Charges Filed Against Scott Hopes, Former County Administrator: SAO

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — Former Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes faces three felony charges, according to a news release from State Attorney Ed Brodsky’s office.

He was charged with notary fraud, grand theft and fraudulent use of public record, all third-degree felonies. No additional information about the charges or allegations against him were released by Brodsky’s office.

Multiple complaints were filed against Hopes, 63, in February alleging criminal violations of Florida’s public records, theft and notary laws, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said in November.

The agency recommended criminal charges against Hope and forwarded its findings to Brodsky’s office.

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Hopes served as county administrator from April 2021 until the Feb. 8 Manatee County Board of County Commissioners meeting, when he resigned from the role.

He replaced the previous county administrator, Cheri Coryea, who was forced to step down from the position by a slate of new county commissioners, who were elected to their roles in November 2020.

Complaints made to the sheriff’s office claimed that Hopes reset his county devices before returning them to staff, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. It’s also alleged that he didn’t provide all records requested and committed other violations of the state's Public Records Act.

He told the newspaper in March that records on all his devices were automatically backed up remotely to a cloud service by the county’s information technology department and that text messaging on county phones was disabled in mid-2022.

“I’m not worried about it. Nothing was destroyed that was subject to public records. They can get all the phone records and emails they want,” Hopes told the Bradenton Herald at the time. “There are no documents that weren’t backed up.”

Before taking on the country administrator role, Hopes served on the School Board of Manatee County.