Former St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara admits role in 2020 'ghost candidate' case

It's taken almost four years, but former St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara has finally come clean about his role in encouraging a so-called "ghost candidate" to run in the 2020 Republican primary.

In a filing submitted to the Florida Commission on Ethics Thursday, Mascara admitted that he did indeed recruit a candidate to run against a Republican adversary who Mascara, a Democrat, didn't want to face in the general election.

The admission was part of a stipulated agreement Mascara signed in hopes of staving off further action by the ethics commission.

The agreement recommends Mascara receive a public reprimand and a $5,000 fine for violating Sec. 112.313(6) of Florida Statutes, by "using his position and/or public resources to secure a special privilege, benefit and/or exemption for himself."

'Ghost candidate' case gets resurrected

The ethics commission is scheduled to consider the stipulated agreement at its July 26 meeting in Tallahassee. The commission only has the power to make recommendations, so it would be up to Gov. Ron DeSantis to actually issue the reprimand and assess the civil penalty against Mascara.

It's a surprising turn in a case that seemed all but dead until a few days ago. On June 12, the ethics commission found there was probable cause to further investigate allegations made by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The FDLE issued a report last year, outlining evidence Mascara, along with others, had recruited Kevin Carter, a retired deputy, to run in the primary against Richard Williams, a former Florida Highway Patrol trooper. Carter defeated Williams in the primary, then lost to Mascara in the general election.

Phil Archer, state attorney for Brevard and Seminole counties in the 18th Judicial Circuit, was assigned to review the evidence after Tom Bakkedahl, state attorney for St. Lucie, Martin, Indian River and Okeechobee counties in the 19th Judicial Circuit, recused himself to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest.

Archer's office, however, didn't find sufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges. Rather than let the matter drop, the FDLE forwarded a case to the ethics commission.

Suspicious circumstances around Mascara's departure

After the commission ruled there was probable cause to proceed with an investigation, Mascara could have requested an evidentiary hearing conducted by the state Division of Administrative Hearings. Instead, he chose to avoid that step and enter into the stipulated agreement with the state Attorney General's Office.

Mascara resigned from his post last December, citing unspecified health reasons. The same day Mascara announced his resignation, DeSantis appointed Keith Pearson, a mid-level manager in the sheriff's office, as his interim replacement.

Just a couple of weeks before Pearson's surprise appointment, one of his political allies, Anthony "Tony" DiFrancesco, hosted a fundraiser to support DeSantis' then-active presidential campaign. DiFrancesco and other members of his family also made donations totaling more than six figures to the DeSantis campaign less than a week after that event.

Records provided to TCPalm show the governor's staff began vetting Pearson almost immediately after receiving the DiFrancescos' political contributions, well before Mascara's supposed surprise resignation.

If you don't buy the theory that Mascara was so sick he needed to step down immediately ― which has been questioned by those who have seen or spoken to him since his resignation ― then questions remain about what might have motivated him to resign before his term expired.

Was resigning intended to head off disciplinary action?

Although Archer's team had already announced its decision not to prosecute, Mascara may have been aware the FDLE was considering pursuing a case with the ethics commission and may have thought (mistakenly) he could head it off by resigning early.

Or perhaps he was worried someone might take the allegations before the state Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission while Mascara was still in office. I haven't received an answer yet about whether that commission would have any jurisdiction to mete out discipline against Mascara since he's retired.

R.W. Evans, the Tallahassee attorney who represented Mascara in the ethics commission case, didn't return a call Friday afternoon.

For Mascara, who had served as sheriff since 2001, this ethics commission case leaves an ugly stain on what was otherwise considered, at least until recently, to be an exemplary career in law enforcement.

There is a way he could redeem himself and make the final memories St. Lucie County residents have of him positive, though.

It's time to come clean, Ken

Pearson was one of the other individuals the FDLE implicated in its investigative report. Mascara should come clean with investigators about the now-interim sheriff's role in Carter's campaign, as well as detailing whether Mascara was coerced to resign by anyone involved in the transition of power.

If Pearson supported Carter in 2020 because he truly thought he was the best candidate for the job, that raises questions about one of the findings from the FDLE investigation. One of the witnesses FDLE interviewed was a sheriff's lieutenant who spotted Pearson and Mascara hanging around together in a yard that later displayed a Carter sign.

So Pearson was out at night campaigning to unseat his current boss ... alongside his current boss? In what world does that make sense?

Mascara has been incommunicado with the media since his resignation and Pearson hasn't said a whole lot about the circumstances surrounding his role in the "ghost candidate" case, either.

The agreement in the ethics commission case may close one chapter in this saga, but it's not the final chapter. Many questions still remain.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at bfontenay@gannett.com or at 772-232-5424.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: He did it: Mascara admits to violating law in ethics commission filing