FAC Weekly Update 2025-09-09–Beware of Highlands County Detective
Weekly update for September 9, 2025. This is recording number 327.
Dear Members and Advocates,
Florida Action Committee does not typically involve itself in individual criminal cases. But sometimes, a case so clearly exposes the cruelty of the system that it demands our attention. This is one of those times.
In November of 2022, we sent a weekly update about a Detective in Highlands County who has taken it upon himself to be overly aggressive in pursuing registrants. This detective is so aggressive, in fact, that he reviews registration histories of people who so much as establish a temporary residence in Highlands, going back years and scouring registration history from other counties in Florida, just to see if he can come up with any excuse to arrest the person.
In August of 2023, a man we’ll call “Roger”, was arrested and charged with failure to re-register or provide required information in Highlands County. Roger didn’t live in Highlands. He merely registered his sister’s address in Highlands as a temporary address, as was required, because he had visited with her and planned to visit there, from time to time. At all times he kept his permanent address at his permanent home where he lived without issue in a different county. Because of that temporary address, this detective decided that Highlands County had the jurisdiction to investigate other “potential” (using the term loosely) violations in other counties. He learned that Roger had owned an 8 foot canoe trailer that he gave to his daughter. He kept it registered because he still had access to use it (as it’s his daughter’s). The detective nevertheless saw that Roger had registered 19 times with the trailer and added 19 counts to his criminal charges.
The detective didn’t stop there. In 2020, Roger bought a vehicle on December 23rd but didn’t register it until December 28th. The 24th was Christmas Eve, the 25th was Christmas, the 26th and 27th were the weekend, so the first opportunity he had to register, he did. But since the statute doesn’t say “business hours” or “hours when the registration office is closed are excluded”, the detective tacked on a failure to register the vehicle within 48 hours to the list of now 21 counts! Mind you; Roger’s original offense was in 1998 – nearly 30 years ago – he’s had no other arrests since. Roger has not re-offended in nearly three decades. He’s built a business, provided for his family and should be an example of success. Instead, he’s the target.
In Florida, a third degree felony is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. The State could seek a consecutive sentence so that each count could be added together for a maximum of 105 years (21 × 5 years). Roger genuinely believed he did nothing wrong. If anything, he was over-inclusive in an abundance of caution. His sister’s address was registered for when he stayed there or, when in the event of a hurricane, he was forced to evacuate. The canoe trailer was still in the family and he had access to it, so there was no reason to remove it. And if the registration office wasn’t open during the holiday and weekend and he went to register his car on the first opportunity he could, what did he do wrong?!? Roger decided to fight his case.
Last month, Roger’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him, arguing that Highlands county lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him for alleged registration violations that took place in another county. After nearly two years with the dark cloud of this prosecution hanging over him, he was looking forward to his day in court… Then thunder struck… According to an arrest affidavit, “On 8/25/2025… after learning of a Notice of Hearing for a Motion to Dismiss filed in [Roger’s original case]” the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office dug up 8 additional counts (not sexual offenses, just petty alleged registration violations), and re-arrested Roger. Not to protect the public, but as retaliation for fighting his charges. He’s now being held without bond in the Highlands County Jail and facing a potential 145 years in prison.
This is not regulation. This is punishment. It is persecution dressed up as public safety. It is a tripwire system designed to entrap people who are doing their best to comply. And it exposes the lie that the registry is somehow “non-punitive.”
The first step to ending the registry’s harm is exposing the truth: it is punishment, not protection. FAC members, it’s time to make your voices heard. Call, email, or write your state representatives and senators. Share your stories, demand reform, accountability, and an end to this draconian registry. Silence allows this injustice to continue. Action is the only way to protect your families and restore fairness. Contact your lawmakers today.
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
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FAC recently asked for help from members to show up in support of “Roger” at the most recent hearing in his case. Does anyone know how that hearing went?
Hmmm, does this mean some of the wording in the law, ooops ordinance, is broad and over reaching. Hopefully he is found innocent for following the ordinance to the best of his ability. If he is, hopefully he sues for false arrest and being illegally detained. We need to set some kind of precedent to stop these fishing expeditions by the sheriffs departments. I don’t have a lot of access to arrest records, but when was the last time FDLE arrested someone for anything close to this?
It’s a statute and statutes and ordinances are laws, so you were not incorrect.
We all hope he’s acquitted.
This happens often in Highlands County.
Please see my last reply on what FDLE will tell us. The letter I received today states FDLE specifically will not give legal advice about registration requirements. It says to contact your local sheriff’s office, which is where we are getting different answers from it seems…
Kind of makes sense but not what my SO office told me.
I got the new changes list in the mail today and it states not at the bottom: “FDLE cannot provide leval advice on registration requirements. If you ha e questions regarding your registration requirements, please contact your local sheriff’s office”. So basically we have no one to find out whst exactly the rules are…
I hope FAC is following these comments as this is extremely important for all of us, but I have not seen them add their thoughts on all this.
Dear TJ, it seems FDLE gave you evidence that shows the difficulties we have getting the right information from those who are entrusted with following and enforcing the law.
FAC, can you please verify if we are suppose to delete old email accounts that we no longer use but could still access them at any time. Same with vehicles of family members who come to visit me. Am I suppose to unregister their vehicles everytime they leave and re-register everytime they visit? This is getting ridiculous. If so, Something definitely needs to be worded on the FDLE registration form and done about this BS. This is absolutely absurd. Now, I have no clue what to do anymore. Register, unregister, re-register, unregister, re-register, unregister, re-register and so on. Might as well just get a tent and camp out at the Sheriff’s office or give in and just get arrested. Which obviously wouldn’t be hard to do. They got us coming and going no matter what we do. Don’t register something you’re screwed, Don’t unregister something you’re screwed, either way we’re screwed.
Tim,
I would suggest posing your questions to FDLE. You can email them. Please share your response.
Will definitely do.
I called FDLE before asking for advice on a question. They told me to call the county I live in because they are the ones who will arrest you. Verbatim that’s exactly what they told me. F d l e will not help you at all.
My thought on this is as follows. It says “any change” So if we are adding it when we use it, a change. If we no longer use it I would say delete it as its “any change” No where does the statue really address this. It would be the same as your work address. If you no longer work there why would you keep it. But hey IDK. I just have never seen any direction on this other than if you no longer use it and have deleted your account its says you have to reflect that change within 48 hours. So deleting would reflect that change.
There’s no need to share “thoughts” – they are meaningless. The FDLE has an email address you can write to and ask for a direct answer to the question. Why are we speculating or relying on the opinion of random people who know no better than you do?
Remember fellas, it’s not punitive. *eye roll*