Ex-Sheriff Daniels Fined $1,200 for 2024 Election Violations

Is He Planning a Run for County Commission?

Sheriff Darryl Daniels, making the rounds in 2018, visits Oakleaf High School. (Facebook)

Back in October 2024, I submitted evidence and filed a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission on behalf of Clay News & Views. The complaint covered alleged campaign violations by former Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels during his 2023–2024 attempt to reclaim his old job—an impressive goal, considering he’d already been arrested, removed from office, and soundly rejected by Clay County voters.

On December 4, the Elections Commission ruled that Daniels had violated Florida election laws with his 2024 campaign signs and advertising. Although candidates are required by Florida law to file contributions and expenditures quarterly, the Commission agreed he’d skipped out on reporting his campaign spending for an entire year—something every other candidate in every other race in Clay County had somehow managed to do.

Through his attorney, Daniels agreed to pay a $1,200 Commission fine.

Our complaint also addressed the fact that Daniels appeared to be geographically confused. He was a registered voter in Duval County, lived in Enterprise, Alabama—where he swore he was a legal resident to get a homestead exemption—yet when he drove over from Alabama to register to run for Sheriff in Clay County, he swore he was a resident of Florida. With all his misplaced swearing, the complaint has been bumped up to the fraud division of the Florida Elections Commission and is pending.

Sweet Home Alabama

When we reported the complaint some of Daniels’ friends were downright offended that we’d filed it. Judging by their reactions, you’d think we’d personally unplugged their Wi‑Fi. They insisted Daniels should be able to slip back to Alabama without so much as a slap on the wrist and said we were just being mean.

But even before Daniels was elected our sheriff, he had long been on the naughty list, yet the consequences kept sliding off him like butter on a hot biscuit.

Many of you know about Daniels’ sordid mess, but for those who don’t here’s a recap: He started as a patrolman at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO), where his personnel file was stuffed full of violations. They eventually shuffled him off to work in the jail, and by the time Clay County elected him sheriff, JSO was investigating him for giving a young corrections officer under his command all sorts of “special attention”—on the clock and off it. Let’s just say some of those “extras” were the kind the law frowns on. Once he became sheriff, he refused to cooperate with the investigation, and the JSO refused to release it.

From the beginning, Daniels’ tenure was so messy it could have fueled multiple seasons of a Netflix drama. He obsessively spent our tax dollars and rallied the county commission for more—which they gave him. It seemed like Daniels chased a heck of a lot more women than he did criminals as crime rates soared and response time dropped quicker than his badge at a bachelorette party. Folks in the county, the press, and even some inside the Clay County Sheriff’s Office that he brought in from the JSO to work for him were rolling their eyes at his actions and ethics.

Then things got really confusing. He had one of his girlfriends arrested for stalking him—a young corrections officer at the JSO. After her arrest, she told officers that she and Daniels had been together for over four years, had just had a conjugal visit and that Daniels’s wife, who had a gun, was the one doing the stalking and was threatening to kill her but the sheriff said he would stand by her because she was pregnant but instead had her arrested as the wife took videos of the arrest while yelling that the young woman was a garden tool.

Officers and the folks at the State Attorney’s Office got the wife’s video, did some eye-rolling of their own, promptly released the young woman, and called in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate. The JSO’s file was finally released, FDLE investigated, Daniels was arrested and charged with hiding evidence, lying to law enforcement, and using law enforcement resources to snoop on people that he had a little too much interest in.

Once he got out, he hired himself a high‑dollar lawyer, packed up for Enterprise, Alabama, bought a house, and allegedly took up delivering mail. A few years and a whole lot of legal fees later, most of the charges were tossed, and Daniels walked out not guilty.

It appears Daniels may have hung up his postman bag, since he’s been spotted in our county and in the area. A friend claims that since Alexandra Compere has had enough of politics and is not running for her Oakleaf commission seat again, Daniels is fixin’ to come back and maybe run for the seat in his old neighborhood.

Maybe Darryl thinks the voters in Oakleaf just fell off the turnip truck, or maybe he’s banking on a sudden wave of voter amnesia that’ll make folks forget the mess he made of things when he was sheriff. Or who knows? Maybe floating a run for commissioner is just his idea of a joke to poke the folks he wronged and the ones who celebrated his departure like it was Fourth of July fireworks. Either way, the rumor’s got some folks simmerin’ like a pot of grits somebody forgot to stir—I may be one of them.

Nevertheless, Clay News & Views will stay connected with the Florida Elections Commission to keep county folks informed. And if Darryl does come back to run again, you can bet your own last biscuit, we won’t be suffering from writer’s block.

State Asked To Sanction Daniels for Campaign Violations