Florida data scientist says she will turn into authorities

• Rebekah Jones, the Florida data specialist, fired last year by the Department of Health, said on Saturday she would surrender to authorities on Sunday after issuing an arrest warrant last week.
• Jones, who worked on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, was fired in May after saying she refused to change data related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the state.
• In December, Florida authorities executed an arrest warrant against her property, seizing computers, phones, and external storage drives after she continued to release Florida’s COVID-19 data through her own board. on board.
• “False accusations are meant to silence and now jail me for being a government-critical scientist,” Jones said. “This is the classic definition of #censorship.”
• Visit the Insider home page for more stories.

In a long Twitter thread on Saturday, Rebekah Jones, the data scientist who said she was fired in May by the Florida Department of Health for refusing to change COVID-19 data, said she was turning into authorities Sunday after issuing a warrant last week. for his arrest.

The arrest warrant came about a month after authorities raided Jones’ Florida home, and it’s unclear what crime Florida officials plan to charge. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did not immediately return Insider’s request for comment on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the FDLE told Florida Today the agency would be able to share more information about Jones’ case once she was arrested.

In another tweet, Jones said a law enforcement official told her lawyer she could face additional charges if she speaks to the media.

But Jones said on Saturday that the Florida law enforcement department had been unable to connect her to a message sent through the state’s emergency messaging service that called agents of the State to sound the alarm on Governor Ron DeSantis’ response to the pandemic. The message was the basis of the December arrest warrant, which was executed on December 7.

Florida law enforcement officers seized computers, phones and external storage devices during their search of her home last month. After the raid, Jones sued the state for civil rights violations and moved from Florida to Washington, DC, according to the Florida Today report.

Read more: Biden inauguration raises tens of millions of dollars but won’t say how he spends the money

“The raid was based on a lie,” Jones said in a tweet saturday. “Yet the state issued an arrest warrant – even though the ‘crime’ is unrelated to the warrant, to the scope of the warrant, and they didn’t wait for a third party to review the confidential information about it. my computers. “

A Tallahassee judge last week declined to rule on whether state officials should return Jones’ property seized during the raid until officials decide whether they plan to charge him for what was secured during tenure on his property, as a Tallahassee Democrat reported.

“To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I am ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I turn into police in Florida on Sunday night,” Jones said in another tweet. “The governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.”

In May, Jones, who worked on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, was fired by the Florida Department of Health. State officials said Jones was fired for “repeated insubordination” and for her “blatant disrespect for the professionals who worked around the clock to provide information important to the COVID-19 website.”

Jones, however, said his dismissal was the result of his refusal to change the COVID-19 data. At the time, Jones said his Florida Department of Health officials told him to remove data showing Florida residents tested positive for COVID-19 as early as January. She also said she refused to change data that would have given the impression that some counties had met the criteria to reduce restrictions when they had not yet met those criteria.

After his dismissal, Jones continued to upload and post data through his own online dashboard. But in December, authorities in Florida obtained the search warrant and searched his home. Jones speculated on Saturday that she believed that a condition of her release from prison could be that she limit her access to technology, limiting her ability to share information.

“False accusations are meant to silence and now jail me for criticizing the government,” she said. “This is the classic definition of #censorship. “