State Attorney candidate drops out, leaving Scheiner unopposed as Archer plans retirement

The race for Brevard and Seminole County State Attorney is down to one — for now.

Christopher Cusmano, the Republican former assistant state attorney who filed to run in August, confirmed Friday he is dropping out of the race due to a conflict with his service in the U.S. Army Reserve.

That leaves his opponent, Republican Assistant State Attorney Will Scheiner — State Attorney Phil Archer's chief trial lawyer in Brevard — unopposed. Archer is supporting Scheiner for the position, but has not yet made an official endorsement.

Potential candidates have another six months to qualify, however, meaning the race may not be over just yet.

Archer, who has been the 18th Judicial Circuit's chief prosecutor since 2013, is not running for reelection. He declined to comment on the news of Cusmano's decision Friday, but said through a spokesperson he was planning to retire and would make a formal announcement in the coming months.

More: Torres: Prosecutor pleads guilty to misconduct and is suspended for two years

"Mr. Archer did want to confirm that after 40 years of public service as a prosecutor, and now State Attorney, he has decided to retire and enjoy more time with his wife Stephanie, and their adult children," Todd Brown, a state attorney's office spokesman, said in an email.

Cusmano drops out, citing Army Reserve deployment

Cusmano confirmed Friday he was withdrawing from the race, telling FLORIDA TODAY he was called to active duty in the U.S. Army Reserve with a tentative unit deployment window of 440 days.

Federal directives prohibit reservists from running for office if they are called to active duty for more than 270 consecutive days, unless they are granted special permission from the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Cusmano said he wasn't planning on seeking that permission.

"That's not a viable option," Cusmano said by phone Friday, from the road to Camp Blanding Joint Training Center in Clay County. From there, he said, he will deploy to Texas for southern border operations with the Florida Army National Guard.

"It's an open-and-shut case," he said. "I also think, based on the nature of the mission, it would be pretty hard to run a campaign back here. At the same time, I don't think it's really fair to do so."

Prior to joining Archer's office as an assistant state attorney in 2019, Cusmano was an officer and attorney for eight years in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

He left the office in October last year over Archer's handling of Assistant State Attorney Bryon Aven, who kept his job despite admitting to submitting false testimony while prosecuting a 2022 battery case. Cusmano worked with Aven on the case and helped to expose the misconduct.

Aven was suspended by the Florida Bar for two years and removed from the courtroom, but was allowed to continue working in the intake division, where he helped decide what cases go to prosecution.

Cusmano said he wished Scheiner well in the race.

"I'm curious to see what happens," he said. "I really appreciate the support and encouragement that I've received from the community."

Scheiner banking on trial experience, victims' rights

Scheiner said the news caught him by surprise Friday.

"Obviously, any candidate is happy to not have an opponent, but that's why we have this process, so that people have options," Scheiner said. He added: "Chris is a nice guy. He's serving our country and I respect the hell out of that."

Scheiner filed to run for state attorney in May. He began at the State Attorney's Office in 2008, less than a year after graduating from Florida Coastal School of Law, starting in misdemeanors and later the felony division under former State Attorney Norman Wolfinger.

He earned a series of strong performance reviews under Archer and became Brevard's top prosecutor, accepting a promotion to chief trial attorney this past July, his personnel file shows.

Scheiner is staking his bid on his 15 years of trial experience and deep knowledge of the administration and expectations of the office.

"I've been in every division this office has. I've seen the inner workings of all those things, how they work and how they should work," he said.

He also has cited what he said was a deep appreciation for victims' rights, a result of his own experience as a victim of a 2001 attempted robbery/kidnapping in Titusville that ended with him wounded in the crossfire between his assailant and a responding police officer.

Scheiner: 'I would have handled things differently' with Aven

If he is elected, voters would likely not see seismic changes in the public-facing part of the office, he said; outwardly, it would run much as it has under Archer, with a few key changes.

Scheiner said he aims to increase the size of the office to reflect the growth in the county, with a focus on growing the number of units that focus on specialized areas of crime, including reviving its elder services and economic crimes units. He would also focus on beefing up its range of victims' services, he said.

That did not include a dedicated convictions integrity unit tasked with reviewing cases for prosecutorial misconduct, however, an idea Cusmano promoted during his brief run after his experience with Aven.

"This is hard to say given what's happened in the last 18 months in a courtroom here in Brevard County, but I have faith that the process is going to work, and that prosecutors and people in the court are going to do what they are supposed to be doing," Scheiner said.

He went on: "It saddens me that the default position is we did it wrong. I can't say I would never institute (a convictions integrity unity), because that is a concern to me that that is the default position, but if I were to win, that would not be a top priority to start with."

Scheiner said integrity would nevertheless be North Star principle for his office. He said he is currently leading an effort to review of a piece of evidence in a controversial, high-profile local conviction, though he declined to say more.

More: Torres: Former assistant state attorney shows integrity by quitting

He would have handled things differently with Aven, he said.

"The point where he put pen to paper and entered into a plea deal with the bar, there was to my mind no justification for keeping him in the office," Scheiner said. "I became the chief trial attorney on July 2 of this year, and I asked for his dismissal. It did not happen."

Above all, Scheiner said, he was motivated by making sure the strongest cases make it to trial — and by making sure that cases live and die on the strength of their own evidence.

"My motivation is justice for everybody. Not just the families (of victims) and police, but defendants too," he said. "They get their day in court and they get their fair trial. And we need people that are trial lawyers and litigators that can do that, and I think I'm that guy."

Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on X: @EricRogersFT.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Race for Brevard State Attorney down to one candidate for now