The following post was shared with the CopBlock Network by James McLynas, via the CopBlock.org Submissions Page. The post discusses the candidacy for sheriff in Pinellas County that McLynas and Greg Pound and the reasons why they decided to run for that office. As you can see within the post, McLynas maintains that both he and Pound have been victims of police abuse by current Pinellas County Sheriff Robert Gualtieri and/or his deputies.
Note: other than editing for spelling/punctuation errors and minor formatting changes to accommodate this site, this post is being published as it was received.
James McLynas has a web page on Facebook outlining some of what he has been through and other issues with the Pinellas County Sheriff.
June 24, 2016
Pinellas County Sheriff Robert Gualtieri – [email protected]
In Pinellas County Florida near Tampa, there is an interesting election race brewing for sheriff. Current Pinellas County Sheriff Robert Gualtieri is being challenged by two fathers named James McLynas and Greg Pound. You may already know Sheriff Gualtieri from recent national news coverage where he claimed his deputies tried to save three black teen girls after his deputies chased them into a pond. However, video and audio showed the deputies standing around casually discussing listening to the girls scream and drown and doing nothing.
Neither McLynas nor Pound have a law enforcement background, aspired to enter politics, or just decided one day they wanted to be sheriff. Both men claim that Sheriff Gualtieri and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office are corrupt and have abused their power and authority to falsely attack, harass and arrest both men for filing complaints about dirty cops and demanding that the Sheriff take action to discipline the rogue deputies.
Both men are also claiming that the Pinellas County Child Protective Investigation Unit, which is also a branch of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, had filed multiple false CPI reports against them, fabricated evidence and kidnapped their children from them using these lies and false reports as punishment for speaking out about the Sheriff’s corruption, dirty practices and filing complaints against abusive deputies. Two of the senior officers McLynas complained about were terminated after the department initially protected the officers because McLynas refused to back down from the complaints.
In the Pound case, the Pinellas CPI removed Greg Pound’s four children from his home after a relative’s dog bit one of the children. Even though the relative was only there for a short visit and the dog was put down, CPI refused to return the children and continued to attack Mr. Pound. The more he complained, the more they attacked until ultimately they permanently removed his children from him and his wife’s custody and gave his children out to be adopted.
They then moved to ban Pound from ever again having contact with his own children or he would go to jail. Greg Pound was never permitted to see his children again. Mr. Pound was then arrested again by the Pinellas Sheriff’s department for “stalking” because he would stand at the side of the road where his children’s school bus would pass and hold up a large sign that said he loved them.
Mr. Pound is deeply religious and a devout Christian and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s characterized this as a mental defect.
After his four kids were taken from him permanently, Pound and his wife had another child, but the Pinellas Sheriff came to take that child away too, even though there was never any allegation of abuse. Mrs. Pound fled with the child and the Sheriff arrested Greg Pound for refusing to tell where they fled to even though he repeatedly told them that he did not know where they were. He spent weeks in jail for that. To this day, years later, even though Greg Pound still loves his wife and child, he has not had contact with them to prevent them from being arrested and having the child taken from the mother.
Mr. Pound ran for Sheriff in 2012 in protest, and during that election process they arrested Mr. Pound for “trespassing” at an election event he was invited to attend after refusing to allow him into the venue. Whenever Mr. Pound was permitted to speak, he would detail the corruption of the Sheriff, and the Sheriff was not going to allow him to do that. In another incident, the Sheriff “Baker Acted” Mr. Pound, which is a process where they take you to a psych ward and hold you for three days for being a danger to himself or others. It appears the only one he was a danger to was Sheriff Robert Gualtieri and his career. Mr. Pound regularly protests in front of the Pinellas County courthouse in a little area that they passed a law just to keep him in.
In Mr. McLynas’ case, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s started attacking and falsely arresting Mr. McLynas and trying to take his child from him because his ex-wife started dating multiple officers from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s office to enlist their support in the custody case. Laura McLynas had James McLynas falsely arrested for Domestic Violence claiming he had scratched and pushed her. After four months of being kicked out of his own home, not being able to see his children and being prosecuted for the domestic assault, Laura McLynas admitted that she had made the whole thing up, admitted she hit Mr. McLynas multiple times and lied to have him arrested to gain the upper hand in the custody case. Sheriff Gualtieri refused to prosecute her for the domestic violence or the false report.
You would think it might have stopped there, but not when Pinellas County deputies were being offered sex for police favors. All in all there were over 150 false police reports, 22 false child protective investigations and four false arrests of Mr. McLynas over the next four years. His ex-wife used Domestic Violence Injunctions to block his rights to see his daughter and to take over his new home, where he lived alone having moved away after the first false arrest. She would then use his forced absence from his home to burglarize and vandalize the home making it unlivable. She also stole multiple cars and a boat, and smashed a vintage 1960 Alfa Romeo sports car with a sledgehammer and stole all of his tools he used to earn a living. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office refused to investigate or prosecute these crimes, despite multiple witnesses to the crimes, including the police who helped her.
Pinellas Sheriff’s Deputy Paul Martin, one of the deputies “dating” Laura McLynas, filed false charges against McLynas, stalked him and threatened him. Text messages from Martin proved that he had contacted the judge in the McLynas custody case to get the judge to also attack McLynas. In those documented text messages, Pinellas County Deputy Paul Martin texted Mrs. McLynas and stated:
Deputy Paul Martin 5-2-2012 -“Wish I could fix things for you”
Deputy Paul Martin 5-16-2012 – “Time for him to get fucked with for a change. Delete this text. I made some calls. Nothing will go anywhere. He can make all the complaints he wants. File all the motions he wants. From this point forward he will be ignored and nothing will go anywhere. Fuck him.”
Again Sheriff Gualtieri refused to take action.
The Pinellas County CPI repeatedly filed false reports and refused to make any harmful allegations against the wife for her abusive conduct. Mr. McLynas was falsely accused by CPI of beating his wife and kids and abusing them even during periods of time when he had no contact. When that didn’t work, CPI falsely accused him of sexually abusing his daughter, when even the mother denied that would have ever occurred. Laura McLynas then had the 60lb, 4’ tall 10yo daughter of the couple arrested in handcuffs by the PCSO and taken to jail for supposedly assaulting her. The mother then Baker Acted the child with the help of PCSO. If they couldn’t get the father, James McLynas to break, maybe they could do so my attacking his innocent daughter.
McLynas claims that PCSO tries to get you to lose your temper so they can claim you are a threat and shoot you. What better way to anger someone than to kidnap their children.
James McLynas was more fortunate than Greg Pound. He kept meticulous records, took videos of every encounter and was able to get the crooked judge thrown off of his case. After the father demanded a guardian ad-litem and a court ordered Psychological Evaluation the court’s investigation proved that none of the 150 false police reports, 22 CPI reports and 7 DVI’s were true and were all lies to assist the wife in gaining an upper hand in the custody case. The court ordered that the Pinellas Sheriff’s CPI turn over a full library of all CPI reports in the McLynas case to be provided to the Guardian Ad-Litem and he court appointed PHD Psychologist to revue. The Pinellas Sheriff’s office then tampered with the reports and redacted anything in the reports that was favorable to the father, and added numerous entries that were favorable to the mother. However, these reports did not match the copies that James McLynas had obtained at the time each one as filed. CPI was busted and the judge refused to allow them to testify. Complaints were filed, but Sheriff Gualtieri took no action.
A final hearing was set for October 31, 2013 and a month before the hearing McLynas informed Sheriff Gualtieri directly that he was going to run for Sheriff to expose his abuse and corruption. But the Sheriff wasn’t done quite yet.
On the day before the custody hearing, Sheriff Gualtieri filed five fraudulent and false felony charges against James McLynas, and then illegally used a Stingray tracking device without a warrant to ensure he would be found and arrested so he could not attend his custody hearing. October 31, 2013 was also the same day they fired Deputy Paul Martin and the arrests were payback. The Sheriff also lied in discovery and document requests that the illegal Stingray use even took place and claimed no such documents existed, but they were later uncovered and obtained.
During the final custody hearing, the court heard evidence from the guardian ad-litem and court appointed psychological evaluator. They testified that ALL of the police reports were false and that the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office lied, falsified reports and CPI tampered with the evidence. The judge agreed and also stated that that the father’s arrest the day before the hearing “was no coincidence”. The court ruled in the McLynas custody case that the mother was deeply psychologically disturbed and was a “homicide threat” to the couple’s daughter. Laura McLynas, the insane “homicide threat to the daughter” was the same parent that the Pinellas County Sheriff tried so hard to help get custody. There was no documentation of the danger Laura McLynas posed in any of the CPI reports.
James McLynas was awarded 100% custody of his daughter while he was incarcerated and the two have been together, happy and safe for the last three years. This was the first time in the history of the Florida courts that a man was awarded 100% custody while in jail. The false criminal charges against James McLynas were also dropped.
However, McLynas decided that he could not stand by and allow the corruption of Sheriff Gualtieri, his deputies and the Child Protective Investigations Unit to continue. True to his promise to Sheriff Gualtieri, James McLynas entered the next election in 2016. James McLynas and Greg Pound are now officially qualified candidates for Sheriff of Pinellas County and both have almost the exact same horrific story of lies, false charges and abuse to tell about the incumbent Sheriff Gualtieri and his department. What are the odds of that happening…unless it was really happening? They say that if you keep kicking dogs, one of them is bound to bite back. Well it seems Sheriff Gualtieri kicked two dogs too many and now he has to face the consequences.
Kelly is a lifelong resident of Las Vegas, who’s been very active in local grassroots activism, as well as on a national level during his extensive travels. He’s also the founder/main contributor of Nevada Cop Block, served as editor/contributor at CopBlock.org and designed the Official Cop Block Press Passes.
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