ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is deciding if disciplinary actions will be implemented against one of its deputies following a public comment on a social media site.
This comes after that employee, Cpl. Gregory Suchy, posted a comment underneath an Instagram video that shows what appears to be a man who is homeless throwing a rock at a vehicle. The comment read: “We need like a 3 day open season on the homeless. No bag limit.”
A screenshot of the post was sent to News4JAX by a viewer.
The dictionary defines bag limit as the maximum number of fish or game permitted by law to be killed by one person in a given period.
The comment was posted by a person with the user name @GregoryTodd72.
The profile picture of @GregoryTodd72 also matched the photo of a Gregory Todd on another social media site.
And on the social media site where the name was Gregory Todd, there was a post that talked about the deputy’s decades of work with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
That post included a picture, that looks like the same person in the picture the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office posted of Cpl. Gregory Suchy in 2020.
All of that information, plus more of what the viewer sent us, was given to the sheriff’s office.
Days after the tip, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s office confirmed on Wednesday the post was from Suchy, who’s actively employed there.
They sent a statement that said:
“SJSO is aware of the complaint regarding one of our deputies posting a comment on a video posted to a social media platform. A supervisor has reviewed the complaint, met with the deputy involved and determined the comment was made from his personal account while off duty. We are evaluating if disciplinary action is appropriate while balancing the involved deputy’s First Amendment rights with his status as a law enforcement officer.”
As a news station, News4JAX takes the First Amendment seriously, so we spoke with Edward Birk, a retired First Amendment lawyer, about how the sheriff will decide if disciplinary action will be taken.
“The question is, did the post impair the operations of the sheriff’s department or did it impair public perception of the sheriff’s office,” Birk said.
Birk also said the sheriff will have to take into account how Cpl. Suchy interacted with the public or people who are homeless.
Last year, law enforcement started enforcing a controversial new law that bans people who are homeless from sleeping or camping in public places.
RELATED: New phase of Florida law targets public sleeping, allows lawsuits
News4JAX reached out to Cpl. Suchy several times to see if he wanted to comment on his actions. We’re still waiting to hear back.
News4JAX also put in a public records request for any previous investigations into Suchy as well as any previous disciplinary actions. The sheriff’s office is processing that request.
