Brad Harvey pleads to charges
The former property appraiser is charged with embezzling money from the office; he will be sentenced in September
Former Property Appraiser Brad Harvey
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
Former Wakulla Property Appraiser Brad Harvey pleaded no contest in Wakulla Circuit Court on Wednesday, July 5 to numerous fraud charges that stemmed from overpayments he made to himself as well as using the office credit card for personal expenses.
Harvey had been set to go to trial later this month. After the plea, a pre-sentence investigation was ordered to determine what Harvey scores for punishment.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 7.
Harvey is charged with stealing more than $200,000 from the office, which he used for expenses like outfitting a hunting truck, and to take his family on a cruise after his daughter graduated from high school.
Assistant State Attorney Andrew Deneen, who is prosecuting the case, will reportedly be asking Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith, who is presiding over the case, for prison time for Harvey.
The matter started after members of the Rotary Club of Wakulla realized that checks and cash for a fundraiser had never been deposited. Harvey was club treasurer. After being told of the missing money, Sheriff Jared Miller, also a member of Rotary, ordered an investigation. After being interviewed by detectives, Harvey turned over about $1,000 in cash from a gun raffle the club had held. No charges were brought in the case because the evidence – namely, ticket receipts for the raffle – had not been retained by the club.
But the Rotary incident prompted a member of Harvey’s staff to begin looking into office finances – and evidence quickly piled up that Harvey was stealing public money.
The staff member went to County Administrator David Edwards with the concerns – and FDLE was brought in to investigate.
In April 2020, Harvey was arrested on a warrant and processed in the Wakulla County Jail. Because of Covid restrictions at the time, Harvey was not put in a jail cell, and he did not have to post bond.
The same day, Gov. Ron DeSantis removed Harvey from office.
During the FDLE investigation, the newspaper was aware of the suspicions of financial improprieties and, along with another interested party, began making public record requests and writing news stories about it. Later public record requests indicated that Harvey continued overpaying himself even after he knew he was under investigation by FDLE.
Asked by the newspaper to provide justification for the overpayments, Harvey pointed to a supplement he had received when he was chief deputy under the prior property appraiser for work done on Fire and Solid Waste tax rolls. He seemed to think he was still entitled to the supplement – though the total amount of overpayment far exceeded the supplement.
Harvey’s statutory salary was $103,000 in 2016 when he was elected. It increased to $107,500 the next year and to $108,336 in 2018.
Harvey had done payroll and other office financials as chief deputy under former appraiser Donnie Sparkman, but Harvey continued those duties when he took over the office, with no oversight.
The county auditing firm did not uncover the problems until after Harvey was removed from office. A new auditing firm has replaced them.
When Ed Brimner took office as property appraiser two years ago, he handed off much of the financial work of his office to Clerk of Courts and County Comptroller Greg James, noting at the time that it would give more transparency and public confidence to his office.
In May, The Sun found property documents filed in the courthouse that showed Harvey had deeded his home and other property to his current wife. It’s not clear if Harvey was having his name removed from the property deeds to avoid losing it for restitution and fines in the criminal case.
Several months ago, unrelated to the criminal case, the state Ethics Commission ordered Harvey to pay a civil penalty of $40,000 in addition to restitution of $209,000 to Wakulla County for ethics violations related to the overpayments.
