Damien Gilliams Denied Rehearing by Appeals Court, Jail Sentence Looms

After his appeal was rejected by the Fourth District Court of Appeals, former Sebastian council member Damien Gilliams’ request for a rehearing has also been denied by the court on Tuesday. Gilliams, left with limited options, now faces the prospect of the court issuing an order from a judge to send him to jail, where he will serve a 45-day sentence.

Meanwhile, Pamela Parris, another former city council member who was sentenced to 90 days in jail, is still awaiting a decision on her rehearing. If her request is also denied, she could also receive a court order to report to jail.

Both Gilliams and Parris were recalled from their positions in public office in 2021, following their ten-month tenure as city council members. The recall came after their arrest for participating in an illegal meeting and subsequent charges of perjury and violations of the Sunshine Law.

On May 27, 2021, a jury found Gilliams and Parris guilty of perjury and violating the Sunshine Law during their time in public office. The sentencing was then handed down by 19th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Michael Linn on September 14, 2021.

While the Fourth District Court of Appeals recently upheld the case against them, they did remove one perjury charge. It is worth noting that on Gilliams’ Facebook page, he falsely identified himself as the “Former Mayor of Sebastian City Council,” a position he never held or was legally appointed to by the council.

In their ruling, the appeals court highlighted how the elected members of the Sebastian City Council, despite being prohibited from privately discussing government matters, still proceeded to have the meeting.

Acting in defiance of the mayor and city manager’s decision to cancel a scheduled council meeting due to Covid, the three council members used a government-issued pass key to enter the darkened chambers and conducted the meeting, which was in violation of the Sunshine Law. The unauthorized gathering continued until police intervened, constituting a flagrant violation of the law.

Reflecting on these events, the court’s opinion stated, “It seems unlikely, in this unfortunate series of events, that former Sebastian City Council members Pamela Parris and Damien Gilliams would have ever thought it imaginable that they would now be appealing criminal convictions for which they have been sentenced to serve jail time of two months and six months, respectively. My guess is that, in retrospect, they would have run away and resisted any temptation to get caught up in the excitement of the moment … as, unfortunately, they ultimately did. These recent Indian River County Sunshine Law prosecutions and convictions illustrate actual examples of popularly elected local governing body officials being ordered to do real jail time in a real Florida county jail for the commission of a real Florida crime. Of course, whether elected or appointed is of no consequence. The Florida Sunshine Law applies equally to all.”

Ironically, on Gilliams’ Facebook page, he wrote “Former Mayor of Sebastian City Council” in his profile, which is false. Gilliams has never served the City of Sebastian as Mayor, nor was he ever appointed legally as Mayor by the Council.

The appeals court said the “elected members of the Sebastian City Council who were not allowed to privately discuss foreseeable government issues did so anyway. They decided amongst themselves—as their personal protest to the mayor and city manager’s decision to cancel a regularly scheduled city council meeting because of Covid—to enter the city council chambers and conduct the cancelled meeting anyway. Armed with a government-issued pass key, and in unlit city council chambers, these three city councilmembers took to the dais and purported to take official action at what in essence became a spontaneous, non-announced meeting of the three of them that lasted until the police showed up. That imprudent action was itself a flagrant violation of the Sunshine Law and a reading of the statute makes this conclusion abundantly clear.”

“It seems unlikely, in this unfortunate series of events, that former Sebastian City Councilmembers Pamela Parris and Damien Gilliams would have ever thought it imaginable that they would now be appealing criminal convictions for which they have been sentenced to serve jail time of two months and six months, respectively. My guess is, that in retrospect, they would have run away and resisted any temptation to get caught up in the excitement of the moment … as, unfortunately, they ultimately did. These recent Indian River County Sunshine Law prosecutions and convictions illustrate actual examples of popularly elected local governing body officials being ordered to do real jail time in a real Florida county jail for the commission of a real Florida crime. Of course, whether elected or appointed is of no consequence. The Florida Sunshine Law applies equally to all,” according to the court’s opinion.