Rebekah Jones: Florida-licensed data scientist surrenders to authorities

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Rebekah Jones has been charged with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices, the FDLE said. She went to the Leon County Detention Center on Sunday.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, Jones announced his intention to surrender to authorities.

“To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I’m ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I turn into police in Florida on Sunday night,” Jones tweeted.

“The governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out.”

Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health in May and has repeatedly criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

The FDLE said it was investigating whether Jones had accessed a state messaging system without authorization to call on state officials to report the deaths from Covid-19.
Putting politics before life: DeSantis faces criticism of Florida response to Covid-19

“It’s time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead,” a message sent Nov. 10 said, according to the affidavit. “You know it’s wrong. You don’t have to be part of it. Be a hero. Speak up before it’s too late.

Officials traced this message to an IP address linked to Jones’ home, according to a search warrant affidavit.

On December 7, Jones’ home was searched. Jones filed a lawsuit alleging that FDLE officials violated her First Amendment rights, deprived her of due process, and illegally seized her computers, cell phone and storage media during a search at his home.

The lawsuit says IP addresses are generally “spoofed” and refers to news articles that revealed that the system username and password of the message that triggered the investigation was publicly available on the site. Department of Health website.

Governor faces close scrutiny

The Jones investigation comes as DeSantis faces increasingly scrutiny in its handling of the pandemic.

In April, the governor falsely claimed that Covid-19 had not killed anyone under the age of 25.
Despite multiple outbreaks of Covid-19 in the state, DeSantis has refused to allow municipalities to enforce their own mask warrants or more stringent social distancing laws. This limitation of local control has been criticized by mayors on both sides.
An investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found that the DeSantis administration was working to minimize bad news about the pandemic and spread disinformation.
Some spokespersons for the health department were told in September not to release statements until the November election, and officials withheld crucial data on the spread of the virus, the newspaper reported.

Jones, who helped build the state’s coronavirus dashboard, has become one of the governor’s toughest critics, publicly saying DeSantis was to blame for the growing death toll.

In May, state officials said Jones was fired because she “displayed repeated insubordination” and altered a state data portal without input or approval from epidemiologists or her staff. supervisors.
But Jones said she was fired after refusing to tamper with state data on Covid-19.
'We're dying here,' Florida newspaper says begging governor to issue statewide mask warrant
Jones filed a whistleblower complaint in July with the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

After his dismissal, Jones released his own dashboard of Covid-19 statistics. She said she had received internal files from people who worked for the state, including what she said was proof that state officials “were lying in January (2020) about things like internal reports and opinions of the CDC “.

The evidence was on “a bunch of USB drives” the police took away when they raided her home, Jones said. She said she also had documents that had been legally accessed since she was a government employee.

Legal experts said the material could theoretically be used to target Jones’ sources if they broke inside information sharing rules.

The search warrant allowed officers to recover “any computer equipment” that stored or transmitted data, including hard drives, devices, software and correspondence “relating to possession, receipt, origin or distribution of data involving the facilitation of computer crimes. ”

Labor attorneys in Florida have said state employees who leaked internal Jones files could face disciplinary action or possibly legal issues – although they may be able to seek protection under state whistleblower laws.

Curt Devine of CNN contributed to this report.

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