Ethics complaints against five Florida sheriffs have been dismissed – although none were actually investigated on the merits.

The allegations were rejected either for lack of legal sufficiency or “personal knowledge” by the plaintiffs, the Florida Commission on Ethics reported in a lengthy press release — a dump of 110 ethics cases involving officials from across the state. 

“As no factual investigation precedes the reviews, the commission’s conclusions do not reflect on the accuracy of the allegations made in these complaints,” the commission said in the news release, after meeting in closed-door session.

The Florida Trib filed a public records request seeking copies of the complaints against the sheriffs and received more than 100 pages. Included were the complaints themselves and detailed explanations for why they did not merit investigation.

The dismissals, all issued this month, highlight the difficulty of having an issue involving a Florida sheriff  investigated. One sheriff in particular, Carmine Marceno of Lee County, has been the subject of multiple serious allegations, including ones involving a no-show job and purported salary kickbacks to the sheriff’s now-deceased father. That led to an FBI corruption probe and the recording of phone calls between the sheriff and the job holder, during which payments to the father were discussed. But in the end the matter was dropped. 

Those allegations were later brought to the attention of the Florida Commission on Ethics. 

The dismissals also underscore the reduced latitude of the ethics commission, whose powers to investigate were curbed two years ago by a statute revision supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Under the amended statute, signed by the governor in June 2024, the ethics commission is allowed to probe complaints against public officials only if someone with personal knowledge “other than hearsay” is willing to identify themselves by name and file a complaint under oath about suspected wrongdoing. In effect, it requires whistleblowers exposing corruption to out themselves, risking recriminations. It also limits the powers of local ethics boards. 

If a complaint clears the bar for consideration and the commission finds probable cause that an ethical breach has occurred, a hearing can be scheduled.

The five sheriffs whose slates were cleaned are Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Richard Ramsay of Monroe, Michael Chitwood of Volusia, Mike Harrison of Gulf, and Lee County’s Marceno. 

The files examined by The Florida Trib show each of the complainants identified themselves as required. 

Chronister was accused of failing to discipline two deputies allegedly misusing the Driver and Vehicle Information Database and other staffers mooching free games of golf. The commission’s report said that the plaintiff could not prove in a “factual, substantive, [and] nonconclusive manner” that the sheriff misused his position nor that he knew about any wrongdoing by his staff.

Ramsay was accused of promoting an employee in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office with whom he had a “personal,” allegedly romantic, relationship. The commission’s report said that even if the allegation were true, it did not constitute a “corrupt” act from the public official. 

The complaint against Chitwood said that he allegedly failed to disclose his role as the director of a nonprofit, “Sheriff’s Holiday Program, Inc.” for three consecutive years in his financial disclosure documents. The commission said that it couldn’t look into the matter because the actions stretched beyond the statute of limitations. 

In the matter involving Gulf County Sheriff Harrison, the ethics complaint claimed he kept a domestic disturbance incident involving one his deputies under wraps even after an assistant state attorney recommended it be escalated to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The complaint said the father of the deputy – who was promoted despite the incident –  had a “personal friendship” with the sheriff. 

The commission said that most, if not all, of the complaint consisted of “hearsay.” 

In Marceno’s case, a plaintiff alleged that the Lee County sheriff entered two inaccurate felony convictions in his criminal history records. After the complainant raised the issue with the sheriff’s office, he said, the false convictions were removed without a court order, “thereby hiding the fact that they were initially recorded.” 

The commission said the plaintiff failed to show how Marceno was directly involved.

Marceno actually has more business before the ethics commission. One complaint, involving the no-show job allegation rejected by the FBI, alleges he gave a friend, a local jeweler, a lucrative public relations-related contract paying thousands of dollars a month without requiring him to do any work. A stipulation of the arrangement was that a portion of the money be kicked back to Marceno’s father, according to the complaint.

Mike Hollow, Marceno’s former internal affairs chief who later ran an unsuccessful campaign to unseat him, said he checked with the commission soon after its June 10 press release and was told that the complaint is still active.

The state ethics commission has 150 days from when a complaint is lodged to issue its initial finding. With Romano’s complaint filed in January 2026 – which lists Hollow as a witness – the commission should be announcing its determination soon. 

Marceno is believed to be the subject of other, unrelated allegations, including one submitted by a now-retired captain involving a deputy who was stopped as he drove 100 mph, allegedly while drunk, but not arrested.

Sheriffs are autonomous constitutional officers who answer to the voters every four years. County commissioners approve sheriffs’  budgets but have little say over how their departments are run. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and local state attorneys can investigate sheriffs, but examples are not plentiful.

State attorneys and sheriffs work hand in hand to fight crime.

The governor does have the power to oust sheriffs for wrongdoing. In 2019, Gov. DeSantis suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel for “repeated incompetence and neglect of duty” in connection with his deputies’ widely criticized response to the previous year’s massacre of students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.  The Florida Supreme Court later upheld the governor’s authority to do so. 

Governor DeSantis appointed Gregory Tony as Israel’s replacement, and he has since won election in his own right. However, two years ago, the same state ethics commission recommended that the governor “publicly censure and reprimand” Tony, claiming that he lied under oath on a driver’s licence renewal application when he denied that his driving privileges had never been revoked, suspended, or denied.

DeSantis disregarded the recommendation.

Last summer, DeSantis suspended another sheriff, Marcos Lopez of Osceola County, after he was arrested in connection with “expanding and protecting” a gambling operation in exchange for personal funds and campaign contributions. 

The Florida Trib reached out to each of the five sheriff’s offices to get details on what the ethics complaints entailed and comments about the dismissals. Only the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office responded. 

“We did receive notification that they were looking into an ethics complaint,” said Amanda Granit, the sheriff’s chief communications officer. 

Granit said any details would “have to come from the commission.” 

Although it provided copies of the complaints, the commission did not respond to a request for comment.

Oishika Neogi is a special correspondent for The Florida Trib working on a grant-funded project on accidental in-custody deaths. oishika.neogi@floridatrib.org.