A Death in St Augustine airs on PBS

Historic City News became aware of an upcoming program, produced by FRONTLINE and PBS, that will air online and on local PBS affiliate stations beginning November 26th, titled “A Death in St Augustine”.

A man identifying himself as a “photo research assistant” named Aaron Lehman, contacted us and explained that he was “working on a PBS documentary”, although he never disclosed the subject of the documentary. We were asked to call the documentary’s Associate Producer, Christina Lenis, about providing photographs of St Johns County Sheriff David B. Shoar and State Attorney R. J. Larizza.

According to information published on their website, the production company, “Left/Right” creates unscripted television and film projects “that illuminate the drama and comedy of real life”. The drama you’ll find in this documentary asks, “What can go wrong when the police are faced with domestic violence allegations within their own ranks?” I don’t find any comedy in this real life tragedy.

The production company, part of a German owned organization called ProSiebenSat.1, and Red Arrow Entertainment Group, says, “We tell stories that are honest and surprising, revealing and entertaining, dramatic and cinematic”.

So, what about this documentary? Billed as a FRONTLINE and New York Times investigation, “A Death in St. Augustine” challenges the findings by the sheriff’s office, several medical examiners and a special prosecutor appointed by the governor, that Michelle O’Connell’s death in 2010 was a suicide.

The trailer for the film asks, “The sheriff’s office ruled it suicide—but was it?”

“On the night she broke up with her police officer boyfriend, Michelle O’Connell was found dead from a gunshot in the mouth,” a little gratuitous violence and inflammatory language must be what they meant when they said “dramatic and cinematic”, because graphic depictions of a woman’s death don’t qualify as “revealing and entertaining”.

“Next to her was her boyfriend’s semi-automatic service pistol.”

Left/Right says they blend “the conventions of documentary filmmaking with the look and feel of scripted television. In short: You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll watch.”

Frontline preview video:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/death-in-st-augustine/