DeCastro isn't a typical candidate for sheriff
Published: Friday, October 12, 2012 at 6:12 p.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 12, 2012 at 6:12 p.m.
As if the topsy-turvy Marion County sheriff's race needed a new twist after recent events, the four-week sprint to the end now invites attention on a unique would-be lawman — Bernie DeCastro.
A year ago DeCastro launched his idealistic but uphill bid for sheriff as the Constitution Party candidate, challenging Republicans Dan Kuhn and Chris Blair as the successor to Sheriff Ed Dean.
County sheriff was the latest of DeCastro's political ventures, which since 2005 also included bids for the governor's office, the Florida House and the U.S. Senate.
But he entered this latest race from an unusual perspective for a sheriff's candidate.
First, while Blair and Kuhn had worked in law enforcement, DeCastro worked with the lawbreakers. More than 20 years ago, DeCastro started Time for Freedom Ministries, a prison ministry and education service. That work later evolved into his current operation, the Re-Entry Center of Ocala, a 100-bed work-release program for state prison inmates.
Secondly, DeCastro had been on the wrong side of the criminal justice system: he spent 18 years in prison.
DeCastro, who turns 68 next week, was arrested more than a dozen times as a young man in Miami, the first being in 1963.
His offenses ranged from misdemeanors like vagrancy and disorderly conduct to burglary, armed robbery and drug possession and drug dealing.
In May 1977 a robbery conviction earned DeCastro a sentence of life in prison.
By 1984, however, he was paroled and a decade later the late Gov. Lawton Chiles issued DeCastro a full pardon. Chiles wrote in the June 1994 order granting DeCastro's pardon, which enabled him to own and carry guns, that he was "living a law-abiding life."
DeCastro said he's troubled that the media and the public focus too much on the first half of his life. Even if he wins the Nov. 6 election, he know that many deputies under his command would likely view him with a "jaundiced eye" because of his past, he said.
It's often overlooked, he said, that in seven years his work-release program has eased more than 1,000 former inmates back into society in Marion County and around the state. Collectively, they've pumped $13 million into the economy.
His work has gotten attention in high places.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns nominated DeCastro in 1991 for then-President George H.W. Bush's Points of Light program.
DeCastro points out that former Gov. Jeb Bush once declared him "one of my heroes" and named him to three separate anti-crime advisory boards.
"I've got a mission here," said DeCastro. "I'm enhancing public safety by changing lives."
Now, the former inmate turned minister turned reformer wants to continue that mission from the Sheriff's Office.
To get there, he must get past Blair on Nov. 6.
Kuhn, formerly the No. 2 person in the Sheriff's Office, was to be DeCastro's opponent after knocking off Blair in the August primary.
Kuhn, however, was driven from the race last week by a sex scandal.
Melissa Cook, the head of Hale Academy, a private school in Ocala, revealed details of an extramarital affair with Kuhn that included allegations of intimate liaisons going on inside the agency's headquarters and while Kuhn was on duty.
Sheriff Dean has launched two investigations to determine what happened and whether any deputies facilitated Kuhn's activities. Three deputies have been suspended with pay pending the outcome.
Kuhn's withdrawal also forced local Republican leaders to select a new nominee. They opted for Blair over nine other candidates.
Blair, a 35-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office and the former head of its major crimes unit, got his new campaign ramped up on Thursday by filing new paperwork. He expected to complete the process Friday.
Soon signs, bumper stickers, billboards and T-shirts emblazoned with his name will be spread across the community, he said.
Blair said the biggest challenge he faces is emphasizing that voters must mark their ballots for Kuhn, whose name must remain on the ballot by law. He added that he will continue to stress the issues he ran on during the primary, trying to cut Marion's violent crime rate and paring down the agency's senior administrative staff.
And Blair maintained that he is not taking DeCastro lightly.
"When you look at the roller coaster ride I've been on over the past two years, you've got to take everything seriously," he said. "Anything can happen."
During the primary, Blair raised $198,323 and spent all but about $7,000 of it.
DeCastro, who has received about one-tenth of Blair's contributions, understands he won't be able to generate the same financial firepower.
Yet he is committed to battling Blair on ideological grounds.
DeCastro maintains that he was the only candidate who would serve as a "constitutional" sheriff, meaning he advocates a staunch adherence to the U.S. Constitution.
DeCastro has issued a pamphlet with a 12-point "sacred oath" that he intends to abide by, if elected.
For example, he asserts that he would not obey any order to "blockade" cities so they become "giant concentration camps."
He would refuse orders to disarm people, conduct warrantless searches, detain anyone as an "unlawful enemy combatant," or round up citizens for holding in "any form of detention camps."
As sheriff, DeCastro also would not permit the enforcement of the Patriot Act or the National Defense Authorization Act, both of which are viewed by some as threats to civil liberties, and would fight local implementation of the United Nations' Agenda 21.
DeCastro, according to his campaign material, also would require deputies to be schooled in the Constitution, arrest federal agents who attempt to violate the constitutional rights of local residents and end DUI checkpoints, which he refers to as "revenue roadblocks."
DeCastro hopes to model the Sheriff's Office after the agencies run by many western sheriffs, such as former Arizona lawman Richard Mack, who is a popular figure among tea party activists for his anti-Washington advocacy.
Federal agencies, DeCastro said, "are going nuts violating people's rights."
"The only one who can stop that is the county sheriff, and a lot of sheriffs don't have the stomach for that," he added. That's because they've come to rely too heavily on federal funding.
"I'm running because I want to protect the people of Marion County," DeCastro said. "If the federal government walks in here and tries to violate the constitutional rights of the citizens (of Marion County), I won't tolerate that."
DeCastro pledged to root out the corruption in the Sheriff's Office, as exemplified by Kuhn, and to reduce costs, primarily by cutting spending at the county jail.
He said he would develop programs based on his work-release operation, and stop jailing people for "stupid crimes."
"We put way too many people in jail," he said. "There are better, more effective sanctions than keeping somebody in a cage."
Since the GOP primary, and more recently after Kuhn's downfall, whispers on the campaign trail suggest Blair and DeCastro have some sort of deal.
Both men denied that they were in cahoots to now set Blair up as the next sheriff.
DeCastro said he would not drop out of the race before Election Day, and added that he had not offered Blair a job as second-in-command, if he won.
DeCastro did acknowledge that after Blair's primary defeat he did send letters to Blair's faithful, telling them he would consult with Blair on how to "straighten up" the agency's operations.
But he did not promise to take Blair on board, he maintained.
"I got in this race to win," DeCastro said.
Contact Bill Thompson at 867-4117 or firstname.lastname@example.org
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