Manatee Sheriff's Office recommends charges for former administrator Scott Hopes
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has recommended charges for former Manatee County administrator Scott Hopes.
The Sheriff’s Office received multiple complaints about Hopes in February, including one from Michael Barfield, director of Public Access at Florida Center for Government Accountability, who claims Hopes reset his county devices before turning them in to Information Technology staff.
Other complaints allege criminal violations of Florida’s public records, theft, and notary laws, according to a release from the Sheriff's Office.
Details from the case and the investigation were not released by sheriff’s representatives, and relevant materials have been forwarded to the State Attorney’s Office for review.
State Attorney Ed Brodsky confirmed his office received the investigation results Wednesday and will immediately begin a preliminary review. It is unclear how long the investigation from the State Attorney's Office will last before possible charges, if any, could be announced, but Brodsky said his office will complete it in a timely fashion.
Manatee County media representative Bill Logan said he couldn't give a comment on the recommended charges since it's an active investigation. Herald-Tribune reporters have reached out to all seven of the Manatee County Commissioners but none responded for comment. Hopes could not be reached.
Barfield said Wednesday the situation began with a records request sent to Hopes in the summer of 2022, which led to the Florida Center for Government Accountability bringing a case against Manatee County involving text messages and access to public records.
That case led to the discovery that Hopes hadn’t provided all of the records requested and other discoveries about more widespread violations of the Public Records Act, including employees deleting text messages.
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Hopes told Herald-Tribune reporters in March that records on both devices were automatically backed up remotely by the county's IT department and that text messaging was disabled on county phones in mid-2022.
Following Barfield filing the complaint, the Sheriff’s Office performed what Barfield described as a thorough and lengthy investigation with a detective interviewing him several times over the course of the past few months.
Barfield thanked the Sheriff’s Office for its commitment to enforcing transparency laws, which Barfield added required heightened scrutiny. While some may think that transparency laws are a nuisance, Barfield argued it's a vital part of democracy as it's a tool to hold elected and appointed officials accountable.
“Criminal prosecutions for violations of the Public Records Act are rare,” Barfield said. “And it requires evidence of an intent to violate the law — delete records, hide records, things of that nature, not just oh, sloppy record keeping.”
During his time with the county, Hopes garnered much controversy from corruption findings made within the county's building department, he was criticized by Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller Angelina Colonneso and received a raise on the same day the county's CFO resigned because of it.
Commissioners publicly criticized Hopes in January following negative media coverage after the hire of Mitchell Teitelbaum as a deputy administrator went sour following a sexual harassment claim filed by a county employee. Teitelbaum declined the position soon afterward.
Following Hope's sudden resignation in February, Robert Reinshuttle, a former deputy administrator who worked under Hopes, claimed in March that he and human resources staff were directed to suppress information and is adamant his termination was an act of retaliation for reporting the matter to county commissioners.
Hopes told the Herald-Tribune in February that his departure from the county was mutual and that he was embracing a chance to pursue other options. He was hired in April 2021 and assumed responsibility for the county's response to two active hurricane seasons, red tide, COVID-19 outbreaks among county staff, and the Piney Point fertilizer plant breach.
Contributing: Jesse Mendoza, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Manatee Sheriff's Office investigates Scott Hopes after complaints
