There’s something different about Florida sheriffs, but few stand out as much as Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
In an appearance Monday on “Fox and Friends,” Judd said squatters in his county who think they can ride out months of legal wrangling while living rent-free are going to end up with a “one-way ride to the county jail.”
“We have people that want to move into vacant houses. Sometimes they try to do that with a dummied-up contract, and what they are doing is trespassing; they have broken into somebody’s house,” Judd said. “There are many jurisdictions across the state and across the nation that say, oh, it’s civil. So now, all of a sudden, these free-loaders are in your house for months while it works its way through the civil process.”
“Well, the state of Florida made that abundantly clear through our Governor DeSantis, who we think is the greatest guy ever, and our Legislature, they said no, we are going to make that a criminal event,” he continued. “Well, in Polk County, it was already a criminal event… We load them up and give them a one-way ride to the county jail. It’s just that simple. You don’t have to bog it down in court. Just do what’s right.”
Florida’s Sheriff Grady Judd says the quiet part out loud!
All states should be doing this except the Democrats don’t give a fig about American lives or property.
All in for the vote. Nothing else matters. pic.twitter.com/cbTydLi4rt— SweetPeaBelle (@SweetPeaBell326) April 1, 2024
“It’s always been that way in this County; they pop smoke on us and leave whenever they get out of jail, and they’re gone,” the sheriff added. “I mean, they’re gone fast because we don’t put up with it, and that’s the bottom line, Lawrence, across this nation. If you get tired of it, do something about it.”
Gov. DeSantis recently signed anti-squatter legislation that “specifically allows law enforcement to remove squatters who can’t produce a notarized lease signed by the landowner or proof that they are paying rent for the property,” Florida’s Voice reported.
Speaking of DeSantis, the sheriff caught his attention during an appearance on the Fox Business Network.
“If those folks had lived in Polk County with that million dollar house and squatters had gone there, we would have gone there and arrested them, and have taken them to jail immediately,” Sheriff Judd said. “In Florida, it would have been a different story. Especially in my county.”
The governor shared the clip, adding: “Something tells me that squatters will not be targeting Polk County residences with our new law being enforced by Sheriff Grady Judd!”
Something tells me that squatters will not be targeting Polk County residences with our new law being enforced by Sheriff Grady Judd! https://t.co/LEdsncQSQJ
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 2, 2024
Judd stressed that “squatting” was not a major problem in Polk County.
“On the few occasions that they’ve tried that silliness here, we go there, determine the owner is really the owner and lock the suspects up,” he said.
Then again, this is the same sheriff who was once asked about a fugitive gunman, accused of killing one of his deputies, being shot 68 times by officers.
“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Judd told the Orlando Sentinel at the time, adding, “I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that’s all the ammunition they had.”
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Author: Tom Tillison
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