Jane MusgraveFeuding council members head to court; battery charges against 79-year-old council member involve former mayor’s wife.
When Nancy Wolf first read Marianne Hosta’s blog she was smitten — happy that someone was finally shining a light on the inner workings of the long-ignored town of Juno Beach.
“A lot of us thought that it was terrific,” Wolf said. When Hosta decided to run for office, Wolf was all in.
“We volunteered on her campaign and wrote checks,” she said.
However, a year after Hosta in March 2023 handily won a three-way race in the coastal town of roughly 4,000 people, her blog became a lightning rod for residents and fellow council members alike.
Instead of being “a little bit funny and a little bit snarky,” Wolf said “Marianne’s Eyes on Juno Beach” became mean. While few were spared, the 79-year-old retired math teacher was particularly nasty to the wife of then-Mayor Alexander Cooke, Wolf said.
Long-simmering animosity erupted in January when Cooke blasted Hosta during a meeting after handing her a cease-and-desist demand. In it, Cooke asked that Hosta stop mentioning him in her blog, Hosta said in her online newsletter.
“We have had a sitting council member attempt to use her position to coerce multiple residents into calling (the Florida Department of Children & Families) in order to have our children removed from us and institutionalized,” Cooke said during the meeting. “I thank God that some of these reasonable residents stood up and informed us as well as went on record with the police, confirming her disgraceful actions.”
A month later, the mayor’s wife, Bianca Giancoli Cooke, made the same allegations in a defamation lawsuit she filed against Hosta in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
Then, in March, Giancoli Cooke summoned town police after she said Hosta grabbed her cell phone from her while she was taking a video of her husband at a campaign meet-and-greet.
In a video shared on Nextdoor, Giancoli Cooke can be heard saying as Hosta approached, “Don’t touch me. Are you crazy?”
While police said they didn’t see any marks on her fingers, in a Nextdoor post she said ligaments in a finger were sprained. After an investigation, Hosta was charged with battery.
See the video through the Nextdoor app here.
Both of Hosta’s attorneys voiced confidence the cases would be thrown out.
“Whatever statements she made, there’s nothing that she said that’s actionable,” said attorney Philip Valente, who represents Hosta in the defamation case. “It’s opinion. This goes nowhere.”
Flynn Bertisch, who is defending the councilmember against the misdemeanor charge, said Hosta has already rejected a plea deal. Prosecutors agreed to ask a judge to withhold adjudication and place her on probation. If she didn’t violate any rules, the charge would disappear.
“She didn’t accept it because she didn’t do anything wrong,” Bertisch said. “She said, ‘I’m not going to admit to something I didn’t do.’”
- The trial is scheduled for July 30
Exactly what caused the rift is unclear. At one time, Hosta tutored the Cookes’ oldest son, both attorneys said.
Oddly, in the town that boasts a median age of 68, it appears the fight started over a playground.
Giancoli Cooke began raising money to upgrade the children’s play area in Kagan Park, south of the town’s iconic Pelican Lake. Questions were raised by Hosta and other council members about whether to accept the money.
After raising $278,000, Giancoli Cooke said she was tired of the criticism. At the same January meeting her husband handed Hosta the cease-and-desist demand, Giancoli Cooke announced she had returned the money to the donors. She also blasted Hosta.
“Not only has she targeted residents who did not share her viewpoint but she has also resorted to name-calling, referring to them as crybabies, puppets, bullies, etc.,” Giancoli Cooke said.
“She has targeted me, our foundation, a staggering 100 times in her last three blogs,” she continued. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
There is no name-calling on the posts still publicly available on Hosta’s blog. Some of Hosta’s missives, provided to Stet Media, aren’t on her website.
In one of the missing posts, which is focused on Giancoli Cooke, Hosta blames the park project for the “ill will” between her and Mayor Cooke.
“The division arose when I had the temerity to disagree with him,” she wrote after the January meeting.
Since then, some things have changed.
Cooke lost his bid for re-election in March. Two new council members were sworn in. Hosta, who has another two years in her term, appears to have put her writing career on hold.
As for the playground, it’s on hold, too.
Last week, Mayor Peggy Wheeler said that instead of spending $225,000 in tax money for new equipment, the city will seek a state grant.
