Peter Schorsch
Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you are in the recycling business, don’t get arrested and charged with grand theft for stealing recyclable materials.
And another: If you are in the recycling business and you get pre-trial diversion for stealing recyclable materials, don’t get arrested and charged with grand theft AGAIN — in the same year — for stealing more recyclable materials.
Last week we reported about the smell that was wafting toward Alachua County in the form of a proposed agreement with a composting company — Sunshine Organics and Compost.
Well, the odor is growing stronger, and it is becoming clear that Alachua County Commissioners and staff have been duped.
Sunshine, run by Michael J. Kelcourse Jr., has a well-documented history with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), including a 2 1/2-year-old string of violations, warning letters and more.
Despite that, at a June meeting the Alachua County Commissioners authorized its staff to negotiate with Sunshine on a new plan to process up to 120,000 tons of its yard, food and wood waste annually.
That decision is under scrutiny after revelations that Kelcourse also has a habit of not paying his bills, as demonstrated by Duval County court cases, including a default on an $83,000 piece of equipment and a $20,000 judgment regarding an American Express debt.
But now, new details have emerged that reveal Kelcourse spent time in a different Duval County courtroom — in the criminal division.
In January 2015, Kelcourse was charged with felony grand theft for stealing bales of cardboard from behind a Target store in Atlantic Beach. According to police reports, Kelcourse was confronted by deputies and told them he was contracted with Target to recycle the material.
The manager of the Target store revealed that Target does its recycling in house.
Kelcourse and one of his employees were arrested and police seized his truck and other equipment. He entered pre-trial diversion. But in November, Kelcourse tried to steal more cardboard, police say. This time, the incident reads like a bad episode of Dukes of Hazzard. Here’s how police say it went down:
A 59-year-old Jacksonville woman, who worked at the Save-A-Lot in Jacksonville, saw a box truck pulling out from the back of the store with a bail of Save-A-Lot cardboard in the back.
So, she did what any good Save-A-Lot employee would do — she took chase.
Apparently aware the woman was following them, Kelcourse floored it, accelerating to “a high rate of speed attempting to elude her.” Kelcourse’s truck then ran a red light and eventually lost the Save-A-Lot employee.
But Jacksonville Sheriff’s deputies soon tracked down the truck at a gas station and arrested Kelcourse after he walked out of the convenience store. Kelcourse admitted he was the owner of Kelcourse recycling and said he knew he didn’t have a contract that authorized him to take the cardboard.
He told the deputies that he “believed the actual value of the cardboard was about $20.”
But guess what the police say the cardboard was worth? $800. Hey, what’s 4,000% among friends?
Deputies also questioned Kelcourse’s companion, who said he was an employee of Kelcourse Recycling. The man told police he didn’t know what they were doing was illegal and “believed that Kelcourse was running a legitimate business.”
Apparently, so did Alachua County Commissioners when they authorized negotiations with Sunshine Organics and Compost.
This has officially become an embarrassment to Alachua County. A little sunshine reveals that Sunshine has no businesses doing business in Alachua County or anywhere else in the state.
