Florida Man David Gay has filed a defamation suit against Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey for his “Wheel of Fugitive” videos that feature wanted criminals on the wheel instead of money in an homage to the classic television game show.
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Gay was driving to his first day of work at his new job when he got a phone call. His new boss told him not to come in to work as he had just seen Gay’s profile on Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey’s weekly “Wheel of Fugitive” show.
Sheriff Ivey is one of a select few Florida Sheriffs who are beloved by the people. The O.G. of Florida sheriffs is Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who sends prisoners to the Polk Pokey and doesn’t mince words during his press conferences. Judd went viral when asked why murder suspect Angelo Freeland was shot at 110 times with 68 rounds on target answered,
“I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that’s all the ammunition they had,” Judd said. “We were not going to take any chance of him shooting back.”
Another rising star is Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, who puts his prisoners in the “Marceno Motel.” Sheriff Ivey greets special prisoners as they are being walked into his “Green Roof Inn” and features wanted criminals on the “Wheel of Fugitive.”
In the Sheriff’s videos posted to social media, including the sheriff’s office Facebook page, Ivey spins a wheel like that seen on the Wheel of Fortune Game show, but with photos of ten of Brevard County’s most wanted fugitives.
“Everybody watches it. Even the fugitives watch it” to see who becomes “fugitive of the week,” The Associated Press reported Ivey said.
Gay filed his defamation lawsuit against sheriff Ivey in Brevard County last week, claiming that he wasn’t a fugitive when his name and image appeared several times on Wheel of Fugitive episodes back in 2021.
Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey sued for ‘Wheel of Fugitive’ defamation https://t.co/lCBdMLELKP pic.twitter.com/31FyrlrR08
— Orlando Sentinel (@orlandosentinel) January 30, 2023
Gay also claims that because of the sheriff’s posts, he lost a job and suffered emotional distress, according to the lawsuit seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
Gay has been involved with the courts for an unknown offense and was sentenced in November 2020 to three years of probation for withholding adjudication. This type of sentence is typical for misdemeanor crimes, and as long as the defendant complies with the court, they are spared a prison sentence.
In January 2021, Gay was arrested for a probation violation because he had been arrested several weeks earlier on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge. He claims his father had gotten into a physical fight with his mother, and he intervened. The charge was dismissed eventually.
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According to the lawsuit, Gay was in the Brevard County jail for that violation of probation arrest when Ivey said in a “Wheel of Fugitive” video that Gay was still a fugitive.
Gay was featured in three more episodes of Sheriff Ivey’s “Wheel of Fugitive,” including an attack on the day after he was sentenced to probation and released from custody, according to the lawsuit.
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