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The music swelled and turned upbeat before a disembodied, cheerful chorus introduced the Jan. 26, 2021, episode of a Florida sheriff’s game show.
In the video posted to Facebook, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey appeared next to a wheel featuring names and mug shots — unwitting contestants in a mock game show inspired by “Wheel of Fortune.” But instead of word puzzles and vacation giveaways, Ivey offered viewers the names of alleged criminals fleeing from justice and asked for help in catching them.
At least one of those “fugitives” in that episode wasn’t a fugitive at all, though, but already locked up in Ivey’s own jail, according to a defamation lawsuit. Two years later, David Gay is suing Ivey and the sheriff’s office in Brevard County Circuit Court, alleging they defamed him. Gay said the Facebook video destroyed his reputation, causing him to lose a job and suffer anxiety and depression as he hid himself away from the world.
“The lawsuit was filed because right is right and wrong is wrong,” Gay’s attorney, Jessica Travis, said in a news release. “… The wheel shouldn’t be padded with people who are not fugitives. No one has the right to cause compliant citizens to lose their jobs or live in fear of confrontation or arrest; not even the sheriff.”
The sheriff’s office did not respond Monday to a request for comment. But in 2017, Ivey told Florida Today that about 88 percent of those featured on “Wheel of Fugitive” — a recurring video segment the sheriff’s office promotes on social media, including one posted last week — were caught afterward, either by turning themselves in or after viewers recognized them and tipped off law enforcement.
“It’s designed to engage our community and it has worked almost to perfection,” Ivey said at the time.
Not according to Gay, who pleaded no contest to felony battery in 2020, more than two years after a 2018 incident in which he allegedly hit an acquaintance in the chin, court records show. The blow sparked a fistfight in which Gay allegedly broke the other man’s jaw and nose. He was sentenced to three years of probation on Nov. 2, 2020, and reported to his probation officer on Nov. 3, Dec. 8 and Dec. 18 as a result, according to court records and Gay’s lawsuit.
On Dec. 20, Brevard County sheriff’s deputies arrested him on suspicion of committing another crime: misdemeanor domestic battery against his father, who Gay said was attacking his mother, his lawsuit states. Gay posted bond the next day and was freed from jail.
When he was released, Gay called his probation officer to tell her about the arrest and ask whether he had any other warrant, and she told him he didn’t, he alleges in the suit. But on Dec. 23, his probation officer filed a report alleging that Gay had violated his probation and requested an arrest warrant be issued, which happened on Jan. 4.
On Jan. 19, state prosecutors dismissed the domestic battery case.
On Jan. 25, the probation office called Gay to tell him that they had a document he needed to sign and that an officer would come to him for the signature, the suit states. Because he was not at home, Gay told them where he was and waited for the officer to meet him. Instead, sheriff’s deputies arrived and arrested him, alleging that he had violated his probation in the 2018 case by being arrested in the domestic battery case.
The next day — despite the fact that Gay was in the Brevard County jail — Ivey featured him on “Wheel of Fugitive.” The same thing happened on Feb. 2 and Feb. 9.
On Feb. 22, Gay admitted to a judge that he had violated his probation, even though the charge for which he had been arrested had been dropped, according to court documents and the suit, and he was released from jail later that day.
Still, Gay allegedly appeared on the next day’s “Wheel of Fugitive” episode even though he “had been lawfully released from the Brevard County Jail” the day before, the suit states.
After getting out of jail, Gay was hired for a new job, the suit states. While driving to his first day of work, however, his employer called to tell him not to bother showing up — he had seen Gay on “Wheel of Fugitive,” according to the suit.
Gay “stayed in his home as much as possible out of fear that the public and/ or the police would stop, harass, verbally and physically threaten, or arrest him,” according to the suit.
Gay’s lawsuit is not the first time Ivey and his office have been accused of including non-fugitives on “Wheel of Fugitive.” In 2021, Florida Today published an analysis of nearly a year’s worth of episodes. The news organization found that nearly all of the 45 videos posted during that span included people who were already locked up, out on bond, had served their jail sentences or had no warrants for their arrest.
Moreover, the investigation found that nearly one-third of the 448 people featured in those episodes were not fugitives. In most of those cases, the person was already in the sheriff’s jail, according to the news organization’s findings.
Ivey said that he had the idea for what would become “Wheel of Fugitive” shortly after becoming sheriff in 2012, according to Florida Today. Back then, it was called “Turn Them in Tuesday,” during which the sheriff’s office featured a single fugitive and asked people to slip deputies information that allowed them to catch the scofflaw.
By 2015, that idea had evolved into its current form. Since then, Ivey has posted hundreds of videos, which usually run about three minutes. His brainchild has earned him national fame and criticism. In 2016, the show was featured on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” with guest comedian Hasan Minhaj dubbing it “the most incredible show online.”
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/31/wheel-of-fugitive-sheriff-lawsuit/