HARVEY GETS 12 1/2 YEARS
The former property appraiser stole more than $200,000 from the county over three years in office
Former Wakulla Property Appraiser Brad Harvey is taken out of the courthouse after his sentencing and loaded in a van for transport to the Wakulla County Jail. PHOTO BY LYNDA KINSEY
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
Former Wakulla County Property Appraiser Brad Harvey was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in state prison followed by 17 1/2 years of probation at his sentencing hearing last week on charges that he embezzled more than $200,000 from his office during the three years he served.
Harvey showed no reaction when his sentence was pronounced by Wakulla Circuit Judge Layne Smith at a hearing on Thursday, Sept. 7.
In July, Harvey entered an open plea of no contest to two counts of fraud – one for overpayments to himself of more than $176,000, and the other count for using the office credit card to rack up more than $26,000 in personal charges. There was no plea deal in place, so Harvey was essentially throwing himself on the mercy of the court.
Harvey’s attorney, Shelly Thomas, claimed that he had made restitution for the $26,000 in improper credit card payments. The state attorney was unaware of the payment – and it could not be immediately confirmed by the Clerk of Court’s office.
“Brad Harvey was elected by the people of Wakulla County to position of trust,” Judge Smith said. The judge then went through the definition of an “organized scheme to defraud.” Noting that Harvey had written himself dozens of paychecks to overpay himself, the judge commented, “This was not a one-time lapse of judgment, this was a systematic organized scheme to defraud with some effort to escape detection or avoid detection.”
Harvey stole more than $200,000 from the office, and used the money for expenses like outfitting a hunting truck, and to take his family on a cruise after his daughter graduated from high school.
Several friends and family members spoke to the court, asking for leniency, noting good things he had done for community and remarking on his “servant’s heart.”
Prior to his arrest, Harvey had responded to a public records request from the newspaper about his justification for the additional payments to himself, and he pointed to a $30,000 supplement he had been paid in previous years as Chief Deputy under then-Property Appraiser Donnie Sparkman. The supplement was for extra work on the county’s Fire and Solid Waste tax rolls.
Assistant State Attorney Andrew Deneen, who prosecuted the case, said at the hearing that Harvey wasn’t entitled to the supplement as property appraiser – he wasn’t even doing the work, he had gone outside his office and hired a consultant. Even then, the county paid $30,000 a year for the additional work, but Harvey paid himself more than $76,000.
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 Sparkman, but Harvey continued those duties when he took over the office, with no oversight.
The matter started in 2018 after members of the Rotary Club of Wakulla realized that checks and cash for a fundraiser had never been deposited. Harvey was club treasurer at the time. 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.
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.
