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Volusia's Golden Tier Of Justice Pedophile School Teacher Secures Sentence Reduction Homicides, Pedophilia, And Other Serious Crimes Are Purposely Being Mishandled By Justice Officials |
August 30, 2025 |
AS A JOURNALISTIC EDITORIAL,
NO LEGAL OPINION, OR AUTHORITY, SHOULD BE INFERRED
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Affluent Defendants Are Being Provided A Special Golden Tier Of Justice? "I pledge allegiance to the Flag, ........... with liberty and justice for all (that can afford it)". Last November 26th, this media outlet published an article titled "Can Affluent Defendants Secure A Special Tier Of Justice?"(click here to read). We now offer this follow-up article - in support of our OPINION that several past and present criminal prosecutions within Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit (Volusia, Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns counties) are being nefariously "mismanaged" in order to circumvent honest American justice. Some of these "mismanaged" prosecutions were purposely forwarded to provide a special "Golden tier" of justice for members of the rich and powerful section of our community. |
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Other prosecutions were iniquitously undertaken, in order to overly prosecuted and sentenced (railroaded) the less fortunate members of our community, simply to provide the false public appearance - that local politicians (sheriff, state attorney, and judges) are maintaining a zero tolerance for certain crimes - AND to provide some "cover" and distraction for the "Golden tier" prosecutions.
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Fortunate Son ~ CCR |
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It is recommended that you take the time to read our earlier article, in order to have a full appreciation of what this instant article will present.
Scores A Light Prison Sentence On Her Conviction for Pedophilia Her Victim Was A Fourteen Year-Old Student In the last seven to ten years - Volusia County has had more than it's fair share of pedophile school teachers. As was published within a local newspaper article, in 2018, former New Symrna Beach middle school teacher Stephanie Peterson was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by two years of community control (house arrest), and several years of sex offender probation for sexually engaging a fourteen year-old boy. RELATED ARTICLE Daytona Beach New-Journal December 19, 2018 NSB teacher Stephanie Peterson gets 3 years in prison for sex with student The Smell Gets Worst As We Move Forward Ms. Peterson is the daughter of high profile New Smyrna Beach attorney Philip Peterson. During her 2018 prosecution - Ms. Peterson was represented by high profile attorneys Aaron Delgado and William Hathaway. Flaglerlive.Com May 2, 2022 Local Attorney Delgado Accepts Sanction for ‘Inappropriate’ Call with Client William Hathaway's son - Spencer Hathaway - is also an attorney, employed as a senior member of the local State Attorney's Office. Paula Hathaway - Spencer's mother, is a paralegal within the Peterson law firm. There will be more on this apparent "conflict of interest" shortly (see end of article). For now - let's return to Stephanie Peterson's 2018 prosecution (plea deal). Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano (now retired) agreed with Peterson's attorneys that Ms. Peterson's mental illness (bi-polar) justified a sentence reduction below the mandated minimum five-year prison sentence. Ms. Peterson accepted her sweet plea deal - and reported to prison for three (3) years. Upon her release from prison - she ONLY did one year of her house arrest, prior to her daddy's legal team convincing a local judge to repeal the second year of house arrest. |
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Earlier this year (2025) - Laura Klossner, an attorney within the Peterson law firm - filed a motion with the Court to reduce her sexual offender probation by half.
This publication attended this August 22, 2025 hearing in DeLand, Florida, with Circuit Judge Karen Foxman presiding. We video recorded this hearing - see videos - right of page ===>. In our OPINION, this entire hearing was a farce. While neither the State Attorney, nor the probation officer would "officially" support early termination of Ms. Peterson's probation - stating that the victim's mother did not support the early termination, it was obvious that all parties, including the state attorney, probation officer, and the judge wanted to comply with the spirit of the defense's motion. The majority of this hearing was held at side bar between the judge, and the two attorneys. These side bar conversations were silenced from the public's ears by the Court's "white noise" machine. This publication "opines" that Judge Foxman appeared uncomfortable (by words and actions) in ending Ms. Peterson's probation while in front of our camera. Philip Peterson attended this hearing - and was observed glad-handing with Assistant State Attorney Mike Willard. |
Circuit Judge Karen Foxman Presiding Convicted Pedophile School Teacher's Probation Reduction Hearing Part 1 of 2 Convicted Pedophile School Teacher's Probation Reduction Hearing Part 2 of 2 |
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After the completion of this secretive sidebar hearing - it was agreed openly in Court, that the defense would withdraw their motion for early probation termination - and the state attorney then agreed to certain modifications of her probation restrictions - such as - the removal of her ankle monitor, ending her Internet usage prohibition, reducing her curfew to only 12 AM to 5 AM, and granting her more travel access.
Judge Foxman quickly granted these modifications. The Arin Hankerd Prosecution |
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In 2024 - years after Ms. Peterson's release from prison - Mr. Arin Hankerd - a local high school coach and teacher was sentenced for engaging in sex with two female minors. Mr. Hankerd was more heavily charged - and his crimes appeared to be much more intensely investigated - than that of Ms. Peterson.
While Ms. Peterson was merely labeled in the FDLE tracking system as a "sexual offender" - Mr. Hankerd was labeled a much higher designation as a "sexual predator". Judge Karen Foxman sentenced Mr. Hankerd to twenty-one (21) years in prison - followed by thirty (30) years of sexual offender probation. May 10, 2024 Former Volusia County teacher sentenced to 21 years in prison for sexual relationships with students We highly suspect that the deciding factor in Ms. Peterson's light sentence, and follow-up sentence reductions were simply related to her family's affluence? Do you imagine that Judge Foxman would ever consider modifying Mr. Hankerd's sentence - especially, if the victims were against these sentence modifications? |
 The Above State Attorney Press Release Is No Longer Available On Their Website  Notice Hankerd's Designation As A "Sexual PREDATOR" |
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Please allow us (VolusiaExposed) to be crystal clear here - we are not advocating for Mr. Hankerd - rather we are defending the rights of Ms. Peterson's victim. Why should Hankerd's victims be entitled
to their justice - more than Peterson's victim?
There is an appearance - that the Court sees Ms. Peterson more as a "victim" - poor little rich girl - than the fourteen year old boy that she statutorily raped. This publication opines that there is little to no doubt that the Seventh Circuit State Attorney Office has an on-going "two tiered system" of justice - where affluent defendants can skate on such crimes as pedophilia, homicide, and international drug smuggling. On the flip side of that corruption coin - defendants of lesser financial means are over prosecuted and sentenced for crimes - some of which they never committed. Below - we offer links (see below) to just a few examples of this two tiered justice system. There is the September 2020 death of ERAU student Alex Bello-Ortiz - while law enforcement authorities ruled Alex's death a suicide - a civil judgment, and evidence suggests that local authorities covered up Alex's murder. In April 2023 - retired elementary school teach Eileen Flaherty was mowed down on a Deltona street by a sport car driven by a retired New York City police officer. Ms. Flaherty was dead before her body hit the pavement. This publication opines that members of the Volusia County sheriff's office covered up this traffic homicide. Ms. Flaherty's brother Robert still seeks justice for his sister's death. In a totally different approach - in 2024, local officials had no problem unfairly prosecuting a young man - Devin Perkins - for the December 2022 tragic traffic deaths of three of his friends. This publication opines that Devin and his friends were ALL victims of a drunk & wrong way driver. We further opine that Devin's prosecution was driven by the desires of one of the fathers of Devin's deceased friends - who is a prominent Pennsylvania attorney. We discuss our concerns regarding Perkins' prosecution within our November 26, 2024 article titled "Can Affluent Defendants Secure A Special Tier Of Justice?"(click here to read). In June 2021 - Volusia County Sheriff "Media" Mike Chitwood spun a rather large media yarn - stating that two middle school children had fired numerous military rounds from an AK-47 rifle at his deputies. The twelve year-old boy was charged and prosecuted as a juvenile. Ms. Nicole Jackson, fourteen at the time - was prosecuted as an adult - for the attempted murder of several sheriff deputies. The truth is - upon further investigation - by both local and FDLE officials - the AK-47 rifle was never fired by the children. However, Sheriff Chitwood never retracted his statement regarding the numerous military rounds his deputies allegedly received from the children. Because of the alleged military gun fire - the worldwide press dubbed the children as the new "Bonnie and Clyde". It was later determined that the children have fired a total of six (6) gun shots - four (4) from a .22 caliber handgun - and two shot gun rounds. Evidence suggested that most of these rounds were fired within the residence - at lighting fixtures, and the like. This publication suggested that if the deputies were receiving military grade gun fire - it was most likely friendly gun fire - fired by other deputies that had the residence surrounded (see our below linked July 19, 2025 article - it's a long read, but worth it). The State of Florida graciously assigned Ms. Jackson her defense counsel - a former member of the Volusia County sheriff's office (conflict of interest?). Ms. Jackson insisted for months - over several court hearings - that she wanted to take her case to trial. When it became obvious to her that her attorney wanted her to take a plea deal - that would sentence her to twenty years in prison - she petitioned the Court for a new attorney. During a January 27, 2023 hearing - instead of granting Ms. Jackson a new attorney - Judge Elizabeth Blackburn sealed the court hearing from the public - including the media - and in our opinion, during this sealed hearing - - Judge Blackburn and Jackson's own attorneys coerced a then fifteen year old girl into accepting a twenty year prison sentence. Since we did not attend the hearing - how do we know there was "coercion" - that's simple - even though Judge Blackburn sealed the hearing's transcript - in February 2025 - the Clerk of the Court made the transcript public for approximately four days - and this publication downloaded the transcript - and we have incorporated the transcript into our July 19, 2025 article for all to read - and to determine for themselves whether this child was coerced into accepting a plea deal. AND last, but certainly not least - we present the prosecution of Colin Phillips. Mr. Phillips is the twenty-something son of local businessman - Tim Phillips - owner of P&S Paving. Colin got an even sweeter deal than that of Ms. Peterson. Colin did no prison time - for basically being an alleged international drug smuggler. Colin did have to do a short county jail sentence when he violated his probation. (read the below linked DBNJ article). Colin's father obviously can cast a much larger political shadow - than that of Peterson's father - including scaring off the F.B.I. and the filing of federal charges. We tend to agree with Mr. Mark Barker - of Baker's View - that the attempted cover-up - AND light prosecution of Colin Phillips does call into question the veracity of our local criminal justice system. Mark Barker is the former, and now retired police chief of the City of Holly Hill. And so goes justice in Volusia County - you can get away with rape - homicide, and international drug smuggling - IF you have influential connections. If you fail to have those influential connections - your homicide may simply be ruled a suicide, or a simple traffic accident (Mr. Bello-Ortiz / Eileen Flaherty) ...... AND / OR the sheriff may lie to the world - stating that you attempted to murder several of his deputies - just so the sheriff can look tough on juvenile crime (Ms. Nicole Jackson). |
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Between The Peterson Law Firm & The State Attorney Office? Because of the earlier mentioned "family" connections between the Peterson law firm and the State Attorney Office (SAO), this publication forwards the position that there - at the very least - appear to be a professional conflict of interest between the law firm and the SAO. Regardless, if this conflict of interest is not being exploited by the parties - they have the responsibility to even avoid the appearance of this conflict. In the recent unrelated prosecutions of two women charged in a dog mauling death - the SAO requested, and received the governor's reassignment of these prosecutions to another prosecutor's office - simply to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. Only one of the defendants is related to someone within the SAO's office - but BOTH prosecutions were transferred to another SAO office. Further - in yet another unrelated prosecution - after a conflict of interest was declared by both the local public defender's office, and the Office of Conflict Counsel - local Circuit Judge Kathryn Weston assigned the Peterson law firm to defend Mr. Scott Gardner. Mr. Gardner is charged with the hot car death of his eighteen month old son. This publication assigns no nefarious intentions by Judge Weston - apparently the Peterson law firm were simply next on the list of private law firms willing to accept such cases. |
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Shortly after being assigned to represent Mr. Gardner - and as outlined within the the attached Daytona Beach News-Journal article ==>, the Peterson law firm attempted to have Judge Weston
remove them as Mr. Gardner's attorney.
Attorney Laura Klossner - the same attorney that represented Ms. Peterson in her probation hearing - stated that Mr. Gardner's case was too high profile - that her firm was receiving too much negative feedback from the public regarding their representation of Mr. Gardner. Could it just be - that the Peterson law firm concerns regarding the high profile nature of Mr. Gardner's prosecution - is that it may just expose their earlier mentioned conflict of interest with the State Attorney's Office? If this conflict of interest is exposed - would it not affect their representation in all their criminal cases - including their recent representation of Ms. Peterson? We wonder - is Mr. Gardner even aware - that his confidential communications with his attorney - may be viewed by the mother of a ranking member of the State Attorney's Office? |
Click Image Below To Read Article 
The Way It is ~ Bruce Hornsby |
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While this publication is NOT alleging that the Peterson law firm, or any Hathaway family member would violate the attorney - client privilege - as earlier stated - should not even the appearance of such be avoided?
It has been the experience of this publication - that in general - attorneys, and judges have a false perception that their "Bar cards" provide them with some special powers - that shields them from engaging in corrupt practices. In preparation for this article - we contacted several of the principles via email (click here to read email) and provided them with an opportunity to respond with corrections, clarifications, comments and criticisms. Upon this article's publication - no responses were received. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me". German Pastor Martin Niemöller |
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