Sheriff 'confident' embezzled money will be recovered (2024)

Saying there is "a lot of angst" in the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office after its financial services division director was arrested when more than $600,000 in checks were written to what authorities said were fraudulent accounts, Sheriff David Shoar promised safeguards will be put into place to ensure department money is safe.

Seated at his St. Augustine desk with reporters, Shoar said it was emotional learning about 47-year-old Raye Annette Brutnell's arrest on 104 counts of forgery, 52 more of official misconduct, plus grand theft, scheming to defraud and unlawful use of a two-way communication device, according to her arrest warrant.

Pointing to her office only 15 feet from his until he fired her, Shoar said he dealt with her about once a week and said she was a great leader "until something got in the way."

"The good news for the public is we found her, not the external auditors paid to find it," Shoar said. "Could it have been found sooner? We can argue about that all day long. ... All the time you have to take some people on faith, and sometimes humans disappoint."

Arrested Tuesday morning on a four-page warrant, Brutnell turned herself in with her attorney, Hank Coxe.

Held on $265,000 bail in the Flagler County Jail, she posted bond that night, according to jail records.

Employed by the Sheriff’s Office since 1991, when she began as a dispatcher, Brutnell was named director of finance in January 2013 and was responsible for the department's budget, payroll, accounts payable and purchasing among other duties, according to the agency website.

The Sheriff’s Office began its investigation Nov. 14 after learning of numerous suspicious checks Brutnell wrote to vendors over the past five years, according to the warrant.

Shoar said two employees indicated they were suspicious of three or four accounts. He said he contacted the Polk County Sheriff, and its financial crimes division investigated the potential fraud.

Brutnell was immediately placed on leave, the warrant said.

Ultimately, Shoar said he is responsible for what happened. "I am the person in charge and I have learned through my years in the military and (as a) cop that you don't get to shirk responsibility," he said.

Polk County investigators allege that 63 checks were written to four fictitious vendors totaling $673,422.42 from Oct. 10, 2013, to Nov. 7 of this year, according to the warrant.

Nine checks totaling $28,743 were made payable to a St. Augustine address that did not exist. A former in-law of Brutnell's lived on that street, and the name the checks were written to were similar to that relative's name, according to the warrant.

A similar situation involved 16 more checks totaling $292,676, plus 27 more totaling $296,452, made payable to Brutnell's father, the name and address a slight variation of his, the warrant said. More checks totaling $55,550 were issued to a Virginia location for "opioid or fentanyl" training, which no one at that address provides, the warrant said.

A search of Brutnell's office turned up three checks written from the Sheriff's Office's benevolence fund for $14,000, made out to someone whose name was similar to her father's, the warrant said. Six more checks made out for $11,350 in cash were also written off that fund, the warrant said. All were signed by Brutnell, the warrant said.

Investigators also reviewed Brutnell's office computer files and found more documents were found with the names, addresses and dollar amounts matching the payments uncovered earlier, the warrant said. Copies of bank records also showed $3,145 paid to Brutnell's father's retirement community, $899 in car payments and $4,436 for mortgage bills, also written off the benevolence fund account. The warrant also says other deposits with notations for the Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement or no notations are also being investigated.

Shoar said he doesn't believe Brutnell's husband is involved, saying he had been out of town for a year and was "100 percent confident Mark had no knowledge." He said he does not know how auditors missed this, adding he hasn't spoken with them and probably shouldn't comment on that.

"Sometimes the lessons we learn are brutally learned," he said.

From here, Shoar said his staff will meet with external auditors, then bank officials to "get some clarity" on the potential scope of financial issues as they look at new internal controls to safeguard funds.

"Part of this process will involve forensic accountants to scrub every inch of the books," Shoar said. "We think it is contained in this particular area, thank God. They will look for additional problems."

The sheriff agreed the department "took a hit," but it will get the embezzled funds back. "I feel very confident of that," Shoar said. "... At the end of this there will be mechanisms to recover the money."

In the end, Shoar admitted this was a case that was pretty difficult to deal with, saying it is "profoundly disappointing when it is people we know and love."

Of the money embezzled, only $9,000 remains, the warrant said.

The governor has assigned State Attorney Brian Haas in Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties to handle prosecution.

Dan Scanlan: (904) 359-4549