Prosecutors File New Charge Against Former Pinellas Deputy Accused of Misusing Flock Camera Data After Dropping First Case

Pinellas-Pasco prosecutors have filed a new criminal charge against Karl Gwynne, a former Pinellas County sheriff's deputy accused of querying law enforcement databases, including the agency's Flock automatic license plate reader system, hundreds of times to keep track of a woman he wanted to date. The new case, opened Friday, Nov. 6, charges Gwynne with a single count of official misconduct, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The filing came one week after State Attorney Bruce Bartlett's office dropped the charges on which Gwynne was originally arrested, writing that Florida law as it stands did not reach the conduct deputies described. Gwynne has not been convicted of any crime, and his attorney has said he will fight the new charge.

What the sheriff says Gwynne did

Gwynne, 57, was hired by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in 2005. Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a Sept. 30 news conference that the investigation began with a media inquiry about a large number of searches in the agency's license plate reader database. An internal audit then showed Gwynne had run the plate of a 35-year-old woman he had arrested in 2010 roughly 300 times, according to the sheriff.

Further investigation found 81 more queries on the woman in other databases, including the Florida Crime Information Center, the statewide law enforcement records management system and the agency's own records system, Gualtieri said. In all, the sheriff's office counted 381 queries across five databases between January 2025 and July 2026, 207 of them made while Gwynne was off duty, according to Fox 13 and the Times.

The sheriff's office said Gwynne had let the woman and her mother stay in a condo he owns in 2025 and had bought her gifts. She rejected his advances and told him she only wanted to be friends, according to the agency. When supervisors questioned Gwynne on Sept. 11, he first said the searches were for official reasons, then admitted he wanted a relationship with the woman, Gualtieri said. Gwynne resigned the same day.

Arrest, dismissal and a new filing

Gwynne was arrested Sept. 30 and charged with four counts of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority and one count of official misconduct. He was released from the Pinellas County Jail on $25,000 bond, WUSF reported.

On Oct. 30, Bartlett filed a notice that his office would not pursue those charges, according to the Times. The filing said current provisions in Florida law "do not address the misconduct reported," and added an unusual line: "This office will seek to have the legislature correct this situation in the next session." The Times separately reported the court filing as dated Oct. 29.

Gualtieri publicly signaled that the case was not over. At a Nov. 5 news conference, he said he had been talking with Bartlett about what he called "disagreements about interpreting the elements of the statute," and said prosecutors could still file a new charging document. The next day, Bartlett's office did.

In a statement to the Times, Bartlett said his office had been working through the facts of the case as they apply to Florida law to make sure it had a good faith basis to move forward. "It is in the public interest that we are careful and methodical prior to filing charges in any situation, whether it involves a law enforcement officer or not," Bartlett said. He did not explain the legal reasoning behind the new charge and declined further comment because the case is open.

Gwynne's attorney, Kym B. Rivellini, had welcomed the decision to drop the first case. After the new filing, Rivellini said, "We are disappointed, though not shocked, to learn that the State changed its position," adding that the defense would "renew our efforts to vigorously defend Mr. Gwynne in light of this turn of events."

What official misconduct means under Florida law

Florida's official misconduct statute is narrower than the computer access charges Gwynne first faced. It defines the offense in part as a public servant falsifying, or causing another person to falsify, an official record or document, or concealing, covering up, destroying or altering one. The Times noted that Bartlett's statement did not say which part of the statute the state is relying on.

Gualtieri has said deputies are required to enter a reason each time they run a query in the identification databases, and in other cases the sheriff has described deputies entering false reasons to make personal searches look like official business.

Two other Pinellas deputies charged

Gwynne is one of three Pinellas deputies arrested this fall over misuse of law enforcement systems. Travis Stanton, 33, resigned Sept. 25 and was arrested Sept. 30, accused of using agency and state databases to look up a 17-year-old girl he met at the restaurant where she worked, the sheriff said. Court records show Stanton is charged with harassment by use of personal information, a third-degree felony, and stalking, a first-degree misdemeanor, and he has an arraignment scheduled for Nov. 16, according to the Times. Gualtieri has said Stanton's case did not involve the license plate reader database.

On Nov. 5, the sheriff announced the arrest of Ronald Scott, 35, who resigned a day earlier. Gualtieri said Scott searched for information on his estranged wife, her new boyfriend and others more than 100 times between February and June, beginning on Valentine's Day, using Flock data along with databases maintained by the FBI, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Scott is charged with three counts of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority and one count of official misconduct, the same charges on which Gwynne was first arrested, and posted $20,000 bail, according to the Times.

The wider Flock debate in Florida

Gualtieri has defended license plate reader technology, describing the cases as individual misuse rather than a flaw in the system. "It's really not an issue with the product," he said in September, according to Spectrum Bay News 9. After Scott's arrest, he said historical audits of the systems, which the agency has used since 2022, were complete, and that the office would continue weekly and monthly audits for unusual searches.

The Pinellas cases are part of a broader statewide reckoning over the cameras. The Florida Department of Transportation has ordered Flock cameras removed from state roads, and in a separate case on Florida's east coast, two former Indian River County sheriff's deputies face felony charges in a Flock misuse investigation announced by Sheriff Eric Flowers.

What's next

Gwynne's new official misconduct case will proceed in Pinellas County circuit court. Bartlett's Oct. 30 filing also signaled that his office intends to ask the Legislature to address database misuse by officers in the next session, which could change the charging options for future cases. Stanton is due for arraignment Nov. 16, and Scott had not entered a plea as of his arrest.