BAKER COUNTY, Fla. — The Baker County Sheriff’s Office is being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after Governor Ron Desantis signed an executive order Tuesday.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
The executive order didn’t give a reason for the investigation.
Brian Kramer, the state attorney in the 8th Judicial Circuit, advised Desantis of the investigation, according to the document.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
The investigation has been reassigned to State Attorney Melissa Nelson of the 4th Judicial Circuit because Kramer publicly endorsed Baker County Sheriff Scotty Rhoden.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office is also being investigated.
The Baker County Sheriff’s Office released this statement on Facebook:
“In an effort to always keep our community informed, Sheriff Rhoden has decided to share his recent email to his employees. Yesterday, BCSO received the news of an upcoming investigation. Sheriff Rhoden immediately sent an email to his employees guaranteeing, “I stand behind my employees and my administrative staff one hundred percent and invite any and all investigations to tour our facility and audit our operations at any time.” Sheriff Rhoden went on to say, “Let me go on record stating this is a POLITICAL STRATEGY to not only divide our BCSO family, but to also bring negative attention to our county. We all know that in Baker County we are family, and we always work together to support one another to ensure all of our county operations put the people of our community first.””
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.