ORMOND BEACH
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 13, NO. 23
TIMM FINDS HIS WAY PAGE 6B
FREE ON NEWSSTANDS | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2025
$3 million for the Pace Center for Girls Volusia County Council approves federal grant funds to help Pace build new school in Ormond Beach. PAGE 4A
Ormond pilot involved in DC plane crash
Drawing a crowd Granada Grand returns for 11th year. PAGE 3A
Friends say Jonathan Campos was a skilled and dedicated pilot. PAGE 2A INSIDE NATIVE IN NATURE
Ormond Beach is updating its development code to require 50% native plants. PAGE 5A
RIBBON-CUTTING
City celebrates opening of new Doug Thomas Way. PAGE 3A
REDEVELOPMENT
SunBros drive-thru coffee shop plan OK’d by Ormond Beach City Commission. PAGE 4B
NO CLOTHING?!?
Halifax Humane Society thrift store focuses on furniture, pet supplies and household goods PAGE 5A
Copper Bottom cofounder appears on the Discovery Channel Copper Bottom Craft Distillery’s co-founder and head distiller was featured on an episode of “Moonshiner’s Master Distiller,” which aired on the Discovery Channel on Tuesday, Feb. 4. Head distiller Jeremy Craig is an Ormond Beach resident.
Joe Vandenberg, of South Daytona, is a teacher at Spruce Creek High School. He competed in the chalk art competition at the 2025 Granada Grand Festival of the Arts. Photo by Brian McMillan
Ex-Ormond police officer arrested for battery JARLEENE ALMENAS MANAGING EDITOR
Eric “Digger” Manes, Jeremy Craig, Tim Smith, Josh Owens and Steven Ray Tickle. Courtesy photo
INDEX
Business..................... PAGE 4B Calendar..................... PAGE 2B Comics ....................... PAGE 5B Letters........................ PAGE 8A McMillan..................... PAGE 8A Public Notices............ PAGE 8B Sports......................... PAGE 6B Real Estate................. PAGE 3B
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A former Ormond Beach Police officer was arrested on Friday, Jan. 31, on felony battery charges after he pushed a woman into a glass wall at the police station. The woman, a 46-yearold Ormond Beach resident, had been arrested for driving under the influence after she crashed into a motorcyclist in the 200 block of West Granada Boulevard on Dec. 6, 2024. After she refused to provide a second breath sample at the police station, the handcuffed woman stood up from a chair and refused to sit back down, according to an arrest affidavit by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.The police officer, 32-year-old Jacob Cannon, of Palm Coast, pushed her over the chair and into a wall before letting her go, causing her to fall to the ground. Cannon, the report states,
stood over her, “yelling he told her to have a ‘f------ seat,’” the report states. The woman suffered significant bleeding from her head, later receiving seven sutures at the hospital. Neither Cannon, nor the officer in the room with him, administered first aid, though the second officer called for rescue personnel. When the Ormond Beach Fire Department arrived, Cannon informed a captain that the woman had “stood up and attempted to leave the room before slipping and falling, striking the metal frame around the glass wall,” the FDLE affidavit states. He added that he moved her into a holding cell, where she “threw herself” off the bench, landing on the floor. In a statement, Ormond Beach Police Chief Jesse Godfrey stated that Cannon was placed on administrative leave after immediate review of the incident as two investigations started — FDLE’s criminal
investigation, and an internal affairs investigation by OBPD. “This incident does not represent the way we police our community,” Godfrey said in the statement. “The men and women who do professional and compassionate work on a daily basis serving our citizens have no tolerance for this type of behavior. I have no tolerance for this type of behavior.” Cannon resigned from the department shortly before turning himself in to the Volusia County Branch Jail. He had been working for OBPD since February 2023 and was working as a patrol officer at the time of the incident. He was released on a $25,000 bond on Saturday, Feb. 1. “I would also like to publicly apologize to the victim in this case, and I am sorry that this happened to you,” Godfrey said. “Rest assured that the former officer is being held accountable for his actions.”
INSIDE
From far and wide Ocean Art Gallery provides space in Ormond Beach for high-profile artists.
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