Rebekah Jones arrested; Florida sought to ban her from internet access
By: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon (USA TODAY)
The war between Rebekah Jones, the Florida Department of Health and Ron DeSantis shamelessly rolls on.
Thought Roger Stone was being picked on?
Rebekah was fired for reporting the true statistics on the Florida pandemic without subtracting
cruise ship, non resident and nursing home deaths, per Ron DeSantis decrees.
She duplicated her own work on a public web site for all to see & share on the internet.
Florida, the Governor, the FDOH and the State Police responded with an
early morning SWAT type raid, confiscating all household electronics while police held her, her husband and children at gun point.
The search warrant was so broad and inclusive that no one thinks it will stand up in court.
Go Fund me raised hundreds of thousands for her overnight.
She bought new computers and moved to Washington D.C. to establish a non profit that reported the pandemic data online accurately
as a public service.
Now outside of the jurisdiction of Florida ( she and her lawyers thought ) she was notified that she was to be arrested for something
that she claims is not only outside the scope of the warrant but something she did not do,
post a message of hope to the FL inter-agency email after she was terminated.
Rather than be arrested in front of family and friends, she drove back to Florida to turn herself in despite a bad cold developing.
Yes, ironic.
They tested her for COVID, then returned in Hazmat suits to book her.
She's not only positive, she's really sick. She found out when they released her.
Bad week for Rebekah...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Alessandro Marazzi SassoonFlorida Today
BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - Rebekah Jones, the fired Florida Department of Health data scientist-turned-whistleblower, turned herself in to police Sunday night to face a felony charge, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Monday.
The department, in its arrest warrant affidavit, had suggested bond conditions of "no computer access, no internet access, and no contact with the witnesses or those people whose personal information was acquired through the download."
Jones appeared before the court Monday, and the judge set her bond at $2,500. The court rejected the request to bar Jones from using the internet and computers. The judge also rejected FDLE's request to outfit Jones with a GPS tracking device.
"It was a little bit of overreach, which I think this entire case has been overreach," said Jones' attorney, Stephen Dobson.
Jones, 31, was charged under Florida's computer related crimes statute "with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices," the FDLE said. The third-degree felony can carry a penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine if there is a conviction.
Previously:Ex-Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones 'turning herself in' to face new charge
According to its arrest warrant affidavit, the Florida Law Enforcement Department alleges Jones sent a message from a Department of Health emergency messaging system calling on civil servants to "speak up."
"It's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead," the alleged message read, in part.
Bert and Carol:Kansas couple fought COVID-19 together but died, holding hands, at a hospital less than two hours apart
Jones tests positive for coronavirus, attorney says
Later, Dobson said that Jones had been quite sick when she turned herself in Sunday night and tested positive for the novel coronavirus while in custody. She has since bonded out.
"They told her she had to turn herself in by Monday or they would arrest her up in the (Washington) D.C. area," he said. Jones had moved from Tallahassee to Washington D.C. two weeks ago.
"I asked them if we could have another day or two and they said no, so she drove down sick as could be," he said.
"They put their hazmat suits on... and (we) found out after she got out that she tested positive," he said. "That's pretty ironic."
FDLE says evidence shows Jones illegally accessed message system
The investigation began Nov. 10 after the FDLE received a complaint from the Florida Department of Health that someone illegally accessed a state emergency-alert messaging system, known as ReadyOp. FDLE agents determined the message was sent from Jones' home in Tallahassee, the agency said.
The FDLE executed a search warrant on Jones' home on Dec. 7. Armed agents seized computer hardware, phones and memory devices. The raid drew criticism from some for its heavy handedness. Legal and digital rights experts were also concerned about the vagueness of the search warrant affidavit.
'They pointed guns at my kids':Florida police raid home of fired data scientist who built state's COVID-19 dashboard
In a series of tweets Saturday, Jones announced that she would be turning herself in and said that her impending arrest was unrelated to the reasons behind the December raid.
But the FDLE alleges that evidence found as a result of that raid "shows that Jones illegally accessed the system sending a message to approximately 1,750 people and downloaded confidential FDOH data and saved it to her devices."
The Office of the State Attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit will prosecute the case.
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Jones on Dec. 21 filed a civil suit against the state in response to the Dec. 7 raid, alleging it was an act of retaliation. In the suit she denied the allegations against her and claimed her constitutional rights were violated.
Jones was fired from the Department of Health in May for alleged insubordination. She has claimed she was fired for refusing to doctor the state's COVID-19 numbers on the department's coronavirus dashboard. Since then she has created her own competing dashboard, which she says presents the data more honestly, and includes additional public health metrics.
More recently Jones began compiling COVID-19 data related to schools nationally, submitting at least two research papers for journal publication. She has gained a considerable online following on Twitter, where she has over 370,000 followers and is a frequent critic of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Her last tweet on Sunday read: "Censored by the state of Florida until further notice."
Dobson said that Jones is not barred from resuming her tweeting or making public statements. Asked if he expected the state to prosecute more vigorously if Jones continued to speak out, Dobson said: "I don't know. After what's happened, nothing would surprise me."
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And Ron DeSantis wants to be your POTUS, but only if you toe the line.
trump sycophants deserve to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
The left loves their criminals; so long as they are going after Trump and Republicans that is. The second they cross the line and target Democrats- watch out.
Dowhadna?
What are you talking about? She was fired because she wouldn't doctor the covid figures. There have been investigations into this and the Sun Sentinal did an expose' on it. She has set up by far the best dashboard for COVID in Florida, it's far superior to anything that you get from the state of FL.
Rebekah Jones named Forbes Technology Person of The Year
This is who DeSantis hired to analyze the COVID data now.
Report: DeSantis Hires Sports Blogger, Uber Driver Who Promotes Covid-19 Misinformation As Data Analyst
Nice generalization...
I have read what I could find on our wonderful internet and one thing is clear, Jones' political affiliation is a well guarded secret,
however the Florida politicians who support her appear to be Republicans.
Then again, almost every statewide elected official in Florida is a Republican.
In fact there is only one Democrat who holds statewide office in Florida, Niki Fried, and she too has supported Jones, but not to the point of resigning.
When truth becomes a crime is a good sign that the criminals are in charge.
Biden should give her the Presidential Medal Of Freedom. They should have one available since Bill Belichick turned Trump down.
He should pardon her (if she's being charged with federal crimes).
State charges that she illegally accessed her state email account after she was terminated and left a message to "carry on telling the truth".
Any time I switched jobs or was transferred, it was up to the employer to prevent access to the company.
They are essentially charging her for their own security failure, if the charge is true. She denies it.
In denying the prosecutors request for an ankle bracelet, house arrest and no access to the internet , email or texting
the judge remarked at the overreach of the warrant and the prosecutions requests.
I believe the max penalty was $5,000 and/or 5 years.
The United States of America, the world's bastion of free speech, prosecutes AND PERSECUTES a person who catches a State governor in a lie and corrects it for the public to learn the truth. And there are members of NT who criticize the CCP for censorship.
They're always being repressed. . . .
Even when they have the microphone in their hands...