{"id":392605,"date":"2026-09-07T05:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/392605\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T05:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:16:23","slug":"former-st-lucie-gop-chairman-arrested-in-martin-county-saw-palmetto-berry-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/392605\/","title":{"rendered":"Former St. Lucie GOP chairman arrested in Martin County saw palmetto berry case"},"content":{"rendered":"

PALM CITY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Former St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Kenneth Ford Nail<\/a> was arrested in Martin County<\/a> after deputies said he harvested saw palmetto berries from public parks without a permit authorizing the locations.<\/p>\n

A Martin County sheriff<\/a>\u2019s deputy stopped Nail\u2019s gray Kia Soul on Aug. 25 near Southwest Murphy Road and Southwest Island Way in Palm City after a records check showed the temporary tag was unassigned and had expired five days earlier, according to a probable cause affidavit.<\/p>\n

The deputy said he saw a bundle of saw palmetto berries in the car and cutting shears on the front passenger seat. Nail later told deputies he had picked berries at parks in Jensen Beach and Palm City and had more berries in the rear hatch area, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Nail told deputies he had a Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services<\/a> permit for his mother\u2019s property, but asked whether he could also pick berries on public land, according to the report. Deputies said the permit applied only to the address listed on it.<\/p>\n

He was arrested on a charge of harvesting palmetto berries without a permit or landowner permission. Deputies photographed the berries and returned them to nature, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

The affidavit says Nail was held without bond because he was already out on bond in a case alleging the introduction of contraband into a correctional facility.<\/p>\n

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Nail, 57, was chairman of the St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee in 2023 and early 2024. He was among local Republicans who publicly called for then-Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 appointee, Sheriff Keith Pearson, to resign<\/a> over an FDLE investigation into the 2020 sheriff\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

In April 2025, Nail was arrested at Okeechobee Correctional Institution after deputies alleged that legal documents he was attempting to serve on an inmate concealed cellphones, chargers, and alprazolam, according to an Okeechobee County Sheriff\u2019s Office narrative. Nail denied knowing the contraband was inside the documents, the report said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PALM CITY, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Former St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Kenneth Ford Nail was arrested…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-392605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392605","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=392605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}