Impersonating a Person

[Unregistered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEDKFGsLto8

In early April, Sheriff Tom Knight denounced the behavior of Youtuber Charles Ross in a police costume recording a prank for his youtube viewers. He went so far as to remind the public that impersonating an officer is a felony in his best Grady Judd-esque interview.

Now obviously in the picture above, that is not Charles Ross. In fact, that is David Fiederer from Venice. Fiederer, whose family gave significantly to the Knight campaign in 2008, appeared in a green Sarasota County Sheriff's Office uniform in a 'Tom Knight for Sheriff' promo video filmed at Marina Jacks. In the video, Fiederer can be clearly identified as well as the Sergeant stripes on his green commonly known sheriff's office uniform. However, he is not a deputy, is not FL law enforcement certified and instead works for Fox Furniture in Venice (also a major campaign contributor).

Tom used Fiederer in the promo video because he could not appear in a SSO uniform himself as he was not currently the sheriff. Fiederer can be seen walking around Marina Jacks, shaking hands and talking to citizens before meeting with Tom toward the culmination of the video.

A criminal complaint was generated at the time and sent to Sheriff Balkwill, FDLE, the SAO, the FSA and Sarasota Police Department (since the crime occurred in the city) but oddly...nothing was done.

He didnt seem to be against impersonating an officer in 2008 when he was running for sheriff.

[Unregistered]

You should know by now, the rules don’t apply to Tom and his crew.

[Unregistered]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEDKFGsLto8

Sheriff Tom Knight denounced Youtuber Charles Ross in a police costume recording a prank for his youtube viewers. He reminded the public that impersonating an officer is a felony.

David Fiederer, whose family gave significantly to the Knight campaign in 2008, dressed up in a Sarasota Sheriff's uniform in a 'Tom Knight for Sheriff' video at Marina Jacks. However, Fiederer is not a law enforcement officer, but actually works for Fox Furniture (also a major campaign contributor).

Fiederer walked around Marina Jacks in a full police uniform, shaking hands and talking to citizens, before meeting with Tom in a faked photo-op that was supposed to appear to be spontaneous (grass roots).

Does anyone have those pics and can they be posted here? Or have they been scrubbed?

Someone (who?) got David Fiederer, a furniture businessman, to wear a deputy's uniform. Then they (who?) videoed Fiederer impersonating an officer. The manipulative purpose was to falsely show the public that Sarasota's deputies spontaneously support Knight as sheriff. However, Fiederer is not an officer and the photo-op was a charade. It was fake news, which Knight expected people to believe was real news.

[Unregistered]

Does anyone have those pics and can they be posted here? Or have they been scrubbed?

Someone (who?) got David Fiederer, a furniture businessman, to wear a deputy's uniform. Then they (who?) videoed Fiederer impersonating an officer. The manipulative purpose was to falsely show the public that Sarasota's deputies spontaneously support Knight as sheriff. However, Fiederer is not an officer and the photo-op was a charade. It was fake news, which Knight expected people to believe was real news.

In David Fiederer's impersonation incident, was it done with the intent to trick or deceive the public? If the impersonation was done to mislead the public, then the defendant (Charles Ross) could conceivably make a compelling case to have the charges against him dropped (if Fiederer's impersonation pics were to resurface). However, we are very fortunate that defendants and their attorneys don't read this website.

[Unregistered]

Does anyone have those pics and can they be posted here? Or have they been scrubbed?

Someone (who?) got David Fiederer, a furniture businessman, to wear a deputy's uniform. Then they (who?) videoed Fiederer impersonating an officer. The manipulative purpose was to falsely show the public that Sarasota's deputies spontaneously support Knight as sheriff. However, Fiederer is not an officer and the photo-op was a charade. It was fake news, which Knight expected people to believe was real news.

The pics were posted a few years back at a website that is now defunct.