Eric Garmon ~ 14th District Candidate for State Attorney ~ Makes Sense!Eric Garmon, Republican Candidate for State Attorney in Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit Court, discussed "selective prosecution", the importance of prosecutorial overreach, the importance of the State Attorney in managing a "justice system" versus an "incarceration system" (https://www.garmon2024.com/meet_eric). Join us and please share with friends and family. Click the Image Above ☝️ to Watch the Video Now 📺~ OR ~Click the Podcast Player Play Button Below 👇 to Listen Now 🎧 Eric Garmon ~ 14th District Candidate for State Attorney ~ Makes Sense!Originally Recorded on February 15, 2024Season 2, Episode 237- Learn More at: GeneValentino.com- Image(s) Courtesy of: Gene ValentinoA Special Message from Gene ValentinoGene & Maureen ValentinoABOUT: GrassRoots TruthCast, created by former Escambia County, Florida Commissioner Gene Valentino, broadcasts weekly from Pensacola, Florida. Gene, an investment entrepreneur and avid aviator, is a founding member of VeriJet charter aviation and serves on the company's Board of Directors. When he's not in studio, Gene can usually be found in the skies over the Gulf of Mexico, piloting his ICON A5.Doing “the right thing” is not always easy. It’s not always thought to be wise, most profitable, or popular. Doing the right thing has more to do with “COURAGE”; forged from the principles and beliefs given to you by your parents. There’s an ole’ saying I’ve adopted, “The Politician will tell you what you want to hear. The Leader will tell you what you need to know.” And, telling you what you need to know may not be popular”. So, my Accomplishments here do not show you things I’ve walked away from. As a result, I left A LOT of money on the table. However, God is good! He rewarded me with more wealth than I can speak of with a conscience that is pure and clear. I sleep well at night. I wish for you the same!”Learn more about Gene Valentino by clicking here now. Full Episode Transcript Eric Garmon ~ 14th District Candidate for State Attorney ~ Makes Sense!Carla Sands: Hey folks, Carla Sands here, putting in a plug for Gene Valentino's Grassroots Truthcast.Narrator: With breaking news and political commentary from a public servant, serial entrepreneur, community leader, philanthropist, and American patriot, and a darn nice guy, it's time for the Grassroots Truthcast and your host, Gene Valentino.Gene Valentino: hi folks, Gene Valentino and welcome to another episode of Gene Valentino's Grassroots Truthcast. Glad you're with us today. You know, we've tried to have guests and talent with us from all walks of life over the 150 episodes we've done here on Grassroots Truthcast.Today, this week, we're going to be featuring Eric Garman. He is the 14th District Circuit Court Candidate for State Attorney. Very interesting gentleman from the Bay County area, Panama City Beach. Welcome aboard, Eric. Glad to have you with us. Hey Gene, good to be with you. Well, I thought we'd start, uh, on your background and then get into the whole history of the judicial system, your background, and of course, why you're running for office.Let's do that right after this message.Hello, I'm Mike Lindell, and I'm here to tell you about my new product from MyPillow. Towels that actually work. Watch this absorbency test. Here's another towel that we randomly went out and bought. Here's one of my towels with a nice design. I don't know if you can see this, but you could line a swimming pool with this.I mean, this is crazy. Get rid of it. Towels that actually work. What a concept. I'm interrupting this commercial to let you know you can get our six piece my towels regularly 69. 98 now only 29. 98 or you can save 25 percent on our brand new kitchen towels made with the same technology as our famous my towels.Also we have bath sheets, bath towels, washcloths, hand towels and so much more and the best part With your promo code, your entire order ships absolutely free. So go to MyPillow. com or call the number on your screen. Use that promo code to get deep discounts on all my towels. And for a limited time, your order ships absolutely free.Gene Valentino: hi folks, and welcome back to our episode with Eric Garman. Eric's from the Panama City Beach area. He's a candidate, a Republican candidate in the 14th Circuit Court Judicial District of Florida's 20 something judicial districts, uh, uh, circuit court districts throughout the state.And, uh, Eric, welcome aboard. Uh, glad to have you with us. Yeah, thanks for havingEric Garmon: me.Gene Valentino: Talk to me about Eric Garman. Where's Eric Garman coming from? Why you'd want to run for, uh, a state attorney in the judicial court system? Very interested in hearing your background.Eric Garmon: Sure. I mean, it's like most things in my life.It's, it's not something that I necessarily was always looking for, but it's a calling that I heard and one that I knew I had to answer. Um, you know, as. As you've probably seen in my bio, but what I go into is, after high school, the towers got hit, and like many people my age in that area, or that era, um, I answered the call and I joined the Marine Corps.When I got out of the Marine Corps, I wanted to continue serving my, my country, more specifically my local area, so I became a police officer. And when I became a police officer, I got to see the criminal justice system from the very beginning, the initial genesis. I got to see, you know, how really victims were affected and suspects were affected.And just, I mean, from, from the grassroots level, if you will, uh, the, the very beginning. And I did that for quite a few years. Um, after five years of active service, I decided that I wanted to serve my community in a different role and attend law school. So I did that. Uh, I continued to serve in a reserve officer capacity, so I still kept my thumb on the beat and a very active involvement in the criminal justice system.And then after law school, um, I became an attorney and Over the years of being an attorney, um, I did things from, you know, not only doing some criminal defense work, but also, uh, one of my primary jobs for a while, I was defending officers federally in 1983 civil rights violation cases. So I got a real holistic look and approach at many different cases and many different aspects of the local criminal justice system.Um, and then, as years went on, very similar to answering the call, not only to join the military, but, you know, be a police officer, I started seeing just a lot of inefficiencies and a lot of injustice, and, and unfortunately, inefficiencies can lead to injustice, uh, passively, but, you know, also some active and Just like any other time, I saw a need and I said, well, uh, I believe that I've got not only the experience, but the determination, uh, to make sure this happens.And, you know, regardless of who you are, I've been a police officer. No, no one is going to support the police officers and the first responders in our community more than I. But no one's going to hold them accountable more than I. Um, so, you know, not just them, but the system as a whole. So when I see the system not working as though it should, and as though I know it can, and I've seen it function before, um, I have real no other option at that point but to do something to change it.So that's why I decided to run for state attorney. Do you haveGene Valentino: to be an attorney to run, uh, to be able to be qualified to run for state attorney? YouEric Garmon: do. And you have to be an attorney for at least five years, uh, is, is the other requirement.Gene Valentino: I remember some old history in Florida in particular, unlike other states, where some of the judges or prosecutorial positions in the state did not require you to go to law school or even pass the bar.That's kind of fallen by the wayside, IEric Garmon: take it. It has. I don't remember exactly, but not too long ago, I'd say within the last five to ten years, our last judge that was not a lawyer, um, left the bench, to my knowledge, but, um, as far as, as far as I know, unless there's some, uh, special administrative role, uh, to be an administrative or, or judge otherwise, you now have to be a lawyer, and, and rightfully so.What caught my attentionGene Valentino: is that you're, you were intending to run for office for reasons very similar to why I ran for office. I was a former county commissioner from 2006 to 2014, two terms. And my heart was, is and was in the right spot. I really wanted to do good for the community and promote some projects that I know had been, uh, waylaid over the years.And, uh, I sense from you, especially since you were on the law enforcement side as an officer, first you saw it up close and personal. I agree with the premise of your point. You certainly saw it first hand, and as a, uh, a state attorney, you're taking to heart those law enforcement officers representations of the facts in the case.Yes? No?Eric Garmon: Absolutely. I mean, you are taking to heart the representations, but it's also extremely incumbent upon you and your duty. to make sure that you're investigating those claims. Because the law enforcement officer is going to do the absolute best they can with, you know, split second decisions and sometimes questionable information.But, you know, as long as they can form probable cause to send it up, that's fine and great. But where it really becomes an issue is The elected state attorney and all the assistant state attorneys that he employs, you take an oath as a state attorney, not only as a lawyer, but specifically as a state attorney, that you will investigate claims before you levy charges and before you file formal charges, saying that someone has committed a crime.Uh, and unfortunately, you know, one of the many, again, one of the many issues is inefficiencies can lead to injustice. And this is one of the primary examples. Because once those formal charges have been filed, a lot different, uh, a lot different factors come into play, not only, uh, affecting your life, your liberties, and otherwise, but also affecting the court system, uh, and, you know, the involvement they have to have that sometimes they shouldn't.So, um, the, The investigation should not stop when you go to jail. That's when it really should start. And that's when the state attorneys and their investigators should really make sure, okay, we've been given a charge. Somebody said that, you know, we believe that a crime has, uh, or is occurring. Um, and they were taken to jail.Um, let's, let's look at that. I mean, and sometimes it can be just as simple as watching a video. I mean, you know, there's so many times that we hear that cases end up being dismissed, you know, weeks and months and sometimes years later, when there was clear video evidence that could have been watched and formal charges never would have had to been filed.And we can get into That, if you'd like, as far as, you know, that decision and how that really isn't one of the most important decisions of the office.Gene Valentino: I would like to come back to that and please interrupt me if I don't. Um, but something you mentioned a minute ago, inefficiencies can lead to injustice.Um, you know, when I was running as well, um, There was what I affectionately, is affectionately referred to as the good old boy crowd in most communities. Every community seems to have it. They bring a new candidate, uh, up on deck along the way and next thing you know, uh, he's got to go through the rites of Excuse me, the rites of passage to earn the respect and the confidence of some of those that have been there generations before you and me.The point I'm making is that, um, sometimes that good old boy network doesn't have justice first, it has me first. And, um, in that process, justice slips or wanes or doesn't get, um, isn't as the decisions to getting to a decision, uh, aren't as pure and clear as you first thought they were. It seems to be one of the shortcomings in our democratic constitutional republic.What say you about that? I felt um, I felt where I had to be pushed to move in a direction that was uncomfortable for me in the past. How are you going to handle such a, such a, a push or a nudge?Eric Garmon: I think to be a good leader and look at the end of the day, the state attorney is the top elected prosecutor of the judicial circuit, but they're also they're a leader.I mean, just like the head of any organization and. I think one of the things that any good leader has to embrace is being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Um, and sometimes that can be, there could be a very good friend that you have, but at the end of the day, the levies, uh, the charges were levied, the evidence is either there or not.It's at least purported to be there. And again, you have to investigate that. So you either have to have the courage to, you know, look that person in the eye and say, listen, we have a relationship. Um, and I hope that continues, but I have a job to do and I hope you can understand that, or if it's too, too much of an issue to where you believe you might be compromised or there could be the appearance of being compromised, conflict it out, right?That's why we have a system that says, Hey, uh, we're going to send this over to another, you know, area because there's not going to be a personal toll taken there, but also there's going to be, you know, a very clear look, factual look at whether there is a case or not a case. And what we see a lot of times is these cases being dropped that maybe there's a legitimate reason for them being dropped, but maybe someone else should make that decision.Maybe someone who's Not closely tied to them or, you know, we live in small communities. I know you're in the Pensacola area. Bay County is no different. Uh, everybody seems to know everybody, but, you know, somebody from a neutral position, if they then say, look, we've looked at the evidence and the evidence is just not there, we're not going to pursue this charge.Though it may have the appearance of, well, you know, it's just because of who this person is, the charge was dropped, when you have an impartial prosecutor making that decision, then you really remove a lot of that. And, uh, again, that's Part of having a well founded intake process to identify these things, um, is, is extremely important.But of course we see it. Of course we see it. And I mean, that's again, one of the reasons that I'm running. I mean, it's not just on the news, but you know, everybody that I've talked to, and I've talked to a lot of people since I've started running, everybody has a story. Um, and you know, sometimes these stories, they might not all facts, but a lot of times they have legitimate complaints.And, you know, it's, it's a decision when you start getting the good ol boys, if you will, or the network, if you're too closely tied to it, refer it out. But You need to have the courage to stand up and say, this is my job, this is why I was elected, and we're going forward with this.Gene Valentino: Okay, now take those good principles you espoused just now, uh, in your drive for the, uh, state attorney's job in the 14th Circuit, and apply that, copy and paste that principle to Ms.Fannie Willis and what's going on in New York City right now. You wanna draw a comparison?Eric Garmon: Uh, Fannie Willis in Atlanta?Gene Valentino: Uh, excuse me, Fannie Willis in Atlanta? Yes, indeed.Eric Garmon: Prime example. I mean, that is a prime example. Again, uh, the special prosecutor, um, you know, it is espoused that he's very well qualified, even though he's got no felony experience, he's got no organized crime experience, he was mostly in misdemeanors.Um, it, it said that he was a judge, he really was, I think, a magistrate at the local city level. All those things aside, he still has been an attorney for a very long time. He very well may be qualified, but when you have such a high level, uh, such a high profile case, and you know that you're going to be under scrutiny Why introduce even the appearance of impropriety or the appearance.You want a clean prosecution because part of our jobs as prosecutors or you know, the job that I'm vying to have is, is having a clean prosecution. Right? Why would we set up possible areas of appeal, possible areas to court, clog the courts? No matter how qualified that gentleman may be, with that personal relationship being there, I'm sure there are a multitude of other qualified individuals that just as well could carry that out.So it's exactly the same thing, right? And it's exactly what should happen on the local level. Um, just because somebody's qualified doesn't mean that they are qualified holistically, uh, to prosecute the case. And what I mean by that is if you have Biases, either you know the person or you have longstanding relationships, or your boss has longstanding relationships, whether you may be able to recognize that or not, there's going to be certain pressures that there's just no reason to have.You remove those, and you have somebody from a different area come in, and that doesn't mean everybody has biases, but I mean, at the end of the day, the ones that are clear and obvious, we should, we should do all that we can to remove those, and it's actually our duty to do that.Gene Valentino: Folks, we're talking with Eric Garmin, running for state attorney in the 14th circuit court system.We're gonna ex uh, Eric, I'm gonna ask you to give us a little education on the court system in Florida. Uh, how, what's, how's it like, uh, or in comparison to the rest of the nation, but I know we have 20 circuit courts. In Florida, a certain number of appellate courts, and of course, every county's got a county court system.If you could help distinguish that for me, and uh, in a minute, I would. But what, what I'm concerned about is, are these issues becoming more prevalent, the Fannie Willis story in Atlanta, uh, in terms of, um, Compromises to, uh, to justice, selective prosecution and, um, uh, and subversive or, uh, advantaged prosecution that, um, uh, you know, hurts one person but not another.Uh, this, this, this balance issue that, that's, uh, emblematic by your, your blinded, uh, judge carrying the scales. is representative of the notion that they are impartial.
