Politics
Donor to 2 St. Johns County Commission candidates charged with battering a House candidate at early voting site
A vocal supporter and maximum donor to St. Johns County Commission candidates Krista Keating-Joseph and Martin Pyszczymuka was arrested this week after deputies say he punched a House candidate in the face, pushed her to the ground and struck her husband in the head at an early voting site.
Charles Hunt, 55, of St. Augustine faces two counts of misdemeanor battery following the Tuesday incident at the World Golf Village polling location.
The candidate is Diana Jordan-Baldwin, the Republican challenging Rep. Kim Kendall in the House District 18 Primary.
First Coast News’ Kiley Miller and Christina Burgess report that Jordan-Baldwin arrived around 6 a.m. to campaign outside the polling place when a man in a black pickup truck began confronting her. She said the argument turned physical after Hunt disparaged her late husband, who died in 2012 while serving overseas with the U.S. Army.
“He went around my husband and he punched me in this side of my face,” Jordan-Baldwin told the station. “My husband went after him and they fought. He tumbled over, got up and hit my husband on the side of his head.”
According to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office probable-cause narrative, Hunt “knowingly and intentionally engaged in a verbal altercation with the victims, which subsequently escalated into a physical confrontation.” The report says he “struck the female victim in the face and pushed her to the ground, against her will,” then “struck the male victim on the left side of his head, against his will.”
Deputies documented a red mark on Jordan-Baldwin’s cheek, a scuff on her knee and a knot above her husband’s ear. Three witnesses gave consistent accounts that Hunt was the aggressor, per the report, and St. Johns Citizen’s Selim Algar obtained further details, including two witnesses who watched the confrontation from about 100 feet away.
Hunt tells a different story. News4JAX reports he claimed self-defense, telling deputies Jordan-Baldwin’s husband grabbed him by the throat and that he did not remember striking anyone.
The same incident report notes his account was inconsistent with the statements of both victims and all three witnesses, and that he had no visible injuries to support it. He was booked on two counts of simple battery, with bond set at $1,000 per count.
Hunt is not simply a bystander with an interest in local politics. He is a familiar face at the County Commission podium. The minutes of the April 7 meeting alone record him speaking four times, on overdevelopment, a Vilano Beach cell tower, a U-Haul sign and an orthodontics office.
He has also backed his preferred candidates with money. County campaign finance records show Hunt gave Keating-Joseph’s re-election campaign two $500 contributions, one in March and one in June, for a total of $1,000, the most an individual may give a county candidate per election under Florida law.
The records show he did the same for Pyszczymuka’s District 2 campaign: two $500 checks, $1,000, maxed out.
The two campaigns are linked in other ways. Keating-Joseph endorsed Pyszczymuka in February and cut his campaign a $500 check of her own days later, listing her occupation as “SJC Commissioner.”
Jordan-Baldwin told First Coast News that Hunt had been at the same polling location the day before, handing out pamphlets promoting a slate of six “St. Johns County Republican-endorsed candidates.” Jacksonville Today’s Noah Hertz reports she believes Hunt was there to campaign for candidates endorsed by the St. Johns County Republican Assembly.
Condemnations came quickly. Kendall called the incident “completely unacceptable” and said her campaign condemns such behavior. St. Johns County Republican Party Chair Denver Cook said violence and intimidation “have no place in our political process.”
Will McMullan, one of Pyszczymuka’s rivals in the District 2 race, called on candidates to lower the temperature.
As of Wednesday evening, neither Keating-Joseph nor Pyszczymuka had said anything publicly about the arrest of their donor.
Political disagreements are nothing new in the final week of a Primary. The allegations in the arrest report go well beyond a political disagreement.
They leave both campaigns with a question to answer before voters finish deciding: Will they condemn it? And will they keep his money?
Both Commission races are universal Primary contests open to all St. Johns County voters. Early voting runs through Saturday, Aug. 15. Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 18.
Hunt’s bond was set at $1,000 per count. He knows the figure. It’s the most Florida law allowed him to give each campaign, and he wrote the checks twice.
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Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.
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