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Manatee County Sheriff's Office investigating Commissioner Vanessa Baugh

A complaint filed by paralegal consultant Michael Barfield prompted the investigation.


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  • | 10:50 a.m. February 24, 2021
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh is under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, which received a complaint Monday from Sarasota-based paralegal consultant Michael Barfield.
Commissioner Vanessa Baugh is under investigation by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, which received a complaint Monday from Sarasota-based paralegal consultant Michael Barfield.
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The Manatee County Sheriff's Office is investigating Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, according to Public Information Officer Randy Warren.

Warren said the sheriff's office received a "two dozen-page" complaint Monday from Sarasota paralegal consultant Michael Barfield, who is also the board president for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

"Once we got that, we started looking through it," Warren said. "That's the process that we're in right now. We want to examine what the claims are to see if there were any laws that were broken."

The investigation is part of the continuing fallout from Baugh's role in organizing a pop-up vaccination site last week at Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, which was requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Manatee County's Vaccination Standby Pool was used to select 3,200 residents who live in the 34202 and 34211 ZIP Codes.

Baugh also said she sent a list of five names — herself, Schroeder-Manatee Ranch CEO and President Rex Jensen, Lawrence Jensen and two of Baugh’s neighbors — to Public Safety Director Jacob Saur as "names for vaccination requested" Feb. 15, two days before the site opened.

 Baugh maintained she only wanted to ensure those names were included in the county's Vaccination Standby Pool. Manatee County property records show Rex Jensen and Lawrence Jensen do not live within the boundaries of the 34202 or 34211 ZIP Codes.

 

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