—Two years have passed, but for Laurel Park resident Kelly Franklin, the internet refuses to forget.
She describes a lingering, blinding sense of vulnerability—a feeling of being suddenly exposed and shamed in the community she calls home. The nightmare stems from an innocent photo she took of gorillas during a trip to Rwanda. In 2024, that personal memory was maliciously manipulated, mashed up with a photo of local figures, and presented on the screens of the Sarasota City Commission chambers as a racist attack.
Even though the City of Sarasota now legally concedes that the post was a complete hoax and she had nothing to do with it, the ghost of that accusation still haunts her daily. It surfaces in whispers, it lingers in search engine results, and worst of all, it remains permanently enshrined in the official city minutes. Now, as Franklin fights to clear her name from the historical record, a recent court ruling threatens to make that unjust stain permanent.
—The Magistrate’s Blow
—On April 9, General Magistrate Medisa M. Turner issued a Recommended Order to Circuit Court Judge Dana Moss, advising that Franklin’s case against the City of Sarasota be dismissed with prejudice.
—Franklin, representing herself in the litigation, had filed a Petition for Writ of Mandamus seeking to force the city to correct the official minutes of the January 16, 2024, City Commission meeting. The minutes explicitly link Franklin’s name to the fabricated, racist post.
In her order, Magistrate Turner stated that Franklin “has failed to demonstrate the existence of case law, statutory authority, constitutional provisions, or other binding precedent that explicitly establishes a citizen’s right to compel the correction of meeting minutes.” Turner determined that amending the minutes is not a “ministerial function” the city is legally obligated to perform.
—A “Mash-Up” of Lies
—The controversy dates back to a tense City Commission meeting over two years ago. During a presentation ostensibly about “civility, respect, and rhetoric,” then-Commissioner Kyle Battie showed his colleagues and the public an alleged Facebook printout.
—The image was a crude digital “mash-up.” It combined Franklin’s personal wildlife photography from Africa with a photo of Battie and Tanya Borysiewicz, co-owner of the Corona Cigar Co., who was identified as being half African American. The fabricated post was presented as a racist attack against them.
—While Franklin’s name appeared atop the printed copy displayed in the chambers—broadcast to anyone watching online or on television—neither Battie nor Borysiewicz actually spoke her name aloud during the meeting.
—Despite this, Franklin’s name was explicitly added into the formal, approved minutes of the meeting.
“Immense Pain and Damage”
—For Franklin, the inclusion of her name in the city’s official historical record was a devastating blow. During a February hearing, she explained to the court that the public display of the fake post was a calculated move meant to attack her family (her husband, Ron Kashden, was a political candidate).
—She sought a narrow, simple relief: for the city to formally amend the minutes to correct what is now an admittedly erroneous authorship attribution. The city’s own legal representation, Jay Daigneault, acknowledged during court proceedings that the city accepts as true that the post was a “hoax” not created by Franklin.
—Yet, the city’s defense rests on a technicality. The city argues that the minutes accurately reflect what happened at the meeting—that Battie presented the post—regardless of whether the underlying accusation was entirely false.
—For someone who has endured years of public shaming, this legal distinction offers zero comfort. The uncorrected minutes serve as a haunting validation of a lie, forcing Franklin to continually defend her character against a smear campaign she never asked for.
—Fighting Back Under the Sunshine Law
—Refusing to be silenced, Franklin filed her Exceptions to the magistrate’s order just days later, on April 10.
—She argues that Magistrate Turner fundamentally misunderstood the law by relying on a strict interpretation of Robert’s Rules of Order, which suggests minute corrections are entirely discretionary. Franklin forcefully countered in her filing: “[T]he discretion at issue … is whether a commission member raises a motion to amend — not whether the commission, once faced with an undisputed error it has already accepted as true, may ignore it.”
—Franklin insists that Florida’s Sunshine Law framework must offer citizens a recognized process to correct materially inaccurate records. To deny that, she argues, leaves residents utterly defenseless against political stunts and defamation from the dais.
—What Comes Next
—The final decision now rests with Circuit Judge Dana Moss. Moss will review the magistrate’s recommendation alongside Franklin’s newly filed exceptions.
—If Judge Moss adopts the magistrate’s order to dismiss the case with prejudice, Franklin will be barred from refiling an amended version of her petition.
“The City of Sarasota should have done that long ago,” Franklin noted regarding a simple correction. “But it is never too late to apologize, and it is the beginning of making amends.”
Until that apology comes, the official records of Sarasota will continue to tell a lie—and a Laurel Park resident will continue to pay the emotional price.
Read the legal analysis: The Legal Anatomy of Franklin’s Two-Front War Against City Hall
