Ex-Deputy Dedorius Varnes Pleads to Lesser Charges of Aggravated Stalking, Faces Up to 5 Years in Prison

The following month Varnes was arrested again on a similar charge–aggravated stalking–stemming from separate behavior when he was a deputy. In that case, a woman on Point Pleasant Drive had called for law enforcement to complain about vandalism to her mailbox. Varnes responded and was dismissive of the woman’s complaint. He subsequently started texting lurid messages to the woman’s husband that implied (falsely) that his wife had had an affair with him and that referred to the man in demeaning and humiliating ways.

In all, Varnes accumulated six criminal charges in the two cases including two second-degree felonies and two third-degree felonies. Combined, the charges exposed him–theoretically–to 40 years in prison, though in reality even if he’d been convicted on all charges his sentence would have been significantly less.

How much less may yet be a surprise: On Tuesday morning, Varnes pleaded to two lesser charges. The State Attorney’s Office dropped the second-degree felony counts of extortion with threats and tampering with a witness or a victim during a felony proceeding. The state also dropped a third-degree felony charge of misusing public records to commit a felony (it is illegal for deputies to access databases and citizens’ records in unauthorized designs), and a second-degree misdemeanor charge of making harassing phone calls. WHat was left are the two cases identical charges of aggravated stalking, each a third-degree felony.




The terms of the plea, negotiated between Varnes’s attorney, Michael Lambert, and Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark, resulted in his no-contest plea to the two aggravated stalking charges, which he tendered before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. Varnes appeared in court in person, wearing a face mask (as did his attorney and the judge). “He would voluntarily execute a relinquishment of his law enforcement certificate,” Lambert said. “Because he’s going to be adjudicated, he wouldn’t be able to possess firearms.” In other words, Varnes will be a convicted felon.

But that adjudication and sentencing will not take place until March 10. Lambert requested the delay to allow for a pre-sentencing investigation. Varnes had a clean record until now, which would presumably play in his favor. According to the negotiated plea, the sentence would also impose concurrent, not consecutive, prison or probation terms, further lessening the expected penalty. Yet another element of the negotiated plea: the court would waive sentencing guidelines, so even minimum penalties would not necessarily apply.

In all, it was a remarkable set of concessions by the prosecution for a former cop who Staly said “has let down this community; he has embarrassed this agency and tarnished his badge and dishonored law enforcement officers everywhere. No one is above the law and that is why he is in jail where he belongs.” Staly spoke those words in a statement following Varnes’s first arrest, when he was very briefly in jail.

Clark said Varnes’s penalty scoresheet translates to a minimum of 19.5 months in prison. But there’s no telling whether he will serve any time in prison when he is sentenced.

Perkins allowed Varnes, now 30, to remain out on $45,000 bond until his sentencing, on conditions that he steers clear of law breaking and that he shows up at 2 p.m. on March 10 “clean, sober, ready to go into custody,” the judge told him. “I don’t know if you’re going to go into custody. I have no idea what the sentence is. I won’t know until I hear the evidence. But you need to be prepared under any circumstance.”




The sentencing hearing is expected to include the testimony of some witnesses, including from victims of Varnes’s crimes.

Since his resignation, Varnes, a resident of 68 Reedsville Drive in Palm Coast, has also been the subject of an injunction for stalking violence in a domestic relations case. The temporary injunction was set in late 2020 and has been extended since.

It is impossible to verify how long Varnes was in jail after his two arrests by looking at the sheriff’s jail-booking website: as has been the habit of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office–and in contravention with public record laws–the records of current or former law enforcement officers who have been jailed do not appear. Florida law provides for the redaction of the officers’ home address and photograph, but not the rest of their information, including booking dates, charges and status. Repeated inquiries and requests that the site be updated with required information have gone unheeded.