Clay Today staff<\/p>\n
ORANGE PARK \u2013 Former Town Mayor\u00a0William Eugene\u00a0Nix\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0face charges after he was caught on video surveillance stealing campaign for\u00a0incumbent Town Council candidate\u00a0Doug\u00a0Benefield\u00a0and replacing them with signs supporting\u00a0his challenger,\u00a0Chuck Lindholm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the Orange Park Police Department, the incident happened at a wedding venue, Azalea Manor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Benefield called the police department on March 25 to report the swap. He said he called Lindholm and was told Eugene Nix\u00a0was responsible for\u00a0the theft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Information captured by body-worn cameras showed Nix telling an officer he\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0take the sign.\u00a0But when\u00a0confronted with the video from a home across\u00a0the street from Azalea Manor, Nix finally admitted adding a sign for Lindholm and taking Benefield\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After denying he took the sign, a second OPPD officer said:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re\u00a0not here on a fact-finding mission. What\u00a0I’m\u00a0saying:\u00a0we\u00a0already know what happened. Just, do you have the sign with you?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nix said he threw away with his trash,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Benefield told OPPD he\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0press charges\u00a0against Nix, who left the council in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Benefield and Lindholm are in a contemptuous battle for Seat 1. That election will be settled with Municipal Super Tuesday\u00a0on\u00a0April 14. Registered\u00a0voters who live within the town limits can vote from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Town Hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Incumbent Ed Gaw is being challenged by Thomas Centracchio for Seat 1 in Green Cove Springs. Residents there can vote to settle that\u00a0contest, as well as\u00a0three charter amendments on Tuesday at City Hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clay Today staff ORANGE PARK \u2013 Former Town Mayor\u00a0William Eugene\u00a0Nix\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0face charges after he was caught on video surveillance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3496,3487,3495,3498,3488,3493,116,118,117,3492,3494,3499,3490,3489,3497,3491],"class_list":{"0":"post-226435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-argyle","9":"tag-clay-county","10":"tag-doctors-inlet","11":"tag-eagle-harbor","12":"tag-fleming-island","13":"tag-green-cove-springs","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","16":"tag-jacksonville-news","17":"tag-keystone-heights","18":"tag-lake-asbury","19":"tag-margaret","20":"tag-middleburg","21":"tag-orange-park","22":"tag-pace-island","23":"tag-penney-farms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226435","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=226435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}