{"id":132947,"date":"2026-01-27T01:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T01:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/132947\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T01:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T01:48:16","slug":"james-uthmeier-teases-update-on-jax-gun-registry-probe-differs-with-state-attorney-on-clearing-donna-deegan-admin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/132947\/","title":{"rendered":"James Uthmeier teases update on Jax gun registry probe, differs with State Attorney on clearing Donna Deegan admin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a> says his ongoing probe of a list of Jacksonville gun owners who carried weapons into local government buildings is almost complete.<\/p>\n

And he takes issue with local State Attorney\u00a0Melissa Nelson for missing the mark in her own report on the controversy, which absolved the administration of Mayor Donna Deegan of legal responsibility for the practice that has drawn scrutiny from the Right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are investigating this. We\u2019ll have more to announce soon,\u201d Uthmeier said in St. Johns County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the local State Attorney concluded that it was a lower level staff person that didn\u2019t know what they were doing. You know, most everybody here knows that ignorance of the law is not typically a defense. So I do believe what happened was wrong and unlawful. We\u2019re taking a hard look at it. We\u2019ll have some updates soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 4th Circuit State Attorney\u2019s Office (SAO) concluded late last year that while Jacksonville officials were guilty of \u201cpoor communication and a lack of legal review \u2014 not from deliberate misconduct\u201d regarding a registry of people carrying guns into City Hall<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Yates Building<\/a>, there is no ground for criminal charges related to the practice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Uthmeier rejected that finding, saying at the time that the \u201cconclusion of this investigation without charges or accountability is unacceptable\u201d and \u201cJacksonville\u2019s creation of a gun registry for any reason is unlawful and reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contacted Monday, the SAO said its \u201cjurisdiction is limited to determining whether a criminal violation occurred. Under Florida law, that requires proof of knowing and willful conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur comprehensive investigation established the complete and true facts and concluded the logbook practice was implemented for innocent reasons, not with criminal intent,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Attorney General has separate authority to evaluate potential civil remedies. We have previously provided the office with our legal analysis and offered our investigative file for review. To date, we have not received any request from that office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u00a0and others have pilloried the\u00a0gun registry<\/a> as a violation of constitutional rights by the\u00a0Deegan<\/a>\u00a0administration. The \u201cCheck Points and Perimeter Security<\/a>\u201d memo from Facility Manager\u00a0Mike Soto\u00a0was drafted June 30, 2023, during the transition between the outgoing\u00a0Lenny Curry\u00a0administration and Deegan\u2019s incoming group. It was revised in July after Deegan was sworn in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

State Attorney Nelson\u2019s\u00a0Office notes that the city \u201cstopped the practice immediately once it was discovered,\u201d but not before \u201cmore than 140 entries recording the names, birthdates, ID numbers, and firearm types of over 100 individuals\u201d were memorialized.<\/p>\n

In the course of the investigation, the State Attorney\u2019s Office issued subpoenas to\u00a0Roy Birbal, former public safety chief\u00a0Lakeisha Burton, Chief Administrative Officer\u00a0Karen Bowling,\u00a0Steven Long,\u00a0Pat McCollough,\u00a0Kelli O\u2019Leary, former acting General Counsel\u00a0Bob Rhodes, Facilities Manager\u00a0Mike Soto, and former city lawyer and current City Council lawyer\u00a0Jason Teal.<\/p>\n

The SAO concluded that \u201csanctions only apply when a registry is created \u2018knowingly and willfully.\u2019\u201d The Public Works manager who created the registry did so because \u201che wanted data about how many people carried firearms into City buildings \u2014 believing it would improve preparedness in case of an emergency, not realizing it created a legal problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the General Counsel and senior officials in the administration did not review the practice that was in place for nearly two years.<\/p>\n

The relevant law, Florida Statutes 790.335<\/a>, bans registries under threat of criminal and civil penalties, including potential \u201cfelony of the third degree\u201d charges and \u201ca fine of not more than $5 million\u201d via a civil action from the Attorney General. But the SAO\u2019s conclusion that no crime was committed insulates the administration and its members from any such sanction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Jacksonville fully cooperated with State Attorney Nelson and her office from start to finish, and we thank them for conducting a careful and thorough review,\u201d read a statement from a Deegan administration spokesperson last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey confirmed that the policy in question was implemented by an individual employee concerned with building security unbeknownst to Mayor Deegan or her leadership team. This practice immediately ended when it was brought to the administration\u2019s attention. Jacksonville will always follow the law and support constitutionally protected rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General James Uthmeier says his ongoing probe of a list of Jacksonville gun owners who carried weapons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[65318,65319,116,118,117,4260],"class_list":["post-132947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-4th-judicial-circuit","tag-4th-judicial-circuit-state-attorney-melissa-nelson","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-james-uthmeier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}