“Innocent until proven guilty.”
It’s not just the title of a fictional legal thriller. It’s a fundamental right and a foundation of our legal system.
It’s also the reason the reminder appears on the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office website — you know, the one we all check daily to see the latest batch of mugshots from arrests in the Florida Keys. The sheriff’s office website — keysso.net — states:
“The people shown on these pages have been arrested but have not been found guilty in a court of law. For case dispositions, and for detailed information on criminal and civil court cases, visit the Monroe County Clerk of the Courts website.”
Those case dispositions are essential, as they often show that a person’s arrest — and online mugshot — did not lead to a conviction. Many times, their arrest does not even lead to a trial, a plea bargain or an admission of guilt.
I got a call at the office two weeks ago that provided a stark admonition of my responsibility as a journalist and local news reporter in a small town.
In July, Gwendolyn L. Carter, 68, a Big Pine resident who had worked at the Big Pine Winn-Dixie, was fired for alleged theft, and a warrant was issued for her arrest, which occurred weeks later in northern Florida.
Carter’s mugshot appeared on the Clay County Sheriff’s Office website and still appears on the Monroe County site, but related to a 2022 arrest — a case that was dismissed by the courts.
Managers at the Big Pine Winn-Dixie did not return two phone calls seeking comment on Carter’s firing and alleged theft.
A search of the Monroe County Clerk of Court website (monroe-clerk.com/) shows how both cases against Carter ended. The alleged theft from Winn Dixie was not prosecuted. The legal term is “Nolle Prosequi,” and the court document states that prosecutors declined to prosecute the theft because they could not prove it. In the case of Carter’s former arrest in 2022, when she had a physical altercation with her brother, the charges were dropped.
But a quick search of the sheriff’s office website shows mugshots and initial charges, but no outcomes.
“I haven’t lived a perfect life. I’ve had a tough life, but I’ve gotten it together,” Carter told the Keys Weekly. “And I never stole from Winn-Dixie. They had no security footage of me stealing anything. Even the company’s asset control manager knew he didn’t have footage of me stealing because it didn’t happen. I signed my dismissal form under duress. I loved my job there and honestly, would just love to get my job back.”
But in the meantime, Carter has been denied — and dismissed from — new jobs following a quick search of the local mugshots that show a DUI and a battery arrest. (The petit theft appears with her mugshot in Clay County, where she was arrested on the Winn-Dixie warrant.) A deeper search of online court records shows no criminal convictions for Gwendolyn L. Carter for anything more than reckless driving.
In the words of a 1970 U.S. Supreme Court decision, “The accused during a criminal prosecution has at stake interests of immense importance, both because of the possibility that he may lose his liberty upon conviction and because of the certainty that he would be stigmatized by the conviction. Accordingly, a society that values the good name and freedom of every individual should not condemn a man for commission of a crime when there is reasonable doubt about his guilt.”
