Detention facility maintenance man arrested for equipment theft

Thursday, a 28-year-old maintenance technician, working at the St Johns County Juvenile Detention Facility on Avenue D in St Augustine, was arrested on multiple charges following a reported employee theft.

Jonathon Paul Hollar, who resides at 1150 Cypress Road #2, was brought in for questioning and then arrested and charged with ten counts of dealing in stolen property and ten counts of providing false verification of ownership to a pawn shop.

Northeast District Detectives began an investigation into an employee theft Wednesday at the juvenile detention facility which is operated by Sequel Youth and Family Services.

Over a period of the last two months, the company reported a large amount of equipment missing and presumed stolen. The items were taken from several secured rooms at the facility which led the victim to believe the crime had been committed by an employee.

A search of pawn shop records found some of the stolen equipment had be sold by Hollar in recent weeks. The list of stolen items included weed eaters, compressors, paint sprayers, and a flat screen television. Ten of the items had been pawned to six area pawn shops.

Hollar is also accused of scrapping a large amount of metal belonging to the county. Additional charges are pending further investigation. After his first appearance hearing Friday morning, Hollar was released on $20,000 bond.