A controversy over the identity of a man caught on surveillance video outside the Hamilton County Courthouse annex in February has come to dominate the race for Third Judicial Circuit State Attorney in recent weeks.

The video shows an unidentified man some claim is Robert L. “Skip” Jarvis, a candidate in the race, posting a note to the annex door on Feb. 28 at about 10:28 p.m.

Jarvis learned of the surveillance footage in March but hoped the controversy would eventually fade. It didn’t.

The video has since surfaced on YouTube.com. An individual identified as “Jane Smith” alerted the Democrat to its presence last week via email.

“I firmly believe that the press is the fourth leg of democracy,” read the email. “Transparency is important. Candidate integrity and honesty is essential.”

The Democrat asked Smith for an interview but has yet to receive a response.



The note posted on the courthouse annex door questions Third Circuit State Attorney Jerry Blair’s handling of a case involving former Hamilton County school official Johnny Bullard. Bullard pleaded guilty to third degree grand theft in early February for writing checks to himself on school accounts while serving as chief operating officer of the Hamilton County Education Foundation, court documents show. The court withheld adjudication of guilt and placed Bullard on probation. He has since made restitution and is no longer on probation. Bullard is a former Suwannee County elementary school principal.

Regardless, Jarvis says the man on the video couldn’t be him, because he was at a meeting at his church that night, and has witnesses to prove it.

Betsy Bergman, the secretary of St. Francis Xavier church on US 90 in Live Oak, told the Democrat that Jarvis was at the meeting at the church and did not leave until sometime after 10 p.m. Bergman said the gathering, a quarterly budget meeting, was scheduled to start at 6:30 but some participants were late and they didn’t get started until around 7:10. Jarvis is the chairman of the finance council at St. Francis. Bergman said the meeting ended around 9:30 that night, but she and Jarvis stayed to discuss an upcoming church event.

“Skip and I worked out a schedule for him to do (an) anti-identity theft (program),” Bergman said. “I left around 10:25 or 10:30. Skip left 10 to 15 minutes prior to that.”

Father Richard Perko of St. Francis told the Democrat that Jarvis was at the meeting as well.

“The night of February 28 at 6:30 p.m. he was there early and didn’t leave until way late, sometime after 10 p.m. because he had to talk to Betsy about some things,” Perko said.

In a March 23 letter to Blair and his staff, Jarvis wrote that “it was after 10 p.m. when I was able to leave the church” and that he was home “before 10:25.”

At posted speeds it is roughly a 20-minute drive from the church to the Hamilton County Courthouse annex.

Jarvis said after talking with Bergman he left and went straight home.

Perko said he finds the accusations against Jarvis unsettling. “He is a good man, devoted his whole life to public service,” he said.

Blair said he refused and still refuses to talk to any of the five witnesses from the church, and believes the person in the video is Jarvis.

Jarvis offered to pay for fingerprint and DNA analysis which he says would clear his name, but Hamilton County law enforcement officials declined, noting that posting the note was not a crime. Blair said he agreed that posting the note did not constitute a crime.



Jarvis resigned from the state attorney’s office in mid-June under pressure from Blair. Blair said he gave Jarvis a choice: resign or be fired.

“The video was not what resulted in Skip leaving office, it was (him) going public,” said Blair Monday.

Jarvis claims Blair began showing employees the tape in his office, but never confronted him about the video.

In response, Jarvis circulated a memo (the March 23 letter mentioned above) within the state attorney’s office denying it was him on the tape.

“Multiple employees told me that he (Blair) took them into his office behind closed doors and showed them the video,” Jarvis said. “By him (Blair) distributing that video and showing it to people behind closed doors, he brought it into the office.”

Blair said he only showed the tape to one other person to try to determine whether the person on the tape was Jarvis.

Said Jarvis, “I wasn’t going to respond at all, but the next thing I know I was the subject of a YouTube video.”

Jarvis said the accusations have cost him dearly.

“The video has hurt me politically and professionally,” he said. “The whole thing has affected my family. What is the purpose for continuing to distribute this video? The man in Jasper was not me and to continue to distribute that video is ludicrous.”

Jarvis will not speculate as to the identity of the man on the tape. But in the March 23 letter he did say that he “was floored as to how much this individual resembles me.”

Jarvis said the controversy is a non-issue and believes it distracts voters from the important issues of the campaign.

The other two candidates for state attorney, Todd Hingson and Alex Prins, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by the Democrat. However, at a recent debate in Lake City, Hingson said he believed the person on the video was Jarvis and asked voters to draw their own conclusions by viewing the video.

At the debate, Prins would not comment on the identity of the man on the tape but also directed voters to the video.

Blair is retiring after 30 years as Third Circuit State Attorney. This is the first time during that period that the office has been contested.