'Wheel of Fugitive' lawsuit: Florida Supreme Court assigns Okeechobee judge to case
The Florida Supreme Court on Friday assigned an Okeechobee County judge to oversee a lawsuit against Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey over his controversial "Wheel of Fugitive" web show, after difficulties finding a judge who would hear the case in Brevard.
Circuit Court Judge Laurie Buchanan of the 19th Judicial Circuit was assigned to the case Friday in an order signed by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz. The 19th Circuit includes Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.
The suit has been stuck in limbo since December, when 18th Circuit Judge George Paulk became the third judge to recuse themselves from the case for political or social ties to Ivey.
David Austin Gay, of Brevard, filed suit against Ivey and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office in January, 2023, after he said three appearances on the sheriff's popular Facebook 'gameshow' between January and February, 2021, cost him a job. Gay was not actually a fugitive at the time.
A 2021 FLORIDA TODAY investigation found Gay was one of 60 'fugitives' wrongly featured on the wheel between February 2020 and February 2021 who were either in jail, already free or had no active arrest warrant when the episodes aired.
Ivey has continued airing episodes of the show on the sheriff's office official Facebook account, despite the lawsuit.
Muñiz signed the order after Gay's attorney, Jessica Travis of Defend Brevard in Melbourne, filed a motion in late March seeking the reassignment or a change of venue to a different court.
Ivey "regularly appears with and endorses judges and officials in Brevard," Travis wrote in the March 21 filing. The recusals have been "illustrative of the ongoing problem finding a judge that has not associated with Ivey," she wrote.
Attorneys with the Winter Park law firm DeBevoise and Poulton, who are representing Ivey, argued against the change of venue, citing existing case law, but did not object to the assignment of an outside judge in court filings.
"I am glad we have a judge and can move forward in the case. However, the difficulty in getting a Brevard judge unconnected to the sheriff signals difficulty in getting a Brevard jury," Travis said in a statement late Friday. "The next step is to litigate my motion for a change of venue so that David Gay may have jurors free from any favoritism or concerns about the sheriff's influence."
Ivey's attorneys did not return a request for comment Friday.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida Supreme Court assigns judge to Ivey's 'Wheel of Fugitive' suit
