JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The State Attorney’s Office subpoenaed documents, nine current and former city employees about the illegal gun registry kept by the city of Jacksonville.
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A security checkpoint standard operating procedure directed security officers to record the names, photo ID, age and weapon type when a person enters one of the city buildings carrying a firearm.
The subpoenas ask for, among other things, emails and texts from several current and former city officials matching terms like “gun,” “weapon,” and “registry.”
They include current Chief Administration Officer Karen Bowling, former acting General Counsel Bob Rhodes, Former General Counsel Jason Teal, and former Public Safety Chief Lakeisha Burton, who co-chaired Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration.
“Be crystal clear about this, because I have, I don’t,” Curry said. “I fact and double-checked and triple fact-checked it. My employees when I was mayor, Jacksonville did not create an illegal gun registry and record private citizens’ names in that registry. It’s illegal, and we didn’t do it when I was in office.”
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Curry said the investigation will uncover the truth. The subpoenas ask for some communications and documents around security checkpoint policies, dating back to November. 2022, during his tenure as mayor.
Investigators are sifting through communication during the first weeks of Mayor Deegan’s tenure which was also the same month Florida’s permitless carry law took effect.
“It started before I was sworn into office, and I’m not saying that in an effort to lay blame, it’s simply when we became aware of it, we stopped it,” Deegan said.
“The State Attorney’s Office is looking into the rest of it, and frankly I want her to be able to do her job.” said Deegan.
Notably, Deegan herself has not been subpoenaed.
When asked about Lenny Curry’s statements regarding the investigation Deegan said “Certainly political, and frankly it’s a disappointment to me that my statements can’t be taken at face value, and there seems to be a very concerted effort to always lay blame at the feet of this administration for something, and at the end of the day all of us should be working together to make sure the city is working well,” Deegan said.
City officials said they first became aware of the issue on April 21 and the state attorney’s office asked for the logbooks the following day.
The subpoenas for other communications and documents came on Monday. The city has retained an outside law firm to represent it in the matter.