JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The criminal investigation into an allegedly illegal gun registry maintained by the City of Jacksonville continues to widen, with nine current and former city officials named in a new subpoena issued by the State Attorney’s Office.
The State Attorney is seeking all emails and texts containing 15 keywords, including things like “constitutional carry” and “registry.”
VIEW THE SUBPOENA BELOW:
Subpoena Communications by ActionNewsJax on Scribd
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“Subpoenas are flying. This is clear confirmation that the State Attorney is in the middle of a criminal investigation,” Councilmember Nick Howland (R-Group 3 At-Large) said.
Howland was the first to tell Action News Jax about the list of gun owners who entered city buildings while carrying concealed over the past two years.
RELATED: Jacksonville leaders hold heated discussion about alleged illegal gun registry investigation
State law prohibits the creation and maintenance of any list of guns or gun owners.
“The penalties could be a third-degree felony for any city official who knowingly or willfully kept a registry. We also know the city could be fined by the state $5 million. This is a serious issue,” Howland said.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan is not among the officials directly named in the new subpoena, but high-ranking officials in her administration are included.
RELATED: Councilman claims the City of Jacksonville may have created an illegal gun registry
Five of the nine are Deegan appointees, including her Chief Administrative Officer Karen Bowling, former Chief of Staff Pat McCollough, and former transition team co-chair Lakesha Burton.
The remaining four predate Deegan’s time in office, although they’re all still employed by the city in some capacity.
They include the city’s former General Counsel Jason Teal and three high-level employees in the city’s Public Works Department.
The Deegan Administration has claimed the gun registry policy started under former Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration.
It’s an assertion Curry has claimed is false.
But a copy of the security policy obtained by Action News Jax backs Deegan’s claim.
It shows the provision related to the creation of a list of gun owners was, at the very least, drafted one day before Deegan officially took office on June 30, 2023.
The policy directs security officials to, at a minimum, record the names, state-issued photo ID number, age, and weapon type in the “weapon and firearm logbook” when a person enters Jacksonville City Hall carrying a concealed firearm.
READ THE POLICY BELOW:
And while the document shows the policy was written before Deegan officially took office, Howland argued given the officials named in the subpoena and the inclusion of a request for the email addresses of all Deegan transition team members, it’s possible the policy may have been created at the direction of her transition team.
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“Not till July 1 do they assume their actual titles, and in the case of the mayor, the elected position of mayor. But they’re acting on behalf of the city at that point,” Howland said.
And when asked about the revision date on the policy on Wednesday, Curry maintained it was not drafted at the direction of anyone in his administration.
“It’s not illegal to lie in the public sphere, to lie to the media. It is illegal to lie under oath, and people are going to be under oath very soon,” Curry said.
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In response to the latest subpoena, Councilmember Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) offered the following statement.
“The State Attorney’s Office is doing their job. If people want to hyper-politicize it, then I suppose they have nothing better to do with their time. The issues facing this City are bigger than this; the people of Jacksonville would prefer to have their local leaders to put this much interest into fixing our streets, drainage problems, and homelessness. It’s a shame that’s not the case.”
The mayor’s office declined to offer an updated statement on the new subpoena for this story.
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