All right, thank you for coming. Uh, let me tell you, uh, who some of the people are behind this and then, uh, I'll talk about our operation. Uh, Commissioner Mark Glass, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, uh, Director of Offender Offender Enforcement and Apprehension, Melissa Buddha. Did I get that close? Kind of. Okay. uh from the Florida Department of Corrections uh probation and parole correction probation supervisor uh John Richards, senior supervisor and uh also supervisor Wayne Kelly. And from the seventh judicial circuit is assistant state attorney Melissa Clark from the career criminal uh unit. From the sheriff's office, we have Chief Auggie Rodriguez, Sergeant George Stacopulus, Corporal Mike Breenwalt, Detective Lauren Broomfield, who is a case agent. Uh, but this really was a team effort that touched uh many functions of the sheriff's office. Uh from August 25th through August 27th, the sheriff's office along with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in Florida Department of Corrections conducted operation offenders in game. This 3-day operation was the first of its kind in Flaggler County to ensure that every registered sex offender or predator had an indepth investigation to ensure they were following every aspect of their required compliance and reporting to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Flaggler County Sheriff's Office. Previously, the sheriff's office had focused or addressed address verification. Uh, this was a more indepth look in all aspects of required compliance. This resulted in the arrest of 40 sex offenders and predators, which is nearly 30% of all registered sex offenders in Flaggler County. We also had what we'll call a one bonus arrest who was a nonsex offender. Uh basically he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and we found him with methamphetamine. So he went to jail and one sex offender that was arrested twice. initially for not being in compliance um and then uh after being bonded out uh failed to come in compliance within the required 48 hours. So she was arrested for a second time. Uh so it's a total of 42 arrests, 41 offenders, and 168 felony charges. Leading up to the operation, analysts from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Offender Enforcement and Apprehension Unit conducted an extensive review of all 139 sex offenders and predators throughout the county, which led to the early detection of 106 potential registration violations. As a result of that initial review, 13 arrest warrants were obtained prior to the sweep that was conducted this week. 84 inperson compliance checks were conducted. This resulted in 31 probable cause arrests made uh during the compliance checks. Every sex offender and predator carries the same legal obligations and must provide their phone number, emails, address, place of work, vehicle information, any aliases, uh social media accounts, and many other regulations that apply. Uh 40 of our sex offenders that are here in Flaggler County decided the rules did not apply to them. Well, they found out they were wrong. Uh, two were also found to have abscounded and arrest warrants are being obtained for Warren Franklin and Predator Jamie Evans. Let me talk to you about the violations that we typically found. Florida law requires registrants to report and update multiple times a year and upon any change. Failure to comply is a felony. What we found in operation offenders ingame, failure to report or update vehicles, failure to report or update phone numbers, failure to report or update email addresses and internet identifiers. Failure to report or update employment. Failure to update driver's license information. failure to report a change of residence or knowingly providing false registration information. Now, I want to talk about some of the offenders just to give you a sense of uh a feel for what we had. Adrien Augustinino, 46, Palm Coast. He's a sex offender. His charges in this operation were failure of a sex offender to report a change in email address or internet identifier, three counts providing false sex offender registration information by act or emission. His prior arrests include sexual battery by threat, possession of a firearm by convicted felon, multiple burglaries and robberies in grand theft, lararseny, firing a missile into a dwelling, disorderly conduct, kidnapping, and career offender. So, you can tell we're not just dealing with, in most cases, people that just made a mistake. These are offenders that repeat and repeat and repeat. Robert Clark, 63, Palm Coast, sex predator. Uh, in this operation, he was arrested for two counts of failure of a sex offender to register vehicle information, six counts of knowingly providing false registration information. His prior arrests include carrying a concealed weapon, fraud, sexual battery on a victim, juvenile victim over 16 years old in DUI with serious bodily injury. The next one I want to highlight is Andre Dotton, 36, Palm Coast, sex offender. Charges in this operation. Violation of probation for accessing the internet, viewing pornography, and failure to as a sex offender to report changes in vehicle ownership. his prior arrest, battery, using a computer to lure a child, unlawful use of two-way communication device, and he was also arrested as a result of Operation Heartbreaker 2 previously. So, he didn't learn from that one. He didn't learn from his prior arrest. Maybe he'll finally learn from this one. Hopefully, he goes to prison. Uh, the next one is Brenda Kennedy, 59, Banell, registered sex offender. Charges in this operation, failure of a sex offender to properly register, two counts, failure to register, change in vehicles owned, two counts of knowingly providing false registration information. She bonded out on the initial arrest on August 26th. still failed to register the appropriate information which is at our jail administration. So, if you're familiar with our facility and our campus there, you leave the jail, you drive or walk right by jail administration where the sex offenders are supposed to register. She chose not to do that. She had 48 hours to do that. She was made aware of her violations and non-compliance. So, we rearrested her for an additional violation early this morning. Her prior arrests include aggravated uh indecent assault with a minor. And Sean Smith, also a Benel sex offender. Charges in this operation were failure to report a change in vehicle owned, failure to report a change in telephone numbers, 13 counts, the failure to report a change in email address or internet identifier, knowingly providing false sex offender registration information. His prior arrests were attempted lude and lascivious battery on a victim between the ages of 12 and 15, possession of synthetic cathones, possession of methamphetamine, possession of cocaine, possession amphetamines, possession of a counterfeit payment instrument, burglary, retail theft, grand theft, obstruction, plus several misdemeanor convictions. Sean Smith has been arrested 41 times, has 18 felony convictions, nine misdemeanor convictions. It's time this pervert goes to prison for a long time. The next one is John Copsy, 45 Benel, registered sex offender. 25 total charges. 15 counts of failure of a sex offender to report a change in email address or internet identifier. Four counts of failure of a sex offender to report a change in vehicles owned. Six counts of knowingly providing false sex offender registration information. His prior arrests included the molestation of a child less than 16 years of age by an offender over 18 years of age. Now I want to talk about John Copsy a little bit more because John Copsy is a prime example of why you do not judge a book by its cover as he does not possess the typical characteristics of a sex offender portrayed in news headlines or movies. He's an active member of the Flaggler County community and community organizations. He's a successful business owner and organizer of an annual professional Rotary Rotary rodeo held at the Flaggler Fairgrounds where he has recognized first responders on the field for years. In fact, as the organizer of the Brian Earl Foster Invitational Bull Riding Rodeo, he recently invited my wife and I to join him for dinner at a local restaurant to recognize me for 50 years of law enforcement service and presented me with a commemorative rodeo belt buckle. Through this operation, I discovered his true character. He was arrested in 2000, long before I moved here, long before I was sheriff. But we discovered his true character in his seedy past. While in all appearances, he has changed his ways in character. The sins of the past follow sex offenders and they must forever comply with the law or face the consequences like he is now. We also found a den of sex offenders with four offenders all living together at 4427 Acorn Avenue in Banell. These perverts were Mark Bzerati. Hopefully that's close. We'll get you the spelling. His charges were failure to register, a change in a vehicle ownership, prior arrest, sexual battery, rape on a victim 12 years of age or older, aggravated assault, sexual battery on a person in familiar custody. Caleb Call, he was arrested for failure to register change in vehicle ownership. his prior arrest. LWD lascivious molestation on a child 12 to 16, aggravated assault, obstruction without violence, possession or sale methamphetamine with intent to sell, failure to appear, failure to register violation of probation. The third one that we found at this house is Elijah Jackson. His current charges are failure to register change in vehicle ownership, violation of sex offender probation by lying to his probation officer about owning a second cellular device. His prior arrest transmitting harmful material to minors, use of a computer to seduce a solicit or lure child. And we have a fugitive out of that house. We haven't been able to find him since we took his three uh pervert friends to jail. Uh his name is Christopher Raymond. His charges are failure to register a change in vehicle ownership. His prior arrest grand theft, unarmed burglary of an occupi unoccupied dwelling, possession of burglary tools, grand theft, failure of a sex offender to properly register. So my message to Christopher Raymond, turn yourself in or you're going to be just walking down the road and we're going to snatch you up one day. So you're going to have to look behind you everywhere you go until we arrest your butt and put you in the green roof in. The next one I want to highlight, and this is uh uh the last one I'm going to highlight uh of the 40 uh Joseph Nichols 40 Bennell. He's a registered sex offender. He faces two counts of failure to report internet identifier. His prior arrests for shoplifting, hit and run, operating a motor vehicle without a license, fleeing a looting, violation of probation, failure to appear, sexual assault, failure to register. Yesterday, I joined our team in the field on this and a few other compliance checks and noticed he was very evasive and nervous when being asked questions. His phone was seized and a search warrant obtained. And I believe that we will find additional violations as when we seized that video, he had been watching I'm sorry, his cell phone, he had been watching a video titled daughter kissing daddy. While there's nothing wrong with a daughter kissing their father, a sex offender searching the internet and seeking out videos of a young child kissing their father for personal satisfaction is perverted as hell. So, in closing with my comments to our community, you should stay informed. Look up your street through Florida Sex Offender Registry, which is a free and open to the public registry at offender.fdle.state.fl. us or through the Flagler County Sheriff's Office and FDLE mobile apps. Do your part to protect yourself and your family. If you know a registered offender who is not living where they claim to be or you see them around children, call us at 386 3134911 or 911 if it's actively going on. My message to every sex offender in Flaggler County who has not complied with Florida law, the Green Roof in our jail has vacancies and we just filled up 41 of those beds and one offender must have loved our jail so much that she decided to check back in early this morning. So, get in compliance or you're next. Better yet, move the hell out of Flaggler County. Operation Offenders Endgame demonstrates our commitment to holding offenders accountable and safeguarding our community with proactive enforcement efforts with our state partners. Anyone living in Flaggler County who is on a sex offender or predator list should see these arrests and understand the importance and consequences of not complying with their registration requirements. A registry that is not accurate is a registry that protects no one. and not properly reporting is how an offender gets access to your family. I want to commend our team that participated in this operation and thank FDLE and the Florida Department of Corrections for their support and resources they contributed to make this enforcement and compliance operation a success. I also want to commend everyone for their professionalism. Yesterday I spent about six hours with team one and we did compliance checks uh and the rest did those in violation. But in every case, the team was respectful to the offenders, [clears throat] but they did their job. I could not be prouder of our team and Commissioner Glass, I saw your team in action >> and you should be very proud, too. >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. On Wednesday, the Florida Department of Corrections team was assisting and while I was unable to join them on on uh Wednesday, my team told me how professional uh your team was too. And so, thank you uh for that. Uh now, with that, I'll turn it over to our partners for any comments and then I'll open it up for any questions that you may have. So, we'll start with uh Commissioner Glass. >> Thank you, Sher. Appreciate it. Thank you everyone. Um, Sheriff, I I just want to say thank you for your leadership in Flagger County. The sheriff's, our 67 sheriffs, they have to do this type of work every day to protect your community. And the sheriff's, you have one of the strongest law and order sheriffs in the state of Florida in Flagler County with this sheriff right here. And it's a good friend and a good mentor for all of us that are out there. He's a working sheriff and he's out there doing uh doing the business of the community. Also want to say on behalf of Richie Comfort, the secretary of Department of Corrections, uh he and I are peers and to see his probation and parole officers out here working it and they have to do the day in and day out grind of making sure that those who have offended are continuing to comply with the law. And also too with our Florida Department of Law Enforcement missing person offender enforcement unit that goes out here and supports the local community with the sheriff to ensure that these people are complying with the law. What's sickening is you hear the the background of most of these offenders and people will tell you yes, they serve their time. They did their time and they're out on the out on, you know, the community. However, they still may have served their time after their conviction, but their requirements under law, state statute, they must follow and adhere to, and that is to protect the rest of the community from their continued um from what they've done, the heinous crime they've done over the years. And it takes us as a community to make sure that we are doing our job as you heard the sheriff uh to ensure if you see somebody who is a a sex offender, you know someone is a sex offender that are not registered property or you see them living in the house and you know they're there, go to our website on FDLE and if you if you see that they're not there or they're listed to be somewhere else and if they're there for a long period of time, we need you to either call the sheriff's office which will be the primary part that you heard the sheriff give you the number or you can call FTLE direct and we'll coordinate with the sheriff's office to ensure these folks are compliant with state statute. Let's be clear here. The acts they have done is a pure evil on behalf of the governor Ronda Sanders, the attorney general, James Puffer, the CFO Blazing Goliath, and our agriculture commissioner, William Simpson. It will not be tolerated in our great state. We are the free state of Florida for a reason because we offer you a free and easy uh law and order state to work in, live in, and play in. But we need to have your help as a community. We can't do it by ourselves. Not one agency can do it by themselves. But I will tell you with the Florida sheriff's, you are totally protected. And I want to say thank you for that. With that, I want to just turn it over real quickly to Melissa, who is uh my director over missing persons and offender enforcement, and she can tell you a little bit more. >> Good afternoon. My name is Melissa Buffett, director of missing persons and offender enforcement with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. When we do these operations, it's a lot of work. But let me tell you one thing, it is worth it when we get to put these individuals in jail and we have sheriffs like in Flaggler County that are a able to step up and say zero tolerance. We are not going to tolerate that in our community. So I want to thank Sheriff the Flaggler County Sheriff's Office for all the work they did. But when we do these operations, a huge amount of analytical preparation goes into effect at FDLE for weeks. They are working on these individuals trying to do everything they can to see are they in compliance because at the end of the day that's what we want. 41 people weren't and I think we're going to find out even more weren't. Uh but the main reason we do this is because when you go on the FDLE website to check sex offenders and predators, whether you're a mother, whether you're a grandmother, whether you're uh you want to know who lives around your child's school, you want to know that that information is accurate and correct. And the way we get that information accurately and correct is by doing these checks, checking on these sex offenders and predators and making sure they are doing what they are bound by law to do. So, I want to thank you for your time and thank you to the Flaggler County Sheriff's Office for your partnership with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. >> Department of Corrections, would you guys like to say something? Um, no compl sheriff just uh happy to be part of the solution. >> Thank you. >> Now, I know state attorney's office uh didn't want to, but you're going to make your comments in court probably. >> Yes, sir. >> Uh during the trial, so um Auggie, would you like to comment on anything? It's your division that put all this together. >> Yes, sir. Uh, I'd just like to say that teamwork that was displayed over the past couple of days. Um, not only was it different agencies from different locations, but also different units within the Flager County Sheriff's Office that all banded together um, under the guidance of Detective Broomfield who did an incred incredible job putting all this together. Um, it we became one large family over the last three days and uh, I can't wait to uh, do the next one. And thank you, Sheriff, for allowing us to do this. All right. So, with that, I'll uh open it up to uh any questions that you may have. Have a >> question. Um so, first, did you expect to find this many violations? And then, is there anything in response to this that maybe you guys are changing in the department to keep a better track of who's complying and who's not? Well, [clears throat] um it doesn't surprise me uh when you look at their criminal history, they don't have a history of compliance after they get caught. Um I was surprised uh on how many violations that are really easy to comply with that were not done. Um I think our process works. Uh but we do these operations just like we do undercover narcotics operations uh to um make sure everybody is in compliance. So, you know, I think I think if we make one change, it's just that our compliance checks that we do usually right before Thank or um um Halloween uh will now be a little more indepth. Uh we have mostly centered on making sure their address is correct. But the reason you want the tag numbers is because if you have a sex crime and you find out that one of these offenders is in that area, that's a lead. um if they're on the internet and maybe doing child sexual pornography uh sism um you want to know what their email addresses are so when the complaints come in from the different uh entities that provide that maybe that's another lead for who the offender is. So I think we'll be uh a little more indepth in the future and frankly I think uh my team uh learned a little bit uh from FDLE. So there was a spin-off uh for for this and uh so we had basically on the job training doing the enforcement and I thank uh Commissioner Glass and Melissa and her team uh for doing that for us. So, I think we've learned um and we're going to be much tougher on sex offenders. >> That's absolutely. >> So, and thank you, Sheriff. Uh your sheriff's and your chiefs of police have to answer the 911 call every day. They have to be 24 hours readily accessible. I pledge to the sheriffs that our missing person defender enforcement, we have been moving assets and changing stuff around to ensure that we get better support to the Florida sheriff. And on this registration piece of it, it's imperative that they are registered because let's just take it for example, you're a single parent with children and you decide to uh date and you start decide to, you know, live your life. you're able to at least go to the offender registry and look to see if the person you're dating or even on a dating app is the person they're saying who it is and then either bring them not to bring them in your house or not to go out on a date with them. We're finding these offenders are actually on dating apps when we do the confiscation their you know subpoenas for their phone or their search warrants for their phones and stuff and they're out there probing and they're looking for single parents with children. So just that's why it's very imperative that we do this. Melissa's been charged with uh moving any assets we have in our organization to support the sheriffs in this because we have to give them better support and that's what we've been doing and that's part of the this is also a public service because as you're seeing these arrests happen and the sheriff's team has been out here doing great great work arresting them. The word gets out in that community and the word gets out that if you're going to continue to mess around in Florida, you're going to go to jail. So that's that's one thing we want to make sure we do that. And like the sheriff said, there's some simple things they just could easily come up here and just register. It's easy. They can come up here, they can do it online, they can come up here and register and just stay stay a breast of it. So hope that answer marks um there was a recent lawsuit filed challenging the constitutionality of Florida's sex offender uh rules. What's your comment about that respon? I can't I can't I cannot comment on ongoing litigation and so therefore I cannot comment on that at this time but uh maybe we can come back later at a different time once that litigation goes through but I cannot comment on ongoing litigation. So sorry about that sir. >> Is FDLE finding that compliance across the board in Florida needs to be more in depth like you said here you guys are kind of changing the way or how deeply you're going into these compliance checks. Is that something you're seeing across the state? >> I got you one question. So across the state we have varying areas uh varying um ways people are doing verifications and checks and FDLE is that support arm. So any sheriff's office or law enforcement agency that wants uh that support to help do those verifications to make sure that information is accurate in their specific areas, we are here to support any agency in that effort. Uh we are seeing agencies where it's it's going great and we're seeing agencies they need a little help. Some of these agencies are very small. They're fiscally constrained and they need that assistance and support and at FDLE we are here to support them and we just need that call and we will be in their backyard doing the next operation. >> Is that how this operation got started? You've flagged reached out to you guys. >> Yeah, we work we work together regularly. Um there it was a planned operation. nothing specific occurred. Um, and we're just grateful for the partnerships for the agencies that reach out. >> Sheriff, you mentioned a lot of the individuals have the same charge many times over. So, I imagine like an individual doesn't have five cars, but the offense that you're talking about, the charge you're talking about is because they failed to register over five months, so they got five charges. Or how does that work? Uh, I'm going to let our lead detective uh answer that. Uh, I know the answer to that, but let's let Lauren uh come in and speak. >> So, typically offenders are not required to just register only their own vehicle. If they live in a household where there's more than one vehicle, relatives, roommates, whatever the scenario may be, that person has lived at that residence for more than five consecutive days, they're required to report that that vehicle. So in in many of these cases that that was a scenario where they lived in a household that they were not reporting vehicles, excuse me, that they typically can have access to. So just because it's not their vehicle doesn't mean that the the keys can't be obtained in the middle of the night when someone is sleeping. Um so those vehicles need to be registered as well. >> I uh I missed two things I wanted to uh uh kind of highlight. Um, so I'm going to ask my team to go back to the the slide that has uh the offender with a second uh photo. I want to point something out. So, we might need to just separate a little bit. Yeah, this one here. So, when we walked up there to talk to uh Joseph Nichols, I want you to look at the shirt he was wearing. Well, he wore the appropriate shirt for us talking to him because it said wanted on there. So, I just thought that was kind of a uh a unique um shirt to be wearing. Of course, he didn't know we were going to show up. Um but he was right. Uh wanted, uh the next thing that I forgot to um uh show you uh was a video that we put together, short video of the operation. So if we can uh play that top five of all time uh Avengers Endgame Here we go. >> [music] >> What did you say? >> I said a video of girls. >> What's wrong with that? >> I'm asking you. >> Yeah. Huh? 10. So, I think that kind of shows you the operation, but it also shows you the mentality of the sex offenders uh that we're dealing with. And I'm going to I'm going to add something that uh uh wasn't on my little my prepared comments by my team. Um, so many of our local reporters know that my mother was a mental health social worker. In the last 5 years, she was a supervisor at the uh Orange County Jail in the mental health pod. Uh, and she's passed now. And my mother, as a social worker, she would rehabilitate or attempt to rehabilitate anyone. Okay? But here's what she told me about sex offenders. I was just a uh a young I might have been a sergeant with Orange County Sheriff's Office when she told me this. She said sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated. Keep them locked up. Throw the key away. And that's from someone that would try to rehabilitate anyone. And I've seen that in my career. Just like this guy. He's a sex offender. He's trying to find videos. He was very evasive in the questions. Uh and he's just an example of one of the many that were uh interviewed uh during the arrest or during the compliance check. So, uh unfortunately, it it appears, you know, there's a a malfunction in their brain or whatever it is. And uh you know, I I hope that they go to prison and they get locked up. uh because they committed atrocious crimes that put them either as a sex predator or as a registered sex offender. Uh is there any other questions? >> I have one last question for FDLE about a separate operation operation statewide shield that led to the recovery of 163 missing children. I think several of them were here in Orlando, Central Florida. What can you tell me about the op and also were any of these children in immediate danger? >> So um and we like respect obviously for children as they go through the survivor survival portion of it. So the operation of 163 and out of 163 that is everything from trafficking to kidnapping from you know family members that was also a lot of runaways that we were able to find and you know bring them back. Some were even you know sex traffic and so so there's a lot of stuff that's out there on that. There'll be more coming on that. I think we did three major arrests out of it but there's more probably in the in the future on that. And your second part of your question >> uh were any of them in immediate danger? Everyone that's not with their family is in immediate danger in my opinion. Uh and I think those children would realize that too. We could not have done that without the wraparound services too with our uh NOS's that were there and to to include the mental health group that was there to help us. Um it was amazing to watch. That was 4 and 1/2 days 12 countries to include even Puerto Rico the territory and we were able to get that many children in 4 and 1/2 days. So if we do it again, I guarantee we'll get that many more again, which we will be. There'll be many ops on that and Melissa's team will be actually working that with with all our partners. So thank you. >> Just to be clear, when you say atrocious crime, you're referring to the original charges that got them to where they are, where they're sex offenders and they have to register, but none of the charges you charged involve atrocious crimes other than failure to register. >> Well, they were atrocious crimes when they first got arrested, so I beg to differ with that. now they have a compliance uh requirement and if they don't want to do it, why don't they want to do it? And you can say, well, they didn't know. Okay. Well, I'm not sure I buy that. Some of them have been on sex offender um registering uh for 20 plus years. So, they knew what they were supposed to do. We arrested one uh when I was on the scene uh that we would ask ask questions and he knew right away that he he was in violation. And so, you know, our goal is to prevent reoffenders and you do that making sure that they comply with their registration requirements and that's what we've done. >> Sure. there. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> So, also too, when they come out of uh any type of confinement or prison, state prison, stuff, our probation and parole officers, they spend time with them and then tell them and give them what their direction is and what they have to do. So, them to feel that they don't do not know what the law states, I would have to say that's wrong because these fine gentlemen back here that work with probation, parole, they make sure that they know that before they even leave. Well, prime example of that is a lady that we arrested originally for violation. She was told she had 48 hours to comply, walked right by jail administration where you do the registration. 48 hours came and gone. She didn't comply with the law again. So, I I think that's pretty damn willful not wanting to comply. So, she went back to my hotel. So, my final message uh to our um sex offenders and sex predators, get in compliance or you're next. Better yet, move out of Flaggler County. I don't care where you go. Other sheriffs might because they don't want them there either, but uh you know, we're not going to tolerate uh sex offenders that will not comply with the law in Flaggler County. So, thank you all for coming. Thank you.