{"id":310941,"date":"2026-06-17T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310941\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T21:26:08","slug":"newly-released-carrico-records-raise-questions-about-altered-text-messages-in-jea-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/310941\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly released Carrico records raise questions about altered text messages in JEA probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 New questions are being raised about newly released public records tied to Jacksonville City Council President Kevin Carrico and a state investigation<\/a> into the attempted appointment of his boss to the JEA board.<\/p>\n

The questions center on two different images of the same Carrico text message. One was provided last week to Jacksonville media outlets and another later sent to Florida Trib Executive Editor Nate Monroe after he asked for additional context and posed questions about unexplained omissions.<\/p>\n

Placed side by side, the images appear visibly different, with changes in timestamp placement, cropping and missing header and recipient information. The differences have prompted scrutiny over why a public record would be released in an altered form.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are two different documents, these are two different records,\u201d Monroe said. \u201cAnd one of the questions that I have for the city is which one is the one that he actually gave over to the state attorney\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrico has acknowledged sending a message to his boss, Paul Martinez, that reads: \u201cGuess it\u2019s time they get a new board member to show them who\u2019s boss. Are you ready to play the game?\u201d<\/p>\n

Monroe said a follow-up records request revealed the message was part of a larger conversation, and that the earlier version provided to media did not show the full context.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe version that they gave last week obscured the fact that there is an entire top half to this message that we are not seeing,\u201d Monroe said. \u201cThey have not explained, other than a kind of vague talking point about withholding personal information. And they haven\u2019t provided us any specific statutory reason why that stuff is being held back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversy follows a separate text message in February, when Carrico pushed to appoint Martinez, his boss at the Boys & Girls Club, to the JEA board. In a message to outgoing board member Arthur Adams, Carrico referred to the appointment as a \u201cfavor,\u201d according to previously reported records.<\/p>\n

In a newly released statement, city council attorneys said Carrico\u2019s compliance with a criminal investigation subpoena included both personal communications and public records containing search terms provided by investigators. <\/p>\n

However, they said only documents that qualify as public records would be produced in response to public records requests, and that private communications do not become public records simply because they were submitted under subpoena.<\/p>\n

Monroe and News4JAX have questioned how portions of the same text message could be treated differently, with part released publicly and other parts withheld.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we can see in the half of this message that is disclosed is this phrase, \u2018Guess it\u2019s time,\u2019\u201d Monroe said. \u201cThat sentence implies that whatever came before it has some relationship to this. You don\u2019t just say \u2018guess it\u2019s time\u2019 out of nowhere. You say guess it\u2019s time play the gave in response to something. It\u2019s like an if-then statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The public records process has also drawn criticism over cost and transparency. When News4JAX and other outlets first requested subpoenaed Carrico documents, the city initially estimated the cost at about $4,000. After media attorneys became involved, that estimate dropped to about $200, according to the outlets.<\/p>\n

News4JAX and the Florida Trib said they are awaiting further response from city council attorneys about the latest records release and the differences between the two versions of the text message image.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 New questions are being raised about newly released public records tied to Jacksonville City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,501,5896],"class_list":["post-310941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jea","tag-kevin-carrico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310941","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=310941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}