Merry Christmas from the Graybar Hotel
Wonder if this was before or after the turkey was served?
- "Looks like a Private Club, Quacks like a Private Club…………."
- Performance Bond Received from Halifax Paving
Wonder if this was before or after the turkey was served?
To everyone: I do not know if this Laney is a relative of the Laney who had been a candidate for Port Orange City Council. Whether it is or isn’t I think we should all realize that the holiday times are busy and tense for some families, and emotional conflicts sometimes fly high. There are many reports of such incidents on the police radio scanner as well as attempted suicide incidents.
Sonia ran a hard campaign and even Bob Ford will tell you how tense and nerve racking such an experience is. If this person who has been arrested is a relative of Sonia I do not think without the facts it is any kind of reflection on Sonia and/or the entire family.
Hope you all realize that I and some may be thinking of the wrong family, and if my chance it is the family that we all know, perhaps it is a reflection on nothing more than emotional time of the holidays. I hope all families can have as a good holiday as I have had, and even for those where problems exist, count your blessings, and this too shall pass. — sincerely hank springer
Henry Springer: Turns out BOTH of Bob Ford’s last two opponents for City Council were involved, and no, Hank you are not thinking of the wrong family. Sonya Laney and her current boyfriend, Mike Arminio, were accosted by her armed husband Bob Laney on Christmas day. You can read the police report below and decide for yourself whether the charges of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and False Imprisonment are warranted. I, personally, consider it extremely serious when one individual pulls a gun on another–and the tensions of holidays and political campaigns are trivial justification for doing so.
Regardless, the cozy relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and the current “Green Machine” of Port Orange politics may be even cozier than we imagined.
Second page of police report:
Final page of police report:
Disappointed in this post. No good reason to spread around other people’s issues. Disappointed in Mike G. My family has had challenges in the past, shouldn’t make us a target. At the end of the day, we are all human and should support everyone in times of trouble, not spread the word. All your good work just went out the window Mike!
Onlooker: Spoken like a man who has drunk the Green Kool-aid.
Where were you when Sonya was lecturing the “activists” (because she was a “CPA and ethical”) and blaming them for Port Orange’s problems? Where were you when Sonya and her surrogates took the low road against Bob Ford in the last campaign? We’ve all heard the old saying that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones–well, she’s been throwing them for a long time.
Politics makes for strange bedfellows Bob (sorry, Onlooker) and if Sonya Laney and Mike Arminio can’t get elected separately, maybe they can as a pair.
No, haven’t drank the kool aid, I just understand lifes about more than politics. Nobodies troubles should be aired in public. We should al have compasion and want the best for everybody. You have drank the kool aide my friend.
And I agree, Sonya’s attempts at airing Bob’s dirty laundry were wrong.
Onlooker, I think you could not be more incorrect. People who choose to run for elected public positions, serve in public positions or serve on volunteer city boards, should expect to have their troubles and successes aired in public so that we the public can pass judgement on their character and abilities to see if they are worthy of representing our community.
Sorry, politics don’t trump human decinsey.
For an engineer you sure don’t spell very well.
Onlooker, do you have any extra Jacksonville Jaguars passes?
Hank to Mike Gardiner
Thank you for the added confirming information to the arrest of Robert Laney.
From the bare information which you had provided on Pat’s web site this morning, I hope you understand why I had some doubts about this Robert Laney being the husband of Sonia.
In fact your wife e mailed me and asked me to find out more info about this incident. Perhaps you did not have the report in hand when you posted the mug shot this am?
In any case I had requested an arrest report of this Robert Laney from VCSO and POPD. VCSO replied to me that it was a POPD arrest incident. Today I sent a request for more info from popd chief and assistant chief and they as of yet have not answered me.
I am somewhat distressed that you Mike were not in a position to post the details this morning, and am somewhat distressed that there are two anonymous writers on this blog taking somewhat a critical attitude towards my not being able to see the faults in Harden. I am going to be aware that some people might try and use my objectivity to spend my time chasing information that they might already have in their possession. I would resent that. That is not being transparent.
In any case, I think it is good for our Port Orange community to know about a lethal incident involving 3 prominent citizens and two of which had political desires and may still have such.
I do fall back on my first assumption that whoever this family was, some kind of emotional toll may have taking place. And in such a trio situation, Christmas time is a hard time.
However, I do not think this incident is a reflection on city hall or the chamber of commerce in any way. To do so is to enter into false territory where perhaps only family and boyfriend/girlfriend interests are at play. But on the other hand, because Mike and Sonia might again think of running for politics, it is prudent to in the future to inspect if they bring to the city council any harmful entanglements or danger to the city council. Bill Clinton had a girlfriend, while married and I can accept that, except that he lied to the public and to a court of law. I think this situation is different but the public has a right to know about it.
I have made complaints about Sonia and the chamber of commerce, but this incident does not in my mind become cause of negative comments from me or anyone else.
I hope this too shall pass for the three, and no one gets hurt. Robert I think will need some psychological help to get through the holidays and a marriage that has or is falling apart. I wish them all, and I think it does no good to comment on family problems.
Thanks Mike for the information – hank
FYI..we checked with several sources before we posted the mugshot to be sure it was in fact “the” Robert Laney. As for the police report, it’s data in the public domain and in my opinion certainly describes choices and behaviors made by a former candidate who lectured us all very long and hard and very publicly about het ethics. And the ethical failures of others. This entire event coming so recently after her campaign sure seems germane to me to political discussion in the city of Port Orange.
Hank …
In your above comment you said “Today I sent a request for more info from popd chief and assistant chief and they as of yet have not answered me”
Now that 3 days have past did they ever answer you ? Or is this incident another attempted cover up by local stooges of the Mayor?
hank to cover up: Later in the afternoon of that first day when the arrest report was posted on this web site I e mailed them and told them not to bother getting that arrest report for me, because all of it had already been posted on this blog. I think that was Friday? And perhaps they were on a day off for the holidays. I would suspect that the crime of assault and kidnapping would be worthy of a press release, but I don’t think one has been issued.
Wow, they’re all in bed together it seems.
OMG.
Am I reading this correctly Sonya may have been cheating on her current husband during the recent city council campaign is bad enough . But the icing on the cake is that she may have been cheating with her campaign manager and former city council canidate — (another one of Mayor Greens stooges) . While at the same time she was telling us voters how ethical she was because she was a “CPA”
We all here about politics being a dirty game, but this is beyond the pale.
UNBELIEVABLE !!!! You could not make stuff like this up for a movie .
I love the part of the report where Arminio leads the pissed off armed jealous husband right to the apartment to show him where his cheating wife is now living. What a coward! He is lucky he didn’t get both of them killed. What an idiot!
I’m not sure if I like the part where he leads Bob right to Sony’a door best, or if the part where Mike finishes stuffing the Christmas turkey and thinks it would be best to leave the apartment as fast as his fat little legs would take him so as to not be around when Bob finally gets in has that beat. What a coward !
Don’t forget that Arminio is also the former President of the Mayor’s personal Chamber of Commerce,
Nothing says holiday spirit like taking a couple people hostage and then getting arrested for Christmas!
I feel bad and embarrassed for Bob Laney. Here was a guy who spent months supporting his wife and defending her honor and character during the campaign. All the while, she may have been having an affair with her campaign motor mouth, Arminio, and Bob Laney may have been the only one in Port Orange who didn’t know it.
Maybe Sonya and Arminio can do all of Port Orange a big New Years favor. They should resign from all of the city volunteer boards the Mayor put them on and the Family Days Board, and then they can go hide for a very very long time.
What a disgrace!
Maybe we should find the police report where Mike Gardner and his neighbor had a fist fight in the streets a few years ago. Let’s let it all out.
Disgusting 2: Wasn’t much of a fist fight. Cold-cocked, punched and kicked by two guys who were 25 years younger than I was. I managed to block most of their punches and kicks with my face, saving wear and tear on my hands–see picture below.
By the way, they went to jail, I did not.
Poor victim. You enjoy playing that role.
This is absolutely ludicrous and completely out of line to post. It is one thing to post the mugshot – But to go out of your way to obtain the charging affidavit and then post it on here is just showing how low this blog will stoop. This is exactly why nobody takes any of you seriously. Most of you are a laughing stock in this City. Sure a Councilman or two may pretend to to be interested in what you say because you have no remorse and will do their dirty work, but behind your backs they all laugh at you. If you really wanted “change” in this City, posting personal matters that involve board members in situations that could have very easily turned very tragic is not the answer.
WOW Anon; You must be living under a rock or just landed from Mars.
People serving in Port Orange government or any other public sector position of trust cannot expect their dirty laundry not to be displayed when they screw up.
Surprise, Surprise, Everyone from Mayor Green’s team wants this story sweep under the rug. Just like in the old days.
But now they have a big problem called the Internet
Wait so how exactly did Sonya screw up? She was attacked by her soon to be ex husband. By your apparently sound reasoning she is supposedly responsible for being held at gunpoint by her estranged husband?
Soon to be ex husband is still her husband.
She screwed up by being with Mike Arminio while she was married.
Then what was with all the backlash from Bob Ford’s sexual harassment allegations that Sonya pointed out? That is exempt, right?
To Hypocrites from hank: I do not think Sonia spoke about the suit against the city when Ford was police chief. I think it was a former mayor, Judith Anderson.
Regardless who said it, when the Ford allegations were brought forth they were criticized by many and called “low blows”. However, this potentially fatal incident publicized the way it was seems to be completely acceptable. Such a bunch of hypocrites!
Hank, you are wrong again!
I am most likely a lot older than you but I still clearly recall Sonya speaking at a prior council meeting previous to the former mayor, Judith Anderson’s diatribe. At that previous meeting Sonya said that she wanted the council to know about any and all sexual harassment complaints that were filed with the city during the former Police Chief’s tenure.
She continued on to say that she had already filed a FOI request with the city clerk to obtain any sexual harassment files about the Chief.
to Hypocrites: ok, I stand corrected. thank you for the info. — hank
could not agree with you more!
I guess his tattoo of “Sonya” on the left wrist needs to go.
Talk about an example of poor judgement. You just had a gun pointed at you and were taken hostage, yet instead of calling 911 first and immediately, Arminio decides to call an attorney instead. Thank God neither of these two are representing our City in elected positions. With the ethics, judgement and actions of these two, it’s no wonder they were never elected. Turns out the voters did know best!
http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20141229/NEWS/141229424/1040?p=2&tc=pg