Nassau County Attorney Mike Mullin to resign after state investigation

NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — Nassau County Attorney Mike Mullin will resign at the end of the month after an investigation by the State Attorney’s Office found he violated public records laws.

According to a 10-page memo, “The State’s investigation found evidence that Mullin committed criminal acts by permitting Nassau County’s systemic failure to preserve public records, failing to truthfully and timely respond to Raydient’s public records request, and allowing the deletion of text messages constituting public records.”

The State agreed to drop prosecution if Mullin resigned as County Attorney to avoid further litigation in criminal court.

The memo also states that Mullin subjected Nassau taxpayers to potential attorneys’ fees.

“This disposition provides finality and certainty in its resolution and allows Nassau County the opportunity to move forward with retaining new counsel.”

Action News Jax obtained a copy of Mullin’s resignation letter to Commissioner Aaron Bell. It reads in part, “there have been highs and lows, mistakes and accomplishments. I have served many Commissions and Constitutional Officers. Every person who serves in either capacity deserves high credit. The positions are vital to good government and very demanding and challenging.”

The state’s investigation stems from a civil dispute in 2017 between Raydient, a local developer, and Nassau County. According to the memo, both parties disagreed over who was responsible for paying and maintaining certain parks and recreational facilities at the “Wildlight” development in Yulee.

RELATED STORY: Nassau County taxpayers stuck with bill for lengthy legal battle between county and Raydient

The investigation found text messages were sent between Mullin and other commissioners regarding the dispute.

“In February of 2018, a delegation of public employees and officials from Nassau County went to Tallahassee to oppose legislation they asserted would impact the (development). Members of the delegation exchanged numerous text messages before, during, and after the trip. The messages concerned the dispute between Raydient and Nassau County and potential courses of action the County might take in challenging Raydient.”

In October 2018, Raydient submitted a public records request. The response from Nassau County did not include email or text communications, according to the state.

The text messages later surfaced after Mullin fired the County’s budget director, Justin Stankiewicz. Action News Jax reported in 2019 when he later filed a grievance, claiming he was fired because he refused to delete the texts.

RELATED STORY: Nassau County Budget Director: I was fired for refusing to destroy public records

In August 2021, Circuit Court Judge James Daniel determined, “No reasonable tier of fact could conclude that the County properly responded to Plaintiff’s public records request by producing the requested text messages in a reasonable and timely manner.”

According to the state’s memo, Mullin’s defense is that he nor county commissioners intentionally deleted the text messages.

“Mullin claims that once he became aware of the existence of the text messages, the county took proactive steps to determine whether any of the text messages were in their possession so they could be provided to Raydient.”

A representative for Rayonier, which is part of Raydient, said, “Rayonier is grateful for the State Attorney’s Office’s efforts seeking accountability for the crimes committed against Rayonier, Raydient and the citizens of Nassau County. Rayonier is disappointed that the county failed to act on their own to remove a clearly compromised county attorney, all the while wasting tax dollars litigating to defend his bad advice and him personally in multiple litigation matters.”

Mullin has no previous criminal history. The Florida Bar tells Action News Jax it has opened a case file on Mullin.

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Mullin sent a statement to Action News Jax that said in part, “I have reviewed the state attorney’s statement released today and with all due respect, I strongly disagree with those findings. The messages which are the subject of the civil suits, were turned over to the requestors beginning in January 2019 and also provided to the State Attorney’s Office in March of 2019. In addition, I have drafted new procedures for maintaining and addressing personal messages on private devices.”

In 2019, the Board of Commissioners did adopt a resolution that prohibits “officers and employees from using private, non-county owned or leased mobile devices to send or receive SMS messages, text messages, instant message, or MMS (multimedia and picture messages) to conduct county business.” It goes on the state that “should an employee receive unsolicited communications that are public records to their private/personal device, it is the duty of the officer or employee to preserve and retain all communications regarding County business and to promptly transfer those records to the custody of the County.”

The County also got an archiving system to automatically capture communications on county-owned phones and tablets.

Read a statement from the County below.

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