A.G. Gancarski
A season of adversity continues for the President of the Jacksonville City Council, with his namesake son facing more than two dozen charges for possession of child pornography.
As first reported by Anne Schindler of First Coast News, Tommy Hazouri Jr. was arrested Wednesday at his home. He faces 25 charges. Each charge encompasses at least ten different images of “photographs/sexual performance by a child.”
Hazouri Jr., an elementary school teacher until he was reassigned just weeks ago, is dealing with other issues, including a foreclosure and being sued for delinquent credit card debt, Schindler notes.
For Tommy Hazouri Sr.. the timing of what he describes as a family matter could not be worse, as his year atop the legislative body has thus far been fraught with challenges.
Shortly after the Democrat became Council president at the end of June, he had lung transplant surgery.
He is still recovering at home, with Vice President Sam Newby, a Republican, helming the body in the interim.
In the weeks Hazouri helmed the Council, he dealt with the city’s attempt to host what was to be a relocated Republican National Convention.
Even as his surgery loomed, Hazouri gamely took questions from national media on the event, striking a delicate balance between expressing doubts about the event and not getting sideways with Republican Mayor Lenny Curry, a political ally despite the party divide.
The Curry/Hazouri dynamic was initially fraught with tension.
“He’s loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight,” Curry said in 2015, quoting Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” to the Florida Times-Union.
Soon enough, however, they found ways to work together, with Hazouri backing a plan to reamortize old pension debt and pay for it with a future sales tax, becoming a valued Democratic voice of support for the Mayor’s referendum.
After that, Curry cleared the way for a Hazouri priority, expanding LGBT rights with an enhanced Human Rights Ordinance.
The mutual admiration between the Republican Mayor and the former Democratic Mayor continued.
Hazouri endorsed Curry for re-election, and in turn Curry backed Hazouri’s bid for City Council president.
Hazouri, well into his 70s and with medical problems, now has another problem on the personal front.
His year as City Council president, a dream he harbored for years, has quickly become a year he might rather forget.
5 comments
Chickens coming home
August 20, 2020 at 11:54 am
hahahahah THE CHICKENS ARE COMING HOME TO ROOST, as blacks like to say
The facts
August 20, 2020 at 3:18 pm
Unfortunately, Mr. Hazouri and his best friend Harry Shorstein (who’s son was dismissed from the SA office in Daytona for viewing pornography on a state computer) is very familiar with this behavior.
When Mr. Hazouri was Mayor, his nephew in law, Stephen Edmonds (a married man) was caught molesting boys as the RA in the Bolles HS boarding dorm. No arrest or charges were filed because Bolles didn’t want a black eye and Uncle Tommy intervened. Fast forward to Edmonds arrest in 2002 and he is charged with 13 felony counts on three boys; Uncle Tommy, SA Harry Shorstein, Judge AC Soud (a relative of Edmonds on the Hazouri side- his wife) and Judge Skinner worked together to give the First Baptist Deacon -serial pedophile a pass. He spent 8 months at the P farm instead of hard time in state prison. Why do all these politically corrupt adults think sexually assaulting innocent children isn’t a crime you should spend a minimum of 20 years behind bars for? It’s the sickest crime imaginable.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Susan Lenehan
August 20, 2020 at 5:55 pm
I hope he gets life. He dated my ex-daughter in law for a bit and all they did was drink and drug. I have a 12-year-old granddaughter that he almost got his hands on. My granddaughter wouldn’t go anywhere near him because she said he gave her the creeps. Thank God she’s smarter than her dumb ass drunk mother.
Frankie M.
August 20, 2020 at 4:53 pm
Will this slow the momentum for the sales tax referendum?
No 1/2 cents sales tax for schools
September 1, 2020 at 4:54 am
Lets hope it stop its cold. People are turning against teachers. Because they are crying, we cant teach in the schools we are scared. I bet they are not scared of going to Walmart, Target, Publix. those employees have to work, and they do not make near the amount teachers make, So, keep on complaining, the people will vote NO on the 1/2 cents sales tax for 30 YEARS..
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