Florida COVID data whistleblower says state police confiscated computers in armed raid - UPI.com
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dec. 7 (UPI) -- The home of a former Florida Department of Health data scientist who was fired from her job running the state's COVID-19 data dashboard was raided by state police Monday, according to a Twitter post.
"There will be no update today," Tallahassee geospatial data scientist Rebekah Jones tweeted Monday evening. "At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech. They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint. They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids."
Jones posted video from a home surveillance camera that appeared to show armed officers entering her home and demanding that she and her two children and husband leave the house.
"They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country," she added. "They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was [Gov.] DeSantis. He sent the gestapo."
Jones's home was raided under a search warrant from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as part of an investigation that started Nov. 10, the department said in a statement on their Facebook Page.
The Department of Health filed a complaint alleging the Jones had breached an emergency messaging alert system and had "illegally accessed the system," the statement said.
"Agents knocked and called Ms. Jones both announcing the search warrant and encouraging her to cooperate. Ms. Jones refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung-up on agents," the FLDE said.
"Agents entered the home in accordance with normal protocols and seized several devices that will be forensically analyzed," the department statement added. "At no time were weapons pointed at anyone in the home."
No charges have been filed against Jones.
Jones denied hacking the system.
"I have never had access to that system," she told the Sun Sentinel Monday. "I am not a hacker. I do data statistics and analysis."
In early 2020, as the coronavirus begin to spread across the United States, Jones built the state of Florida's first COVID-19 data reporting system, which drew praise from many, including Deborah Birx from the White House coronavirus task force.
But she was fired by the state in May for "insubordination" after publicly complaining that state officials were pressuring her to fudge the data.
Jones then developed an alternate COVID-19 dashboard that expanded on some of the state data and also reported hospital bed availability.
She filed a whistleblower report against the Florida Department of Health, saying that she was terminated for refusing to falsify data. She blamed Gov. Ron DeSantis for wanting to hide true COVID-19 case numbers to keep the state open while others were in lockdown mode.
"My public firing in May sent a message to DOH employees that questioning the direction of the governor would lead to public shame, embarrassment and, yes, termination," Jones wrote in a July editorial to the Miami Herald.
On Monday, Jones said she would not be deterred from her work by threats.
"This does not shut me down," she said. "If [DeSantis] didn't learn the first time he tried to defame and threaten me that it didn't work, he's about to learn it now."
1/ There will be no update today.
At 8:30 am this morning, state police came into my house and took all my hardware and tech.
They were serving a warrant on my computer after DOH filed a complaint.
They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.. pic.twitter.com/DE2QfOmtPU— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020
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They pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.. pic.twitter.com/DE2QfOmtPU— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 7, 2020.
There is nothing appropriate about this, especially considering she was fired for refusing to post false information on the Covid data dashboard that she designed.
I saw this.........
"At no time were weapons pointed at anyone in the home."
and then watched. Guns WERE drawn and pointed at someone............SMH this is crap. Surprised she still had the video to post. They probably were unaware the camera was rolling
Thanks SMAAB
I couldn't believe it when I saw the gun in the hand of the first guy.
What bothers me is that there were other ways to obtain her computer, or at least the information on it. What happened seems more like a retaliation tactic.
Thanks to cloud storage most likely.
Her dashboard on COVID is far superior to anything that the state has put out.
Also, the Sun Sentinal newspaper in FL did an expose on DeSantis and the virus.
DeSantis is in a war with some of the mayors in Florida. DeSantis has overridden their power to have a mask mandate.
We only have over a million confirmed COVID cases and over 19,000 deaths. Geez we are really doing well DeathSantis.
the clock is ticking on the destruction of all evidence ...
The epitome of far right wing fascism.
She's lucky they didn't shoot her.
Of course... she isn't Black, so...
Did they really need guns to take a computer from an unarmed woman with kids in the house?
Well it is Florida. They sort of set that standard with the Roger Stone arrest.
you just never know when there might be some opportunities for trumpsters to shoot people in the back.
Don't blame the police. They were given a warrant and probably know nothing else about what was going on, no idea that this was political in nature.
The warrant surely said what the police were supposed to seize. A computer and perhaps some papers.
Do you really think it appropriate to serve that warrant with guns in hand?
That would be pretty hard not to know here in Florida. It's been in the news for quite some time.
You really can't under-estimate the the cops...
It was the Florida State Police that was involved. Tallahassee is the state capital when DeSantis lives and also where Rebekha lives.
I'm pretty sure that the state police are fully aware of what has been happening.
That is actually worse than ignorance.
It sure as hell is.
And it gets more interesting.
DeSantis appointee quits over raid on ex-state worker’s home
You don't think drug dealers use computers? Search warrants are as general as they can make them. Too specific (i.e. computers) and they can't do anything if they find, drugs, guns, or child pornography.
But yes, I am sure the lead officer had an idea what was going on, but it would be a mistake to think all of them were made aware of the political nature.
I have been on search warrants before. Main investigator knew about the case, the rest of us where told what we were supposed to be looking for, nothing else.
In one case, we were looking for drugs, during the search we found 2 weapons. When the search was over, we left those guns where we found them, because the search warranty did not include anything other than drugs to look for. We could not even record the serial numbers on them.
It was the state police, not the local cops. Everyone in Florida knows what is going on it's no frickin secret.
It was done in Tallahassee the state capital, DeSantis lives there as does Rebekha. It's been all over the news for months and the Sun-Sentinel did an expose' on how DeSantis has been fudging the numbers.
This had nothing to do with drugs. It was about an unauthorized text message sent.
OMG!
An honorable Republican!
That sounds like, "Exceptionally, we might go in with our guns holstered, but the general rule is 'locked and loaded' ".
What could possibly go wrong?
Jeez, K...
You sure are cynical...
I would never have imagined!
Wow, Kav. You are indeed correct in the 'it gets more interesting' department.
I'm glad to see that Mr. Filipowski did the right thing. I'm certain, however, that Trump and Desantis will make his life a living hell from here on out...
It was interesting to learn that Ron Desantis served in the Navy. Actually, I was shocked. An officer and gentleman who wears his worship of Trump loud and proud? There's more to that story. I found a 2-year-old article that highlighted some conspicuous blanks in his career. When the Navy was asked for clarification, their response was, in part, “release of such information would be a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of Ronald D. DeSantis and other identified individuals...” Now my curiosity is in overdrive.
Fine!
Every cop involved was there because he was corrupt.
Every cop there was a secret enforcer of DeSantis.
Happy now with your generalization?
I never said every cop was corrupt or a secret enforcer for DeSantis. If your butt hurt over it too fucking bad...Go whine to someone else.
That is what you are implying.
You're the one who seems confused over the point you are trying to make.
The danger in Replying to "what you're implying" is obvious. If you misunderstand, your Reply looks silly.
It's a lot safer to Reply to what the person actually said.
Agreed. And my original statement was that not all, or even most, of the cops involved in the search warrant are likely corrupt. Most were just doing their job.
I wasn't implying anything of the sort. I said in my comments that it would be difficult for them not to know who she is.
I'm not confused at all, you are the one that seems to be having difficulty understanding and are drawing conclusions that are not at all accurate.
Hope that's clear enough for you.
Then I apologize, because I must have misunderstood it.
Not everyone is up on current news, and after the last 4 years, many are burnt out of watching political news.
But I understand what you are trying to say.
In that case I will refer you back to yoiur first statement...
And point out that any kind of warrant indicates criminality.
There was enough evidence for a judge to sign off on it, though I will admit that there are a few too many partisan judges out there nowadays.
Officers are walking into an unknown situation with a legal warrant. Guns drawn, initially, is not unexpected.
Apology accepted.
That's true but this is a very big story in FL and has been for quite some time. I live here so I'm fairly well versed in this situation.
OK, my first statement was that it would be difficult for them not to know who she was.
This is not my comment.
There probably are too many partisan judges but that isn't what is bothering me. Besides the point that the State Police more than likely knew who she was and even if they didn't the search warrant was for possible ''unauthorized text message'' that hardly send out warning signals to come in with guns drawn. And secondly, the State Police lied about not having their weapon drawn. When the video came to light the story quickly changed.
You are correct, once again apologies. I didn't scroll up high enough.
This is wrong on so many levels. It is the governor using his authority to punish people that dared go against him.
The piece of shit needs to be looked into for criminal activities.
Sick and sad, this is the America of the trumpers...
This is a very disturbing situation on many levels, from her firing to the charges against her to the raid on her home. I hope that there is a thorough investigation of the whole sordid affair, including a federal investigation into potential civil rights violations.
That would be my hope as well, but what are the odds of it actually happening? In a statement, the state police lied about having guns drawn. Thank goodness she had video showing otherwise, because the odds of the police sticking to their story were quite high.
We're learning: "Always record every encounter with the police."
How horrible is that?