do what I do.
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”- John Stuart Mill
Stay Tuned! When I know you will know. Also check out Coffeeordie.com.
In this post, I’m going to minimize my commentary. I want to put SRSO & Scott Haines’s lies on display.
Also, some of the excerpts in here are part of writ of mandamus filed by Marie Mattox’s firm on behalf of Matt Groelinger. This writ was filed in response to the games the public records folks played when records about Scott were requested. I have experienced mild games, such as constantly having my password rejected and having to request a reset. Literally the first handful of times I logged into the public records part of the SRSO site, I was told my password is incorrect. Then requested a reset delayed me getting into the website for hours. That eventually stopped. Cindy Myers, one of the attorneys representing Groelinger and his family, had the exact same password issues. However, they also, played games by closing requests prematurely, denying counsel access to records that they had a legitimate right to have. Another thing was redaction of information as to protect Scott.
The frustration in dealing with these petty games led the Mattox firm to file the writ outlining the fuckery of the SRSO, which violated FL Statute 119 (public records disclosure). Sadly, for the SRSO, these public records shenanigans are not unique; I personally dealt with these same antics with the ECSO. I educated myself on the Sunshine & public records laws. I have fought these sorts of fights already. Working in conjunction with Groelinger & his attorneys, I was able to point out issues that this was just an attempt to hinder transparency. People only hide things that need to be hidden. No one ever, innocently, covered up the truth with lies. It is that simple.
Now onto the facts of this case:
This really begins with the arrest of Matt Groelinger in December 7th, 2015:
On April 28. 2016, Scott Haines was deposed by Michael Griffith, Groelinger’s criminal attorney. When asked about the alleged theft and his role in the investigation, here is what Haines had to say:
Here is an unredacted view of the TAR requests done in reference to this case:
Screenshots of the FBI email to Shane Tucker that initiated the 2021 IA
The following is a chart showing the significant time frames that Scott ran Groelinger through NCIC/FCIC:
Excerpts taken from Writ of Mandamus filed against the SRSO by Cindy Myers, one of the counsels for Groelinger.
So, this is what Scott staying “above reproach” looks like? Various SRSO admin seem to be following this “professionalism” example., as they lie, minimize and seemingly remain blind to issues dealing with Haines.
Previously I posted the redacted IA from 2021, well now I have the UNREDACTED IA.
Here are some highlights:
Throwing Chris Watson under the bus by saying Scott points out that Watson conducted the complaint where this was alleged, and Watson found it unfounded. He continues to deny all the entries but it is to no avail as the FBI has authenticated the information.
Here is the IA for which termination was the judgment of his violations:
It is incomprehensible to me that this document, signed & dated on 8/24/2021, calls for termination. Yet on 8/31/2021, I know there are some officer’s rights issue following this decision but that should not be completely set aside allowing him to retire in lieu of termination. The havoc and detriment this one officer created over the years ought to factor into this decision. Not only that but the pressure of the FBI forcing Watson & Johnson to both do something about this situation, forcing their hands, compound to make a much bigger “fuck off” to the FBI.
I also believe that since Watson evidently stands behind his assessment that the use of NCIC/FCIC was used in the course of legitimate investigations, he should be investigated himself. The FBI knows this was not the case and there is no genuine agency related business going on. So why would Johnson reassign the case from Holcomb back to Watson who obviously did not properly conduct the 2015 complaint professionally or unbiasedly? Watson’s investigation is literally being called out as BS by the FBI. Why is he not under investigation now?
What really shocks me is the number of people being dragged into Scott’s exploitation of Dorothy Rogers. We have Watson, Johnson, Kilburn, Utsey, Tucker & Neff. How many other people are going to be involved in this cover up (which amounts to racketeering in furtherance of Scott’s crimes)?
I think the documents speak for themselves. It is for you to decide.
I have procrastinated in making this particular post for some very personal reasons. On Nov. 20, 1992, Joanna Otto was seen for the last time by her friends. I didn’t know Joanna, but I had seen her in the halls of Woodham High. We were both in the same grade & had mutual friends. Her disappearance hit me hard due to the fact, I had just stepped out of the crazy lifestyle just days prior to that November day.
I was a regular at Fountain & Falls, next to Cordova Lanes. It was a pool hall with mini golf. No booze, just a place for kids. So many people who would have never met, bonded in that place. Being young, reckless and stupid, I hung out with people I never really knew. We all did brainless things like drinking (among other things). I put myself in a compromised position
Joanna & I could have passed each other at her apartment complex or even at some parties. I would have been a soft target and could have easily been taken without a trace. I always wonder how many times I cheated death or harm in those days. But I feared nothing.
My entire life I had been told I was unable to have kids, due to medical issues. As a result, I was not as protected as I should have been. Thankfully, there was a legion of angels watching over me. I met my husband in August of that year and found myself pregnant at the time Joanna went missing. Ironically, my son was conceived on my 18th birthday, October 2, 1992. Just prior to Halloween, I found out and I married my husband soon after.
One of the people I hung out with at Fountain & Falls, Chris Edwards, was murdered at a party in Feb. 1993 by another person I knew. Becoming pregnant, the most farfetched scenario at the time changed the course of history. I would have been at this party, without a doubt. It was celebration of a couple of birthdays of my people in my clique. I knew everyone that was there. Chris O’Brien, a bit of an outsider, walked up to Chris Edwards (aka Tito) and shot him in the head. Some petty bullshit led to that but I was traumatized vicariously because of this. But then to learn later, that Joanna, a young lady my age, who I saw in the hallway at Woodham High just walked out of existence, hit much closer to home.
So honoring Kathy Hoseid, Joanna’s mother, at this time of year, I ask everyone reading this, for any info on Joanna’s disappearance to please contact me or the ECSO. If you know anything about the people involved, or if you heard anything connected to Joanna, email, text, call me. I will look into anything brought to me. We all need to know what happened to Joanna.
This post is just a homage to those who vanished. Sometimes we all need a reminder of why we are on this planet. Every so often, we should be so lucky as to have an opportunity see where the path not taken led.
Most people who have followed my blog know that the ECSO has a sliding scale of morality and discipline. For instance, Mark Turner, who was caught in a room naked with a prostitute. He is recorded talking about drugs he seized but didn’t turn in that he was giving to said prostitute. He was allowed to resign. And those same powers-that-be have a disinclination to punish cancers like former Chief deputy Eric Haines. That doesn’t go unnoticed.
Now we have the same selective punishment in Santa Rosa. There are so many documents and files I have on the Scott Haines debacle. Here is one clip from an interview with an SRSO employee conducted by Shane Tucker in reference to the “Dildo Panties” incidence:
Tucker when we were talking about an incident that occurred best to your recollection. It was in 2016. And it would have been prior to Captain Haines, the incident where he came to to your house. Tell me about that incidence.
SRSO employee He had sent me a photo.
Tucker Okay.
SRSO employee And then it wasn’t until this year that I realized it was from his work phone.
Tucker Okay.
Tucker So when you say he sent, like, a text message, he sent a photo via text.
SRSO employee it was ….Yes.
Tucker And of himself. When you say self, was it his penis? his penis?
SRSO employee yes
Tucker How do you know that it was his penis?
SRSO employee I guess it could have been anyone else’s, but he said it was his.
Tucker Okay.
Tucker Was it erect / flacid? or….
SRSO employee It was erect.
Tucker Okay.
Tucker And it was in a shower?
SRSO employee Yes.
Tucker How did that come about?
SRSO employee
From what the best I can’t remember, because it was three years ago was that I woke up one the next morning and I had the picture.
Pardon my ignorance on this but would it really matter if the penis was erect or flacid? Or even if it wasn’t Scott’s? It simply wasn’t appropriate…..PERIOD
But again evidently watching porn and communicating with prostitutes on tax payers’ dimes is only a problem if you aren’t in the clique of cool kids. There are so many ethics issues in the handling of Haines by Wendell Hall and Bob Johnson. So either Scott has so much dirt on the two of them or there is a financial incentive that may soon become apparent, for these two “leaders’ to forget the difference in right and wrong. The fact that this one guy gets SUCH a pass, makes me question the moral foundation of this agency.
How can an agency punish anyone for anything when Haines got a pass on so many violations and crimes? This has to be extremely toxic to everyone who has been employed there over the last decade. If you spent years doing the “right things” and avoiding ethical or political landmines, is it just enough to know you did a good job when you see Scott walking around the agency?
And when is it exactly too much and Scott has to be cut loose? The final IA is an investigation the FBI forwarded to Bob, already completed. It took them compiling things from years ago, that were brought up repetitively in the past before SRSO even took any of these allegations seriously. It had been reported that Scott misused government resources; Chris Watson, claimed there was nothing there ( without pulling any log ins—or at least attaching them to the IA file). It was reported Scott was misusing his position with SRSO to exploit a lady with substantial property holdings (that have appreciated significantly due to their location over the years); again Watson said there was nothing to that claim either or the allegation he was targeting Matt Groelinger, the grandson of Dorothy Rogers). Yet anyone with an IQ over that of cabbage can see that absolutely was a valid complaint. In hindsight this proved to be the last straw and something the SRSO turned a blind eye to, facilitating Scott to victimize more people.
Chris Watson, the investigator who certified Scott was not doing any of these things, should have his competency questioned. Either he is such a shitty investigator as to never have had any skills that rise to obligation of any job in law enforcement, or he’s a do-boy who has no moral compass.
No matter which is true, can you trust anything the SRSO has done? This applies to Bob’s understanding of what a law enforcement agency is supposed to be but as we know having a law enforcement background is not a prerequisite to being Sheriff; look at David Morgan. So it’s possible even with his years of service, he is not a person who was ever up to the task of protecting and serving the public.
As I stated above, people don’t understand the history between Scott and this family. I wanted to point out the dates of the events that were used to terminate Scott.
Keep in mind there were SRSO investigations into these acts but they were written off as “UNSUBSTANTIATED”. In 2012, Bill Sumner wrote a complaint that Scott used NCIC for non-law enforcement purposes (to repo cars). Chris Watson attempted to contact Sumner. When he couldn’t get a hold of him, he effectively closed the complaint. The NCIC records and video footage would have corroborated Sumner’s accusations but Watson failed to do so or failed to include those findings. Because he got away with that, he continued to re-abuse his power to misuse his position. These complaints show a pattern of behavior never properly been investigated by SRSO
In 2015, 2 days after Matt Groelinger filed a complaint against Haines for taking advantage of his position in the community to exploit his grandmother, Scott ran him through NCIC. In idoing his sub-par investigating of that complaint, Watson should have checked that to see if there was any malfeasance. That would have been a basic element of the so-called investigation. However, he failed to do so before closing that complaint as UNFOUNDED.
Again this was still a closed matter in 2021–that is until the FBI provided findings throughout this debacle with Dorothy Rogers family to the SRSO (2015-2018). At different milestones through this lawsuit filed by Groelinger the SRSO, Scott ran Groelinger, in different vehicles and members of his legal team. These are the things that ultimately got him terminated, reluctantly by SRSO, but insisted upon by FDLE & FBI. How many other violations did he commit like this, ie renters or love interests?
Who besides Watson, Hall/Johnson, covered this crap up? The conspiracy herein is going to be the most intriguing part. Who else was involved? What motivation was there? How many documents were either not collected or destroyed in this collusion? In my experience those are hallmarks of said conspiracies that I have seen. Like, Morgan refusing to do much of his “business” via email because he avoided the public records law. Then Wil Meloy destroying records of emails sent and received during the fanfare of the Billings media circus. This is corroborated via text messages obtained by the PBA. There are face to face requests with Meloy with Eric Haines on days I put pressure on the agency for such emails and the fact it is a felony to destroy communication relating to a death penalty case. Meloy claims he handled this situation. Some emails were finally presented but it is illogical to think no one emailed the “honorable” Sheriff on his handling of the Billings case.
That is just one issue I believe will be evident in the SRSO-Haines scandal. Destruction of records and failure to obtain/maintain such records is a far lesser crime that criminal collusion.
If anyone has info as to that cover up or even the ESCO issues, please contact me.
In 2013, I started blogging because I felt I had a civic duty to start a conversation about the stories & issues not being discussed in the media. No one was acknowledging the shameless abuses of power. Today, I still have that same fire and passion. I absolutely believe that people have an aversion to those who violate public integrity. Nevertheless, with the 24 hour news bombardment, we have been anesthetized to things that don’t affect us directly. We want to believe that people who are arrested are justifiably guilty or else they wouldn’t have been arrested. How could we live without certain axioms or presumptions about society? The trust in officials is ingrained into the consciousness, as it should be. In researching and investigating Escambia County justice, my understanding of crime and criminals changed. The good guys aren’t always the “good guys”; the bad guys don’t always get punished. While I knew sociopaths gravitate to positions of power to get the juice they need to indulge their every whim, I never conceptualized the extent of truth about that. Ultimately, respect is lost for the law and justice system, starting with the officers themselves in these cases. I was told once, “there is no justice to be had in Florida.” Indeed, the administration staff in the Santa Rosa Sheriff’s Office, as is the admin staff of Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, shows no semblance of integrity or duty of care to the public.
In this blog, I will be posting THE Internal Affairs Report that sent Scott Haines out of the agency, but I would like to first put a podcast clip up that seems more propaganda than fact, based on the documentation.
On September 6, 2021, Santa Rosa Sheriff Bob Johnson spoke on NewsRadio923. I clipped this portion of interest.
Here is a transcript of that clip:
Andrew …. But I did want to at least give you a chance to address the situation with Scott Haines, who had prior disciplinary issues within the Department. Whatever you can tell people, I’ll let you give you a chance to tell people.
Sheriff Bob Johnson Yeah. And unfortunately, there’s an ongoing investigation by another law enforcement entity, so I can’t really discuss it much. But I can just tell you if you looked at our agency over the past five years that I’ve been shared, we take care of discipline. So if one of our guys or gals acts out and does something, they get punished for it and you make bad choices, you get bad consequences. And that’s just basically what occurred here is that.
Andrew And I know it’s not that common, but having to discipline internally your officers, how frequent of a thing is that? And I don’t just mean they make some mistake. That’s a training issue where they’re really doing something that they definitely shouldn’t be doing where it’s a problem.
Sheriff Bob Johnson It’s not that common. We’re pretty blessed. We have probably 400 sworn counting the deputies that work in the jail. And it’s not very common. It’s like you hear in the national news when my officer does something stupid on camera and we all get blamed for it. Less than 1% of the officers in this country tarnish the badge less than 1%. That’s better than doctors and lawyers. So we take care of our own in that aspect of if you’re a bad cop, we don’t want you there. It makes us all look bad.
Sheriff Bob Johnson And sooner or later, a bad cop is going to do something to where we can get rid of them. And unfortunately, we have to do that not on a regular basis. But since I’ve been shared, probably in five years, fire and law enforcement officers and Correctional officers, probably in five years, maybe 15 times at the most. Maybe I’d say closer to ten, probably. Yeah, it’s not very common.
Andrew And it’s, as you say, it’s the very few that make for the vivid news story. Just like when you watch fictional accounts of police, it’s the corrupt one to the vigilante style or the incompetent one that creates an expectation which just isn’t borne out by the reality. And it’s hard to tell the good story when things go right. Because when things go right, that typically doesn’t. We try to focus on the good as much as we can. But that’s not really going to grab the headlines most of the time
So what Bob is insinuating is recently committed violations of policy or law, committed by Scott which required discipline. But is that true? NO! The 9 Supervisory Inquiries that repetitively involved sexual misconduct or harassment, surfing porn, etc. Let’s not forget the 2020 shitshow in Escambia County, where Scott feigned suicidal ideations to get access to a co-worker. There is dispatcher to dispatcher reporting of this to Sheriff Johnson. Yet not only is it never cited within his disciplinary history, never psychologically evaluated. This is Baker Act material—no question. Yet it was swept under the rug and never gets even an “honorable mention” in his moral integrity evaluation. C’mon Bob. This guy did more than any one officer should be
It is clear Bob Johnson has been aware of Scotts hijinks for years. He oversaw many disciplinary concerns prior to being elected as Sheriff. Prior to Jan 2017, there were 5 Supervisory Inquiries & 3 full on IA’s. “Porngate” & “Repo Nights” are among the highlights.
Now we see what the straw was that broke the camel’s back. The IA (that was not disclosed even after I balked at the number of IA’s. Even on 9/14/2021, when Adam Riddle informed me the 3 were all there was but there was 10 Supervisory Inquiries) that caused Scott to be terminated is revealed.
There are so many things that need to be pointed out and discussed. There are numerous highlighted areas that I will be delving into but for today, notice the dates and the one glaring issue is the unanimous vote to terminate Scott, yet he “retired”. Once everyone agrees there is a violation and agreed on the punishment, he should be terminated. Allowing him to resign only works prior to that board vote. They voted. He is fired before he “retired”. Don’t know how that works.
I am going to put this out there for everyone to draw their own conclusions. Without further adieu:
Conjuring Justice 