Sheriff Gualtieri’s coronavirus arrest of local business owner he called a “jerk” results in no prosecution

“He wanted to become unreasonable, frankly, he was being a jerk about it, so he went to jail,” Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told (video) county commissioners in a meeting on Tuesday about Pinellas Park business owner Galen Wood.

Gualtieri’s deputies had arrested Wood twelve days earlier for allegedly violating the governor’s “Safer At Home” order.

On Friday, just three days after Gualtieri called Wood “a jerk,” State Attorney Bernie McCabe quietly dropped the charges against Wood.

Who’s the jerk now?

In its one-page filing with the district court, the State Attorney’s office said that their agency, “having conducted an investigation in this matter, concludes that the facts and circumstances revealed do not warrant prosecution at this time.”

In a statement, Wood called the outcome “a victory for people who believe police should be law enforcers not lawmakers. Next step is for us to hold them accountable for not upholding their oath to the law and constitution.”

At the time of writing of this article, the only other Tampa Bay area news outlet that had reported on this matter was IONTB.com. The Tampa Bay Times, Bay News 9, Fox 13, ABC Action News etc., etc…none of them had reported on the outcome of this case.

Gualtieri has urged citizens to “do the right thing” several times during the pandemic, with the promise that if you don’t, enforcement action will be taken against you. But can Gualtieri even know what “the right thing” to do is for one million people in every aspect of their lives during this pandemic?

As always….the Guardian reports and our readers decide. Like our Facebook page to find out when we publish articles.

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