Rebekah Jones: The lawsuit of a fired Florida data scientist Covid calls the search for her home ‘retaliation’

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Rebekah Jones alleges that Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) officials violated her First Amendment rights, deprived her of a fair trial, and unlawfully seized her computers, cell phone, and storage media during a search of her home at December 7, according to the lawsuit filed. Sunday.

The lawsuit also alleges that an unnamed FDLE agent grabbed Jones’ belly “without permission, authorization, or legitimate basis” during the search.

The FDLE has said it is investigating whether Jones has gained access to a state messaging system without permission to call on state officials to “ speak out ” on deaths from the coronavirus. Officials traced that message to an IP address associated with Jones’s home, according to an affidavit of search warrant.

Jones, who was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May and has repeatedly criticized Governor Ron DeSantis’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, has denied sending such a message.

Jones’ lawsuit alleges that the basis of the search warrant was “a sham” to punish her for “protected speech.”

The indictment alleges that IP addresses have often been “spoofed” and refers to news articles that found the username and password for the system of the message that triggered the investigation were publicly available on the health department’s website.

Under Florida law, “no reasonable officer would consider access to the site a crime,” the lawsuit said.

“FDLE, who was trying to gain favor with DeSantis, tried to silence the prosecution’s online speech by confiscating her computer and discovering her confidential sources and other information by confiscating her cell phone” , the lawsuit states.

Jones has asked the court to order the return of her property and to award damages.

FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen, named as the defendant in the lawsuit, has said that FDLE agents acted correctly when executing the search warrant.

“I am proud of the professionalism our FDLE agents displayed when they sent out a search warrant at Rebekah Jones’s home. Our criminal investigation continues, and while I have not seen this lawsuit, I believe the facts will be in court will come out, ” Swearingen said in a statement Monday.

The FDLE released body camera videos showing that approximately 23 minutes had elapsed between when agents first rang Jones to carry out the search warrant and when Jones opened the door of her Tallahassee home.

State officials said in May that Jones was terminated for “repeatedly showing insubordination” and modifying a state data portal without input or approval from epidemiologists or her supervisors. Jones has argued that she was fired after refusing to falsify state coronavirus data.

Jones filed a whistleblower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations in July. The complaint remains under consideration.

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