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Undisclosed: Civil suit, criminal probe collide in Davis’s $15M verdict

A SERIES

Part 4: What the jury never saw – the allegations that collapsed

Editor’s Note: This is Part 4 in a multi-part series examining the legal battle between the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and ACSO Sgt. Kevin Davis.

GAINESVILLE – In a civil trial that ended with a $15 million verdict against the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO), the jury heard evidence framed around the existence of a separate criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). But what they never heard – because much of it was excluded, undisclosed, or developed too late – was that many of the underlying allegations in the criminal investigation collapsed under scrutiny.

The Only Two FDLE Findings

According to FDLE’s final investigative summary, only two allegations formed the basis of potential criminal findings:

1. That former ACSO Captain Brandon Kutner unlawfully monitored privileged communications under the direction of ACSO leadership, a claim based solely on Kutner’s own testimony.
2. That a document from an internal affairs investigation involving Sgt. Kevin Davis was concealed or destroyed – an allegation FDLE said was corroborated by testimony from two employees.

However, in February 2025, State Attorney John Durrett declined to prosecute either allegation in the criminal investigation. In a letter to FDLE, Durrett wrote that the interception charge was “based entirely on the immunized testimony of a singular witness.” Regarding the document destruction claim, Durrett stated there was “nothing contained in what was received and reviewed implicating Mr. Watson” in such a decision. In both cases, the State Attorney found the evidence too weak to support prosecution.

Beyond those two rejected findings, the remaining dozens of allegations – spanning more than 60 pages of FDLE’s report – either lacked evidence, were disproven, or were found to involve no criminal conduct. And yet, these unfounded allegations helped fuel a media and legal frenzy that cast Sheriff Watson as a corrupt actor – without the facts to support it.

Among the unproven or discredited rumors and speculations widely circulated:

• The Dealership Accusation: Public rumor suggested Sheriff Watson had steered vehicle purchases to a local dealership employing his son. However, FDLE records contain no findings validating the claim. In fact, there is no evidence that any such purchases occurred during Watson’s tenure.
• Per Diem Abuse: Concerns circulated that Watson abused per diem reimbursements. Yet the FDLE report includes no evidence that Watson ever requested per diem during his time in office. This accusation, widely repeated, appears to have no basis in fact.
• Personnel File Snooping: Allegations that Watson improperly accessed employee personnel files were investigated but found to be unsupported. No criminal conduct was identified.
• Favoritism and Cronyism: Claims of racially biased hiring and promotions – central to the reverse discrimination narrative in the civil suit– were reviewed but not substantiated as criminal. FDLE concluded these were administrative, not unlawful.

A Long History of Litigation

Notably, Sgt. Kevin Davis had previously sued the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office – including then-Sheriff Sadie Darnell. That earlier case alleged First Amendment retaliation after Davis was passed over for opportunities following a letter he wrote to the editor of The Gainesville Sun defending another deputy. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2019, was later voluntarily dismissed by Davis.

Sources within ACSO suggest Davis’s repeated failures to advance were not because of his race or political beliefs – but because he was perceived internally as a habitual litigator and workplace disruptor. His personnel file reflected patterns that cast doubt on the sincerity of his later discrimination claims.

The Witch Hunt Framework

What emerges from FDLE’s records isn’t just a lack of evidence – it’s a pattern of overreach. The allegations were wide-ranging, overlapping, and often contradictory. And nearly all of them led back to a small circle of individuals: a handful of disgruntled employees, an attorney with a stake in both the civil and criminal outcomes, and a state investigative agency that allowed itself to be drawn into a political and legal crossfire.

Attorney Bobi Frank wasn’t merely representing clients; she was crafting the narrative. It was Frank who requested the FDLE investigation the same day Davis’s civil lawsuit was filed. It was Frank who appeared with or represented at least eight of the key witnesses in the FDLE investigation, many of whom testified in the civil trial as well. It was Frank whose own law office served as the venue for early FDLE interviews. And it was Frank who became the central figure in the very allegations that eventually collapsed – illegally eavesdropping or recording conversations.

FDLE, whether knowingly or not, became the tool. The agency conducted dozens of interviews, collected documents, and issued subpoenas – all of which gave the appearance of serious criminal inquiry. But the final result was paper-thin. The only potential charges – both rejected – rested on the word of immunized witnesses, including one who admitted to illegally monitoring his own attorney.

What Was Left Unsaid

Despite this, jurors heard testimony about an “ongoing criminal investigation” – but never learned that the only two potential charges were ultimately rejected, and that most of the other claims had been discredited or were irrelevant to Davis’s discrimination case.

• Equally troubling, they were never informed that:
• Early FDLE witnesses were granted immunity before speaking with investigators;
• Those witnesses were represented by the same attorney, Bobi Frank, who also filed several of the civil claims;
• Several interviews occurred at Frank’s own law office, where she was present – despite the conflict of interest such dual roles might pose.

A Narrative Untethered from Fact

The narrative presented in and outside the courtroom created the perception of a scandal-plagued agency. But FDLE’s own final report told a far more mundane story – one where explosive accusations lacked corroboration, and the most serious claims could not meet even the lowest burden of proof.

Nevertheless, local media – largely fueled by rampant speculation – assisted in crafting a false narrative.

Post-Trial Fallout

Armed with Durrett’s letter and the full FDLE file, ACSO asked the court to amend its post-trial motions to include this new evidence. The court denied the request. As a result, the motion for new trial – set for July 15 – must proceed without the addition of the FDLE reports and Durrett’s letter, which reveal the collapse of the criminal case.

The jury never saw FDLE’s actual findings. They never learned that most allegations were baseless. And they never heard that immunity agreements shielded central witnesses from accountability.

Next in Part 5: Damage Control

As ACSO prepares its final push for a new trial, we examine the ripple effects of the Davis verdict.

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Undisclosed: Civil suit, criminal probe collide in Davis’s $15M verdict

A SERIES

Part 1: Did attorney have inside track on FDLE probe, leaving defense in the dark?

Editor’s Note: This is Part 1 in a multi-part series examining the legal battle between the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) and ACSO Sgt. Kevin Davis.

GAINESVILLE – Sergeant Kevin Davis, a deputy with the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO), filed a civil suit in February 2023 against his employer for alleged reverse discrimination and retaliation. Davis alleged that former Sheriff Clovis Watson, Jr., passed him over for promotion. However, in a twist not known to the general public but reported in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s (FDLE) investigative report, Davis’s civil lawsuit attorney, Bobi J. Frank, contacted FDLE that same day requesting that the agency launch a criminal investigation into the very officials named in Davis’s civil lawsuit.

The civil lawsuit and the criminal complaint were filed almost simultaneously. And for the next two years, the civil proceedings played out under the heavy shadow of a separate criminal probe by FDLE.

At the civil trial, the criminal investigation loomed large. Witnesses mentioned subpoenas. Former deputies testified. The implication was unmistakable: Davis had exposed wrongdoing and was punished for it. But now, with a $15 million civil trial verdict delivered and post-trial motions underway, a starkly different picture is beginning to emerge.

A February 2025 letter from Third Judicial Circuit State Attorney John Durrett confirmed what many had suspected but couldn’t prove at trial: the FDLE investigation was quietly closed with no charges filed – not against former Sheriff Clovis Watson, Jr., not against anyone.

Durrett’s letter was unequivocal: “Insufficient evidence has been developed and presented to establish a criminal act on the part of [Sheriff Clovis Watson, Jr.]…”

But crucially, that letter was not authored until after the jury had already returned its civil verdict – and it wasn’t made public until more than a month later. By then, the jury had already awarded Davis $15 million in damages without ever knowing the criminal case had been dropped.

Durrett’s bombshell letter couldn’t have been disclosed at trial because it didn’t yet exist. It was signed just 12 days after the jury’s Feb. 7, 2025 verdict. ACSO’s attorneys only learned of its existence in late March, after a Gainesville Sun article revealed the case had been closed. The Sheriff’s Office submitted a public records request and obtained the letter and investigative materials in early April, which was too late to include them in their initial civil post-trial motions.

What the public didn’t know, and what the jury never heard, was that the criminal case cited throughout the trial had already collapsed under scrutiny. Nevertheless, Davis’s legal team repeatedly invoked it to bolster a case that ultimately had little to do with criminal conduct and everything to do with shaping perceptions.

The trial record shows that Davis’s attorneys leaned heavily on the existence of the FDLE probe. They referenced subpoenas, criminal implications, and an ongoing investigation. But nowhere did they mention that prosecutors had cleared everyone involved.

More troubling still, five key FDLE interviews were conducted at Frank’s own law office, suggesting Davis and his attorney had more than just passive awareness of the investigation.

One of those interviews featured retired ACSO Captain Brandon Kutner, who admitted to secretly recording privileged conversations between Frank and her other clients, while she was also appearing to represent him. This raises the question: Was the entire criminal investigation a product of careful orchestration?

The jury never heard those details.

Instead, they heard suggestions of misconduct and retaliation. But even Kutner’s own actions raise questions: while seemingly represented by Frank, he recorded her speaking with another Sheriff’s Office employee, one of her other clients. Perhaps more troubling, records suggest that nothing within the FDLE criminal probe ever touched on Davis’s reverse discrimination claims, the very basis of his civil lawsuit.

Frank likely had detailed knowledge of the investigation, information that was never disclosed to ACSO’s attorneys, because FDLE’s own records show she sat in on and represented at least eight of the witnesses interviewed, giving her early and exclusive access to the investigation’s contents.

When the jury awarded Davis $15 million in the civil trial, ACSO’s attorneys objected immediately. They argued the award bore little resemblance to the damages of $115,724 as calculated by Davis’s expert witness. There were no expert witnesses or medical documentation, therapist records or medical bills to support Davis’s claim of mental anguish and suffering. In the wake of that verdict, the defense doubled down.

Post-trial motions filed by ACSO attorneys in both February and May argued that the proceedings were tainted by strategic omissions, misleading inferences, and the introduction of prejudicial testimony about a criminal case that ultimately went nowhere. ACSO’s attorneys are demanding a new trial or a complete reversal of the jury’s verdict. At the very least, they seek a reduction of the verdict, calling the jury’s award “grossly excessive, unreasonable, and unsupported by the evidence in the record.”

Alachua County Today has learned that Judge Gloria Walker has denied ACSO’s motion to amend its post-trial motions which would have allowed the Court to consider those newly uncovered documents, including Durrett’s letter and the FDLE’s summary findings. This means that ACSO’s requests for a new trial, a reversal of the jury’s verdict, and reduction in the jury award will have to rest on the defense’s initial post-trial motions. That hearing is scheduled for July 15, 2025.

Next, in Part 2: The Immunity Nobody Mentioned

One of the plaintiff’s key witnesses was granted immunity after admitting he illegally recorded his own attorney—while she was representing another client. The jury never heard a word of it.

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HIGH SPRINGS ‒ The High Springs City Commission voted unanimously on June 12, 2025, to approve an increase in the City’s Fire Assessment Fee, raising the residential rate to $250 for Fiscal Year 2026.

During the commission meeting, Fire Chief Joe Peters and Public Information Officer Kevin Mangan presented the results of a comprehensive study analyzing the number of fire service calls across residential, commercial, industrial/warehouse, and institutional categories for the 2023-24 period. The study, which cost approximately $16,500, was the City’s first since 2008 and showed significant growth in all categories.

Fire Assessment Fees are billed annually alongside property taxes and fund fire protection services. The current residential assessment has remained at $223 since 2021. That rate had also been in place from 2018 to 2020 before a temporary increase tied to the City’s transition to providing advanced life support (ALS) services.

“The money collected from the Fire Assessment must be used for the Fire Department only,” Peters emphasized.

Under Florida law, the City must structure the fees proportionally to the usage levels within each property classification. According to the study, the distribution of fire service usage is as follows: residential properties account for 68.75 percent of service calls, commercial properties 18.40 percent, industrial/warehouse properties 4.51 percent, and institutional properties 8.33 percent.

City staff presented four potential scenarios for updating the fire assessment structure. The first two scenarios maintained the current residential rate of $223, with varying adjustments to non-residential rates. The third scenario proposed increasing the residential fee to $239, while the fourth scenario recommended raising it to $250 and adjusting the other categories proportionally.

The commission adopted the fourth scenario, which is projected to generate approximately $969,220 in revenue.

Under the approved rates:

• Residential properties will be assessed at $250 annually.
• Commercial properties will be charged $0.24 per square foot.
• Industrial/warehouse properties will be charged $0.07 per square foot.
• Institutional properties will be charged $0.16 per square foot.

According to the City, the updated fire assessment is necessary to maintain legal compliance and ensure adequate funding for fire protection services amid increasing demand.

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ALACHUA ‒ Nine individuals who may have voted illegally in the April 8, 2025, municipal election in the City of Alachua have been referred for possible prosecution, according to a May 20 letter from Alachua County Supervisor of Elections Kim A. Barton.

Barton stated that her office has referred the individuals to State Attorney Brian Kramer after determining there is probable cause to believe they voted despite being ineligible due to felony convictions or unpaid court-ordered fines or fees.

“Upon researching the names and case information that were sent to us, we determined that there is evidence that nine of the eleven individuals have registered to vote and/or voted in an election when they were ineligible to do so,” Barton wrote in her letter to Kramer.

Two of the 11 voters reviewed were confirmed to be eligible and will not face further action.

Florida law outlines criminal penalties for voting violations:

• S. 104.42(1) authorizes supervisors of elections to investigate and report illegal registrations or voting.
• S. 104.15 classifies it as a third-degree felony to knowingly vote when not legally qualified.

In addition to the referral to the State Attorney’s Office, Alachua County Today has learned that the Florida Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) has also been notified of the matter. Furthermore, federal authorities, including the FBI, have been made aware due to some of the flagged individuals participating in federal elections such as the 2020 and 2024 general elections.

According to Barton, the nine individuals identified as potentially ineligible were mailed certified letters initiating the voter removal process. Barton’s office provided the following information about the individuals.

• John W. Richard Jr. (VID: 126586271) ‒ Owes fines from four felony cases spanning 2005 to 2015. Voted in four elections since 2020. Registered in 2019.
• Jimmy Smith (VID: 127843422) ‒ Owes fines from three felony cases between 2009 and 2020. Registered in 2020.
• Latasha A. Steward (VID: 127343924) ‒ Owes fines from felony cases in 2004 and 2007. Voted in the 2020 PPP, 2020 primary and general, and 2024 general elections. Registered in 2019.
• Bianca C. Webb (VID: 126641114) ‒ Owes fines from four felony cases between 2007 and 2016. Voted in the 2022 primary. Registered in 2019.
• Antonio J. Hall (VID: 126616387) ‒ Owes fines from a 2001 felony case. Voted in the 2020 primary and general elections and the 2024 general. Registered in 2019.
• Jamie R. McGhee Sr. (VID: 126660044) ‒ Owes fines from a 1990 felony conviction. Voted in the 2020 and 2024 general elections. Registered in 2019.
• Jeffery Robinson (VID: 126686510) ‒ Owes fines from felony cases in 1991, 1999, and 2002. Voted in the 2024 general election. Registered in 2019.
• B. Banks (VID: 127888289) ‒ Owes fines from a 1998 felony case. Voted in six elections between 2020 and 2024. Registered in 2020.
• Vince B. Dixon Jr. (VID: 132113016) ‒ Involved in a 2006 federal criminal case and reportedly still owes $100. No record of payment. A certified letter was sent May 7.

Meanwhile, two individuals were cleared by the Supervisor’s Office and remain eligible voters.

Barton concluded her letter by stating that her office’s findings establish probable cause that violations of the Florida Election Code have occurred. As of press time, the State Attorney’s Office has not announced whether charges will be filed.

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MICANOPY ‒ An 81-year-old Micanopy man is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly firing a revolver during a dispute with family members of his deceased ex-wife and continuing to shoot at their vehicle as they fled the property, according to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.

John Morgan Webb was arrested around 12:50 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, following an incident that began when three relatives of his ex-wife arrived at a residence to clean and prepare it for sale. Webb and his ex-wife divorced in 1998, but he was reportedly at the home when the group arrived.

One of the individuals began recording video upon entering the property after spotting Webb’s vehicle in the driveway. Inside the house, the group encountered Webb in the living room and informed him he was not supposed to be there. According to the arrest report, Webb allegedly pulled a revolver from his front pocket and fired a shot into the ceiling. As the group turned to flee, Webb reportedly said, “No, don’t move, you got to die first.”

The victims ran to their vehicle and began backing down the driveway. At that point, deputies say Webb exited the home and began firing at the vehicle. Investigators reported that the car was struck four times, including one shot that entered through the front grille and disabled the engine. The vehicle came to a stop in the middle of Southeast County Road 234.

Webb allegedly left the scene but was later stopped and detained by deputies.

After being read his Miranda rights, Webb reportedly told deputies, “They harassed me. They came in threatening me and I fired a shot in the air, then fired some into the radiator of their car.”

Deputies cited video evidence and witness statements indicating the encounter was non-confrontational when Webb allegedly brandished and discharged his firearm. The report also concluded that Webb’s actions—firing at an occupied vehicle as it was retreating—constituted an intentional and dangerous act that could have resulted in death.

Webb has been charged with three counts of attempted homicide and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Authorities noted that he has no prior criminal convictions.

Judge Susan Miller-Jones ordered Webb to be held without bail, pending a hearing on a motion from the State Attorney’s Office to keep him in custody until trial.

The case remains under investigation.

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Photo special to Alachua County Today

GAINESVILLE - Navigating a new cancer diagnosis can mean walking through a scary new world, not only for patients but also for their families and caregivers. To help ease this complex and overwhelming transition, UF/IFAS Extension and UF Health Cancer Center experts have launched a new, free web-based curriculum, Taking Control of Your Cancer Diagnosis, designed to provide reliable, evidence-based information to those newly diagnosed with cancer about what to expect.

Developed by experts in social sciences and cancer treatment, the curriculum through UF Extension Online features 14 self-paced modules that address a wide range of concerns commonly faced during the early stages of a cancer journey. Topics include financial planning, managing stress and avoiding predatory practices, among others. Each module is presented by a subject matter expert and is meant to be used when you need it, not in any particular order.

“I think first and foremost, I want it to be a resource that someone can go to and know that this has been developed by experts,” said Melissa Vilaro, a UF/IFAS assistant professor of family, youth and community sciences and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center. “This is a place where people can come to find information that is evidence-based and accurate during one of the most stressful times of their lives.”

Ultimately, the goal is to provide a supportive, evolving resource that empowers individuals to take control of their diagnosis with confidence, she said.

The platform also recognizes the vital role of friends and family members, who often seek guidance on how to support their loved ones. Rather than turning to the internet at large, which can be full of misinformation, Vilaro said she hopes people can use this curriculum as a safe and trustworthy space to find clarity when they need it most.

Since the platform was just recently launched, Vilaro said she aims for it to grow as patients and their support systems go through the course since they can suggest topics that they’d like to see added and provide feedback on which topics were the most helpful.

“The hope is that, given that it’s a web-based platform, we’ll learn about things that aren’t there that people want added,” Vilaro said. “We’ll have the ability to adapt and refine this as we go.”

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