The email was sent with the subject line “Names for the list.” It includes the names Rex Jensen, Lawrence Jensen, Robert Keehn, Marie Keehn and Baugh. It also included their addresses, birth dates and phone numbers. Lawrence Jensen is Rex Jensen’s father while the Keehns are Baugh’s former neighbors.
“Names for vaccination requested,” Baugh wrote to Saur in the body of the email, which was sent at 12:58 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 15.
Barfield alleges in his complaint that Baugh may have violated Florida laws prohibiting the misuse of public position. When Baugh inserted individuals and herself on a Covid-19 vaccine distribution list she acted contrary to the adopted Vaccine Standby Pool and used her official position to secure a special privilege, benefit, or exemption for herself and others, Barfield wrote.
Residents of the upscale Grand Palm community in Venice, where one home currently is listed for sale at $855,000, have access to a resort-style swimming pool with a water slide, miles of hiking and biking trails, a children’s splash pad and basketball, tennis, bocce ball and volleyball courts.
Grand Palm property owners and family members also were offered special access to the COVID-19 vaccine through a pop-up clinic in Charlotte County organized by Grand Palm developer Neal Communities, according to emails obtained by the Herald-Tribune.
Grand Palm’s inclusion in the clinic has not been previously disclosed. The community was not mentioned in a statement provided to the Herald-Tribune by Neal Communities Tuesday that listed six communities offered the vaccine through the clinic, including the Boca Royale Golf & Country Club development in Englewood where some homes are worth more than $1 million.
The Manatee County Sheriff s Office is investigating Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, according to Public Information Officer Randy Warren.
Warren said the sheriff s office received a two dozen-page complaint Monday from Sarasota paralegal consultant Michael Barfield, who is also the board president for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. Once we got that, we started looking through it, Warren said. That s the process that we re in right now. We want to examine what the claims are to see if there were any laws that were broken.
The investigation is part of the continuing fallout from Baugh s role in organizing a pop-up vaccination site last week at Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, which was requested by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Manatee County s Vaccination Standby Pool was used to select 3,200 residents who live in the 34202 and 34211 ZIP Codes.