Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly on Friday flew to North Carolina to personally bring back Kermit Booth–the former Palm Coast resident facing two capital felony charges for the sexual assault of a child–extradited from North Carolina, where he’d been held after his second arrest on the same charges.
Booth, 70, is a retired Volusia County schools maintenance employee who lived at 74 Zephyr Lilly Trail in Palm Coast for 25 years until he sold the house in 2023. The charges stem from his alleged assaults of a girl who lived across the street and would visit him frequently when she was between 6 and 9, between 2006 and 2009. Her parents were unaware that the man they’d entrusted their daughter to was allegedly abusing her, routinely. He enticed her with gifts and added a slide to the above-ground pool as an added lure.
A Flagler County Sheriff’s investigation–the second on the same allegations–led to his arrest in North Carolina in early August. (See: “Palm Coast Man and Ex-Volusia County Schools Employee Charged With Raping Neighbors’ Child in Z Section.”
The girl moved out in 2009. She is now 26 and living out of state. She revealed the alleged assaults to her mother in 2015. Her mother immediately contacted the Sheriff’s Office, which conducted an investigation at the time. It did not lead to charges, possibly for lack of actionable evidence. In 2023, Booth repeatedly contacted the woman on social media. She told him to stay away from her and her two children. He persisted. In some of the exchanges, Booth is said to have owned up to the assaults, giving authorities the evidence they needed to make an arrest.
The Flagler County judge who signed the warrant set his bond at $500,000. A North Carolina magistrate in Macon County, N.C., inexplicably lowered the amount to $35,000. Booth posted bail and was released. On Aug. 20, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an extradition request to North Carolina Governor Josh Stein. DeSantis appointed Staly to take custody of Booth and bring him back to Flagler County. Booth was rearrested on Sept. 3, by the Macon County Sheriff’s Office, and held without at the Macon County Detention Center, and brought back Friday afternoon.
His release in August had unnerved the victim, who today told FlaglerLive in a text: “A HUUGE thank you to George Hristakopoulos,” the sergeant who leads the Flagler County Sheriff’s Major Case Unit, “and also to Sheriff Staly. Both of them have been amazing through this whole process, and I appreciate the work they’ve put in, and support from the both of them. They both have my utmost gratitude, and respect!”
The case will be prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark. Booth is represented by defense attorney Tammy Jacques of DeLand’s Jacques Law. Booth has entered a written plea of not guilty.
The Sheriff’s Office in mid-afternoon on Friday issued an advisory alerting media to Staly’s flight, and that he was scheduled to land shortly after 6 p.m. The advisory included a link to the Flight Aware website, enabling media to follow the path of the plane. “I hope he enjoyed his flight back to Florida because it’ll probably be the last flight he takes,” Staly was quoted as saying in a subsequent release. “Hopefully, he’ll be spending the rest of his life in prison.”
Staly took Booth to the county jail and read him his warrant. The two charges the State Attorney’s Office filed on Aug. 11 are capital felonies, which means they’re punishable by the death penalty. Florida two years ago reinstituted the death penalty for those convicted of raping children younger than 12. Booth is not eligible, however, because the alleged offenses predate the law’s reinstitution, and the Florida law is unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court having prohibited such penalties in 2008. The five judges in the 2008 majority are no longer on the court. Three of the dissenters still are, and have been joined by three staunch conservatives, making a challenge of the 2008 decision likely.
For Booth, the penalty if convicted would be life in prison, though he has nothing to gain from a plea, since the prosecution would not seek anything less, making a trial more likely.
Booth’s first pre-trial is scheduled for Oct. 22 at 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols.
Deborah Coffey says
But, over 22 complaints against Donald Trump for sexual assault and…nothing…one brought to court by Jane Doe? Release ALL the Epstein files NOW!
Marty Barrett says
How about just being humble and doing your job well, why must it always be accompanied by the grandstanding, cute quotes, and press alerts from the Staly and Chitwood types? We get it, you’re tough guys, but perhaps you should consider what might be missing in your life if at this age you still need to feed the ego as you do. It’s tiring, and frankly a bit sad.
Ray W. says
According to The Daily Beast, in a piece titled “Pam Bondi Takes Aim at Boston Citing Crimes From Elsewhere”, Attorney General Pam Bondi recently told Sean Hannity that the city of Boston was unsafe, citing as examples the rape of a child in a migrant center by a Haitian national, the molestation of a child by an undocumented Haitian immigrant, and the multiple rapes of a child by an “illegal” El Salvadoran.
Naming Boston mayor Michelle Wu, Bondi said:
“… I could go on and on about the crimes in the Boston area. So, if she is not going to protect the people of Boston, we are.”
The reporter wrote that “… the alleged migrant center incident took place 20 miles from Boston, the alleged molestation took place 30 miles outside city limits, and the incident involving the Salvadoran national took place on Nantucket, an island about 100 miles south of the state capitol.”
The city of Boston reports that 2024 saw the lowest homicide rate since 1957 and that other violent crimes are reported to be on a “downward trend.” Property crimes are trending down, too.
After the Trump administration sued the city of Boston and the mayor over an ordinance that “limits local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement, Mayor responded:
“This unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise. Boston is a thriving community, the economic and cultural hub of New England, and the safest major city in the country — but this administration is intent on attacking our community to advance their own authoritarian agenda.”
Make of this what you will.
I attached this comment to the comment thread for this story for a reason.
Just as an individual who is not an immigrant can be brought back to Flagler County to face allegations of long-term criminal sexual activity with a child, so too can individual immigrant face allegations of criminal sexual activity with children. But these are individual crimes, with individual victims and individual defendants. Individual acts of crime can always be found whenever one needs to find them to make a point. But using individual acts to prove the legitimacy of mass events is fraught with the potential for intellectual dishonesty, as shown by The Daily Beast story. Attorney General Bondi uses individual acts that occurred beyond the city limits of Boston to prove that the city of Boston as a whole is unsafe. She failed. And worse, she lied.
It is true that every community is unsafe if even one homicide occurs within its borders. Politicians all over the country have built political careers on conflating individual acts of crimes with mass events that deserve the community supporting him or her. Yes, Boston is unsafe each time a homicide occurs, but if it is true that Boston’s homicide rate, as a whole, is at its lowest point in nearly 70 years, and if it is true that Boston’s crime rate, as a whole, when compared to the rates of all other cities, is one of the lowest rates in the country, then can it be argued that, for political gain, Attorney General Bondi is intentionally spreading a falsehood about Boston crime as a whole by using inapplicable individual acts as proof?
I have typed this many times. A sickness lies upon the land. A professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties is bent upon persuading people that lying about the “right” issues is a virtuous act.
When Vice President Vance told a reporter during the 2024 presidential campaign that if it took him lying about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets to get people talking about immigration, then he would continue to lie, he meant it. To him, lying about the “right” issue is a virtuous act. To Attorney General Bondi, lying about the “right” issue is a virtuous act.
If lying about the “right” issue can be a virtuous act, then it isn’t a very long path to lie laundering about the “right” issue becoming a virtuous act. In time, we all might become virtuous lie launderers.
Concerned Citizen says
@Ray W
What does that even have to do wit this article?
JF says
See what I mean y’all? Rick is always there in front of cameras if it boosts his ego! Any damn deputy could have gone to pick this pedophile up. No way Rick saw a media opportunity. Jesus what a JOKE
Deborah Coffey says
@ Ray W
Spot on. The question is…can the country survive the bombardment of LIES and LAWBREAKING?