A former Florida Department of Health employee sued the state on Monday for one search warrant executed on her home after investigators said they identified a message sent from a computer to the address of the health department. Rebekah Jones, who was fired for insubordination in May after repeatedly violating the department’s policy on communicating with the media, helped set up the state’s coronavirus dashboard. She claims she was fired for not falsifying data.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued the search warrant earlier this month. Jones posted a video of 31 seconds of it officers entering her house, and the department later released more than 20 minutes of bodycam video showing that she refused to respond to phone calls and knocked on her door.
FLORIDA DEPT OF LAW ENF
Jones said she, her husband, and two children were asleep when the officers arrived. In an interview on YouTube with Florida Today earlier this month, Jones told her to get dressed and told her husband to bring the kids upstairs because she thought the officers were arresting her and she didn’t want them to see it.
She said she doesn’t understand why the officers had to raid her home with guns drawn.
“They were there to issue a computer search warrant. This was not an illegal underground cartel,” she said. “There was no risk of danger and (the delay in opening the door) is no excuse for that behavior.”
The message that led to the search warrant implored employees still in the health department “to speak before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don’t have to be a part of this. Be a hero.”
Jones has had several feuds with law enforcement over personal issues, but has garnered international attention by contesting Florida’s COVID-19 statistics. She was paid nearly $ 48,000 a year as an employee of the Department of Health, but since May she has raised nearly $ 260,000 in a GoFundMe account after criticizing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The plaintiff’s resignation drew a lot of media attention nationally and in Florida, much of it negative for Governor Ron DeSantis,” the lawsuit said. “Governor DeSantis openly denounced Plaintiff in the most vicious and shameful way in the furor after her resignation.”
It says searching her home was a “sham.”
Florida Department of Law Enforcement commissioner Rick Swearingen said he was “proud of the professional” his agents showed when they executed a search warrant at home.
“Our criminal investigation is continuing, and while I have not seen this lawsuit, I believe the facts will come up in court,” the commissioner added in an email sent to reporters.
No charges were filed during the investigation.