UPDATED 4PM – PALM BEACH GARDENS — The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office this afternoon undertook its own search of the Palm Beach Gardens home of Sheriff Ric Bradshawcritic Mark Dougan, just minutes after FBI agents left with some of Dougan’s computer equipment.
Today’s raids, exclusively reported by Gossip Extra, come less than a week after one of Dougan’s websites fired off an anti-Bradshaw email to 30,000 Palm Beach County voters.
The email (run in its entirety below), which Gossip Extra also received, was obviously comedy geared at alerting voters about recent troubles at PBSO, including the disappearance of PBSO evidence in the killing of an unarmed civilian by a sergeant.
Each email. which also asked voters not to cast their ballots for Bradshaw later this year, was customized to bear the name of its recipient and started with this sentence: “As a Palm Beach County resident, I know you support corruption at the highest level. This is why I need your support to make sure I keep power … and to sustain the culture of corruption I have put into place.”
Earlier today:
PALM BEACH GARDENS — FBI agents raided the Palm Beach Gardens home of Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office critic Mark Dougan this morning.
Dougan tells us he answered the door of his PGA townhouse about 7:30 a.m. this morning and was slammed to the ground.
About 10 agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were still searching Dougan’s home about 10 a.m. Several squad cars from Palm Beach Gardens Police and PBSO were on standby.
“They slammed me to the ground as soon as I opened the door,” Dougan said. “They searched me for weapons then said something about looking for evidence of computer crimes and hacking.”
Dougan said the agents didn’t say what kind of case they’re working on.
A search of the federal court system shows no indictment or any other criminal action filed against Dougan.
Today’s development is particularly shocking: So happens that Dougan is a key witness in the lawsuit brought against PBSO by the family of Seth Adams, an unarmed civilian shot and killed by a PBSO sergeant in 2012. At trial, Dougan is expected to testify against the sergeant, Michael Custer.
The lawsuit has pointed to so many eye-popping “mistakes” in PBSO’s clearing of the sergeant that it could threaten Sheriff Ric Bradshaw‘s career.
Since he founded pbsotalk.com five years ago, Dougan has been a thorn in the side of PBSO.
The website publishes anonymous notes from deputies about inefficiencies and internal strife inside the 4,400-employee agency.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”More on the FBI raid” style=”outline” color=”primary” size=”lg” align=”left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gossipextra.com%2F2016%2F03%2F14%2Fmark-dougan-house-raided-fbi-hacking-computer-crimes-5751%2F|title:More%20on%20the%20FBI%20raid|target:%20_blank”][vc_message message_box_style=”3d” message_box_color=”turquoise”]
By Jose Lambiet, GossipExtra.com, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Mar. 14, 2016
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