CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — It began as a six-year affair.
It ended Thursday with the arrest of Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels.
The sheriff was booked at his own jail after a special prosecutor determined he committed four crimes, all related to alleged attempts to cover up his affair and related fallout. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Daniels.
The week’s developments resurrect the scandal’s origin story and raise new questions about the sheriff's political viability in Tuesday's primary election.
The scandal began May 6, 2016, when Daniels called 911 to report his longtime girlfriend Cierra Smith was stalking him.
Days earlier, Daniels had confessed the years-long affair to his wife. According to police reports, she in turn threatened to kill Smith.
In an interview with First Coast News soon after her arrest, Smith said her 7-year-old daughter was in her car that night, and that she planned on meeting Daniels at the Oakleaf Plantation park as they’d often done.
But Daniels' wife was there as well, and when the sheriff called his own officers to the scene, he told them she was a stalker.
“He did tell the officer -- 'hey, she’s crazy,'” Smith said. “One minute you’re telling me you have my back, ‘we’re in this together.’ And then you turn around and you allow one of your officers to arrest me.”
At Daniels’ direction, Clay County Deputies cuffed Smith and took her into custody.
But officers "did not feel comfortable putting this woman in jail and did not believe there was probable cause for the arrest." They released her six hours later, without booking her.
The incident triggered a cascade of impacts. Daniels’ own officers contacted the State Attorney’s Office that night, which told officers had to notify the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Fourteen months later, FDLE’s investigation resulted in four criminal charges against Daniels, including a felony related to wiping his phone’s data while the criminal investigation was underway, and three misdemeanors related to lying to law enforcement.
At 5:39 pm Friday, after a day of unreturned phone calls from local media outlets, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he was suspending Daniels. But Daniels said he has no plans to suspend his re-election campaign, calling the criminal arrest "dirty politics."
University of North Florida political science professor Mike Binder says the week’s developments are "certainly not anything that’s good for Clay County,” but he’s not convinced it will affect Daniels' political fortunes.
“Daniels was going to be in a tough race anyway,” he says. But he notes many “ -- I hesitate to say possibly even most -- people have already voted.”
Even if a plurality of votes were already cast, Binder says getting arrested is never good for any candidate.
“A few days out from Election Day -- this is not what you want to have happen,” Binder says.