OPINION
AIRPORT
I’m responding to Mr. Robert Franco’s Letter to the Editor of March 6th. 2023 of the excellent Wakulla Sun newspaper. I thank him for what he had to say and he is correct in every regard.
First off, I want to say that we have finally got our act together. I would advise county authorities to gather their legal eagles because a storm is about to erupt. This time it will not be a slanted view of the happenings at the Wakulla County Airport on May 2nd, 2019, specifically my part in that happening for which I had nothing to do with other than to take injury photos of the victim, Randall John Dick.
I have been studying this entire so-called investigation of the strangulation, abandonment and unbelievably, interrogation by the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office detective division, of my good friend Randall John Dick. He was strangled yet he was treated as the criminal. He was strangled to unconsciousness to within 1 to 3 seconds of his life by Steven Paul Fults. He was dragged from his truck, strangled, and left for dead on the hot and gravel-strewn asphalt of early May 2019, in front of his own hangar. The WCSO officials who signed off on the most ridiculous, malfeasance-riddled, and incompetent investigation in Florida history should be ashamed of themselves.
As for me, I am publishing, in book form, the entire travesty of justice and the crime of evidence tampering perpetrated by the WCSO on this case. I keep delaying as more details are examined but I expect publication in late May to mid-June. The title, which I’ve changed several times, will be “43:41”. Those numbers represent the total investigative time as set by a WCSO 911 dispatcher. Now, imagine if your son, daughter, wife, brother etc. had been strangled and left for dead by our county airport manager, would you be upset? I have to think that upset would be an utter understatement to you.
Mr. Fults, from his March through Georgia at Lake Ellen, with an ongoing lawsuit against the county over it, is still the airport manager. Their Man of Tight Grip is a walking disaster area. Two Commissioners, Chuck Hess and Mike Stewart, in late 2019, and not long after the strangulation, recommended his firing to County Administrator David Edwards. No dice.
Mr. Fults’ slash, burn, finagle, and strangle managerial policy at the Wakulla County Airport, was also recommended to be fired by our own County Attorney Heather Encinosa in December of 2022. This was possibly over the Lake Ellen fence dispute, still ongoing. Attorney Encinosa’s counsel to Administrator David Edwards to fire Fults was also denied.
What exactly is this unholy alliance between Edwards and Fults? Most importantly, what is that shady-seeming association between the two, costing the taxpayers of Wakulla County? Commissioner Ralph Thomas, in a text with State Rep. Jason Shoaf, stated “Fults is costing the county a lot of money.” Whose money? The taxpayer? Of course, yet the association continues.
As for Mr. Franco, the rotor downwash from an Osprey aircraft at hover is 95 mph. That’s a Cat 2 hurricane. That aircraft has no business at the airport and neither does the 17,000 pounds of a Polish-built Sky Truck aircraft. They rut up the runway and perform dangerous takeoffs for which I and two others witnessed. The people and homes on Surf Road do realize they are in danger but their letters etc. have had no effect on stopping any of this unnecessary activity. The military is scared of my 18-inch plastic drone.
Fults who flies Remote Control aircraft, almost the size of a real aircraft, in the middle of the runway, filed a complaint with the WCSO. It was given a case number. It was because of my drone hovering near his favorite military pals in their Sky Truck. He stated that he had to shut down the airport. Are you kidding me, Mr. Fults? My drone, at a 50-foot GPS hover, could sit there for years and nobody would hit it. I never heard anything from WCSO about my case number and just recently found out about this report. Thank you for ignoring it WCSO. You’ve done something correctly.
The military does not own or contribute monetarily to our airport Fults. This practice activity of our military can be performed elsewhere. It can also be simulated at their own facilities. Using heavy, complex aircraft to practice in a civilian environment surrounded by homes, children, etc. is very much not a good idea and can eventually result in a crash to homes with deaths. Not only do you not know what you’re doing, Fults, but your unnecessary accommodation with your pals could also get innocent people killed.
I have nothing against the military. My brother was a retired Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. My service was 3 tours in South Vietnam as a Navy-trained salvage diver. We recovered bodies and pieces of bodies in the most dangerous rivers in the world. The Saigon, Mekong and their tributaries.
It overwhelms me that a strangulation to near-death occurred and nothing, absolutely nothing, was done about it. My input and my photo proof of this serious crime and near tragedy was even ridiculed by former detective Ross Hasty. State investigator Chris Lee was shown my photos taken within five minutes after my arrival at the hangar. After viewing my photos and speaking with us personally, investigator Lee stated two things. “That was malfeasance on the part of the Wakulla County Sheriff’s Office” and “The marks on your back, prove you were drug.” Would he admit that in court? He’s an honest guy but I highly doubt he’d muddy the waters in his close association with WCSO.
Stay tuned to the Wakulla Sun, Mr. Franco. The storm is on the horizon.
Bill Catalina
Crawfordville