Most people in Jacksonville’s “Sheriff Circle” — a group of civilians with special access to Sheriff’s Office buildings — rarely used it, according to new records obtained by Jacksonville Today. Just five of the nine people used their access badges in recent years.
The access logs, along with Jacksonville Today interviews with those listed in the Sheriff’s Circle (a badge designation assigned by JSO) show all used the privilege far less frequently than Kent Stermon — the influential Republican donor and Gov. DeSantis-appointee to the Board of Governors who was under criminal investigation when he died by suicide in December.
Stermon used his special JSO badges on almost 200 different dates between 2017 and 2022, swiping the badge more than 700 times in total (often multiple doors on the same day) to access JSO headquarters, multiple Sheriff’s Office substations and JSO aviation facilities. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has blacked out records — or redacted — the specific areas he accessed. The investigation into Stermon is continuing, almost three months after his death, JSO says, and police have not commented on the nature of the investigation.
Read the rest of this story at Jacksonville Today, part of WJCT Public Media.
