CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – An attorney for suspended Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels formally entered not guilty pleas on his behalf Wednesday morning at a scheduled arraignment.
Daniels is facing multiple charges stemming from a sex scandal investigation, including one count of evidence tampering, a third-degree felony offense, and three counts of knowingly giving false information to law enforcement, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Court records showed Daniels’ defense had already entered a plea of not guilty ahead of the arraignment. Daniels did not attend Wednesday’s hearing.
The judge set Daniels’ next court date for Oct. 20.
RELATED: Gov. DeSantis suspends Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order to suspend the embattled sheriff a day after Daniels surrendered to law enforcement on the charges.
Under his suspension, Daniels is prohibited from performing any official duty or function of public office. He’s also prohibited from receiving any pay or allowance from any privileges of public office.
Daniels was defeated last week in his bid for reelection, losing to fellow Republican Michelle Cook in the primary.
Daniels has remained out of the public eye since posting a 7-minute video to social media defending his innocence on July 27. The video has since been taken down. A previous embed of the video in a News4Jax story is showing the video is unavailable.
The Clay County Sheriff’s Office told News4Jax, “The video was removed at the discretion of the Sheriff’s Administration.”
Several other videos of Daniels have not been removed.