FLORIDA TODAY wins top honors for 2021 coverage of Sheriff Ivey, COVID and manatee deaths

FLORIDA TODAY Staff
·3 min read
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Tim Shortt's picture of two-year-old Aria Dodd at the “River Monsters” aquarium at the Brevard Zoo in Viera won an SPJ Sunshine State Award on Saturday
Tim Shortt's picture of two-year-old Aria Dodd at the “River Monsters” aquarium at the Brevard Zoo in Viera won an SPJ Sunshine State Award on Saturday

FLORIDA TODAY won top honors in the 2022 Florida Society of Professional Journalists Sunshine State Journalism Awards for its reporting last year revealing how Sheriff Wayne Ivey’s signature social media program, “Wheel of Fugitive,’ often features people who are not wanted by law enforcement.

The series of stories took the contest’s first place for criminal justice reporting and was one of six Sunshine State Awards won by FLORIDA TODAY’s photographers and reporters for their work last year.

The Sunshine State Awards, announced during a ceremony at the NSU Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday night, are among the most prestigious media awards in Florida, honoring television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, as well as student publications. More than 1000 submissions were received by the organization for the 2022 awards.

The judges singled out stories by Managing Editor Bobby Block and former Watchdog Report Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon looking at how the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office selected and presented the “contestants” for “Wheel of Fugitive.”

During the Facebook show Ivey spins a giant roulette wheel festooned with mugshots of “participants” who are allegedly wanted by police. The goal: land on one who will be the focus of BCSO efforts that week to capture.

FLORIDA TODAY, however, found that in the 45 episodes that aired between Feb 25, 2020, and Feb 23, 2021, "Wheel of Fugitive" incorrectly featured 60 individuals as fugitives when they were not. In the Nov 3, 2020, edition, seven out of the 10 'participants' were either already in jail, had been released or had no active arrest warrant at the time.

David Austin Gay has been on the BCSO Wheel of Fugitives four times, but each time he wasn't a fugitive. His story was featured as part of the FLORIDA TODAY series honored by the SPJ's Sunshine State Awards on Saturday.
David Austin Gay has been on the BCSO Wheel of Fugitives four times, but each time he wasn't a fugitive. His story was featured as part of the FLORIDA TODAY series honored by the SPJ's Sunshine State Awards on Saturday.

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Although "Wheel of Fugitive" has a disclaimer that some of those depicted might no longer be fugitives, legal experts say the disclaimer doesn’t remove the burden from the sheriff to make sure that he is not depicting people as fugitives when they aren’t. The FLORIDA TODAY investigation raised questions about how the sheriff and his staff vet “contestants” as well as what the real intent of the show is. While supporters believe it gets criminals off the street, critics warn it is just humiliation for people who have often been charged but not convicted of a crime.

FLORIDA TODAY’s reports on the mass die off of manatees, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted local business were also honored by the Florida SPJ.

Business Editor Dave Berman’s stories about the ways Port Canaveral and local shopping malls navigated the economic tsunami caused by the novel coronavirus were honored with a second place award for best COVID-19 business coverage.

Reporter Jim Waymer won a second place for data presentation and a third place — along with photographer Malcolm Denemark — for best news series for four reports about what has been killing Florida’s sea cows.

For those stories, Denemark and Waymer kayaked the lagoon looking for sea cow mass gravesites and spent days with marine veterinarians trying to save rescued manatees at Sea World. The stories also earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

This shot of a launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and 60 Starlink satellites from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station last year by Malcolm Denemark won a Sunshine State Award for breaking new photography
This shot of a launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and 60 Starlink satellites from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station last year by Malcolm Denemark won a Sunshine State Award for breaking new photography

A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch photo by Denemark also took a third-place in the Breaking News category, while Tim Shortt’s picture of a little girl and big fish at the Brevard Zoo won second place for best feature photo.

A few weeks before the Sunshine State Awards were announced, Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon’s story on the rise of “Constitutional Sheriffs” was honored with a third place award for public affairs reporting in the SPJ’s Green Eyeshade Awards for all news organizations in the Southeastern U.S.

“We’re honored by the journalism awards which highlight our team’s effort to uphold the principles of a free and independent press in covering our community,” said Executive Editor Mara Bellaby.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: FLORIDA TODAY stories on Sheriff Ivey, COVID and manatees honored