JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The state announced it's filing three new charges against former Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels during a pretrial hearing Wednesday.
In addition to three counts of lying to law enforcement and one count of evidence tampering, the state will now be adding another two counts of giving false information to a law enforcement officer and another count of tampering with evidence.
The state says the new tampering with evidence charge stems from a Google account they claim was deleted. It's a separate from the cell phone evidence.
The defense argued it needs time to evaluate those allegations. This is why the attorney asked for continuance.
The new trial date is set for May 16.
Daniels was arrested and charged in August 2020 following a long-running sex scandal investigation.
The amended Information filed Dec. 9 alleges Daniels lied about an ongoing affair, lied about searching secured databases for personal use, and lied about his county-issued phone.
Daniels pleaded not guilty when the original charges were filed.
FDLE opened an investigation into Daniels at the request of the State Attorney following the May 2019 arrest of his sheriff's mistress, Cierra Smith, based on his allegations of stalking. Daniels admitted to having an affair with Smith, his subordinate, for several years, a relationship that began when Daniels was the director of the Duval County Jail and Smith was a correctional officer.
According to an investigation by the Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement, Daniels attempted to have his own officers arrest her and accused her of stalking him.
Investigators say he later tried to delete evidence of the incident and the affair from his work-issued phone.
Daniels has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He lost his bid for reelection shortly after the FDLE investigative report was released.
Following his arrest, Daniels released a video public statement saying the charges were "baffling ... because it takes a stretching of the imagination to understand personally knowing that I'm innocent."