FORT PIERCE, FL—Businessman Anthony DiFrancesco has filed a defamation lawsuit against Richard Del Toro, the Port St. Lucie Chief of Police and candidate for county sheriff, for calling DiFrancesco a "felon" in a July attack advertisement.
On July 3rd, Del Toro's political committee, Friends of Richard Del Toro, created a website—www.shadysheriff.com—to attack his opponent in the Republican primary, the DeSantis-backed, interim sheriff Keith Pearson. In the ad, a section called "Friendly With Felons" shows a photo of Pearson next to DiFrancesco claiming the sheriff keeps "close company with felons," detailing the businessman's lengthy list of past legal wrongs, which includes assault, battery, and cocaine possession.
The ad also claims DiFrancesco was arrested on 32 separate occasions between 1985 and 1994 when in reality, he stresses in the suit, he was arrested just 24 times.
Now a philanthropist whose charitable activities could allegedly "fill a book", DiFrancesco filed a defamation suit on July 8th against Del Toro and his political committee (which he chairs) for an amount exceeding $50,000, alleging libel, slander, and defamation per se. Why? Because DeSantis pardoned him in January 2023—meaning that by Florida law, he is not a felon.
The Governor's office has never publicly explained why he was pardoned and did not respond to a request for comment, but records indicate that DiFrancisco first applied for clemency application in 2009, during the Crist administration.
"Del Toro...with many years in law enforcement, without question, knew that after...DiFrancesco was granted a Full Pardon by the Florida Executive Clemency Board he should never be referred to as a 'felon'," the lawsuit claims, arguing that such a description was "malicious, intentional, and libelous" because it wanted to "pursue the narrative that [DiFrancesco] is a felon."
The lawsuit alleges Del Toro described Pearson with "middle school nicknames like 'Shady'" before alleging that the "felon" statements exposed DiFrancesco to "hatred, mental anguish, ridicule, and disgrace."
Defamation damages aren't the only thing DiFrancesco is after...he's also looking for a temporary injunction against Del Toro and the committee for their "slanderous and defamatory actions". This means he has a list of requests, including the ad's removal from the website, a published apology acknowledging the ad is inaccurate and not truthful, posting the definition of a full pardon, and not posting any other statements regarding DiFrancesco.
So...how does DiFrancesco connect to Pearson?
According to the lawsuit, DiFrancesco was once a "high-end" donor to Del Toro's campaign for St. Lucie County Sheriff—before DeSantis appointed Pearson in December 2023.
Pearson is no stranger to controversy—to the point that some have speculated that Republicans do not want him to be their nominee come August. In the 2020 race for St. Lucie Sheriff, he was the subject of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into allegations of election fraud, in which he was accused of having facilitated a “ghost” candidate scheme to help incumbent Democrat Sheriff Ken Mascara.
Pearson was subsequently cleared of all allegations. Charges were never filed against him.
Mascara retired last year after 23 years—causing DeSantis to appoint Pearson in his stead until the 2024 elections.
Del Toro, meanwhile, was recently cleared of alleged Hatch Act violations after he came under fire for releasing an e-vite alleging that law enforcement leaders backed his candidacy. This, some argued, violated the law preventing unelected officials from using their "official authority" to affect election outcomes.
The Republican primary will be held on August 20th and the general election on November 5th.
