Okeechobee police chief still in hiding, now flouting multiple state laws

By Lee Williams

(Photo illustration from licensed Shutterstock account).by Lee WilliamsIn Florida, there are two ways a public official can get into serious trouble — guns and public records. Florida has powerful statutes regarding firearms and the public’s right to official records, and Okeechobee Police Chief Donald Hagan seems hellbent of violating all of them.If a local official, or officials as in the case of Okeechobee, enact their own firearm rules, they violate the state preemption statute, which only allows the legislature to regulate arms. Penalties include removal from office and fines of up to $5,000, which the statute requires them to pay personally.If an official violates that state’s Public Records Act, which is also known as the Sunshine Law, they can face fines of $500 if the violation is a relatively minor error, which the statute calls a noncriminal infraction. However, if an official knowingly violates the Sunshine Law, look out. Penalties can include immediate suspension, removal from office or impeachment, and even criminal charges — a misdemeanor of the first degree — punishable by a prison sentence not to exceed one year.Chief Hagan, you may recall, infamously signed an illegal ordinance passed by the five-member city council, which banned guns and

Source: The Gun Writer