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Highlands Today

Sheriff's Campaign

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Ron Grimming

Published: November 12, 2008

In a recent letter to the editor, Henry Bozic of Avon Park stated he received a telephone solicitation from the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) and has mistakenly concluded that the telephone solicitation was in some way connected to my sheriff's campaign fund raising efforts.

Mr. Bozic's statement is absolutely false; my campaign did not conduct any campaign telephone fund raising solicitation, nor did I authorize anyone to conduct any telephone campaign solicitation on behalf of the campaign.

Although the PBA sent out flyers regarding the missing evidence, these flyers were not financed or approved by my campaign.

It is my understanding the PBA was responding to concerns expressed by one of their members who was being unfairly blamed for the results of the evidence inventory.

As a follow-up, the PBA sent a letter to the state attorney requesting an investigation of the missing evidence. A subsequent review confirmed the majority of the evidence missing in the original inventory was still missing and that an additional 48 items were also missing, thereby confirming the PBA's concern.

Subsequent to these initial flyers, the PBA did endorse my candidacy; however, none of the PBA flyers or radio ads were approved or funded by my campaign. Florida statute permits third party electioneering communication to oppose or support a candidate and such communication must state that it is done independent of any candidate, which the PBA material clearly reflected.

I hope this clears up Mr. Bozic's misunderstanding.

Ron Grimming
Lake Placid

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