Court fight colors St. Johns County election

While St. Johns County voters cast their ballots in this month’s primary election, two people battling it out in the courts have connections to key races.

James Higbee and Nicole Crosby aren’t on the ballot, but their court fight is tied to the contests for the St. Johns County Commission.

Higbee, whose grandfather is running a largely inactive campaign for County Commission, is suing Crosby. She runs the advertising operations for County Commission hopefuls Ann-Marie Evans and Ann Taylor.

On paper, the case is unrelated to the election, but Crosby’s lawyer is accusing Higbee of playing politics.

Higbee’s defamation suit revolves around a 2013 misdemeanor conviction in which he pleaded guilty to stealing $252 worth of merchandise from a Walmart in Delray Beach.

His side is arguing that Crosby referred to the result of that case as a felony charge and, in one Facebook post, said Higbee had been involved in “felony thefts.”

Crosby has since edited a Facebook post made by Fight for St. Johns County, a page she runs, to remove the word “felony,” but Higbee’s attorney argues that Crosby’s statements affected him socially and emotionally and led to a demotion at his job.

Court documents state that Higbee used to be the chief technical officer at McGraw, a St. Augustine-based marketing agency. Nowadays, according to the company’s website, Higbee serves as senior vice president.

In one document filed with the St. Johns County courts, Crosby’s lawyer says the case “purports to be a defamation case, but it is really all about politics.”

Her lawyer, W. Bradley Russell, accuses Higbee’s team of “attempting to misuse discovery to obtain political intelligence against his adversaries.”

Questions that Higbee’s team issued to Crosby intially centered on her Facebook page, but quickly shifted toward the upcoming election, specifically about the candidates she’s supporting for office.

“Since October 2023, have the majority of the posts by Defendant on the FFSJC Facebook Page advocated for the election of Ann Taylor and/or Ann Marie Evans?” one question asks.

The team also asked whether Crosby had any communications with current St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph — whose 2022 campaign Crosby also supported — about her posts, or whether Crosby has been promised the role of county administrator if her candidates are appointed to office. Crosby says that charge came out of nowhere and was manufactured by the incumbents’ campaign staff. Joseph has also publicly commented on Facebook saying she would not support a bid by Crosby for county administrator.

Crosby’s legal team requested not only that the case be thrown out, but that Joseph as well as Evans and Taylor be shielded from the discovery process.

“Higbee is currently seeking to depose Ann Taylor, Ann-Marie Evans, and Commissioner Joseph before the election. These depositions would in all likelihood be about the election, not about this case,” Russell wrote in one court document.

Last Friday, a judge denied those requests and scheduled Joseph’s, Evans’ and Taylor’s pretrial testimonies for Aug. 26. The judge did note, however, that questions “shall be limited to matters bearing on the issues raised by the complaint” and that “the parties and the witnesses retain their rights to raise objections.”

Speaking with Jacksonville Today this month, Crosby said she believes supporters of the incumbent St. Johns County Commission candidates are using underhanded tactics to target challengers like Evans and Taylor.

Higbee isn’t running for office like his grandfather, but, according to his social media, he previously worked as a volunteer and social media manager for County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst. Whitehurst is up for reelection and is supported by a number of the same political action committees and companies as fellow County Commissioners Henry Dean and Roy Alaimo.

Crosby also alleges that other individuals connected to the campaigns she’s supporting are being targeted as part of a larger pattern of Republican infighting in St. Johns County . She specifically called to mind Commissioner Joseph’s censuring after she was accused of using her time during a County Commission meeting to campaign for candidates she supports.

A federal judge has cleared Joseph of any wrongdoing.

“Individuals associated with the incumbents have also weaponized the justice system to bring harm to the Anns’ team,” Crosby says.

Crosby has repeatedly been under fire during this election cycle, with some in her own party accusing her of being a liberal infiltrator trying to get like-minded candidates elected.

Higbee’s lawyer, Zachary Watson Miller, told Jacksonville Today he could not comment on the ongoing litigation.

This story was updated Aug. 15, 2024, to correct references to Nicole Crosby’s posts on social media. She says only one post — not repeated posts — incorrectly referred to James Higbee’s theft conviction as a felony. In addition, the story now clarifies wording in Higbee’s suit. The suit asserts that Crosby’s “statements,” not her “posts,” affected him socially and emotionally.

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