TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is vigorously defending law enforcement officers on how they served a search warrant at the home of a former Department of Health employee being investigated for unauthorized use of an emergency alert system.
DeSantis spoke Friday, addressing the search warrant served at the home of Rebekah Jones on Monday.
“This individual became known because she alleged a conspiracy theory at the Department of Health, which is unfounded. Never proven at all. She was fired because she wasn’t doing a good job,” DeSantis said. “You’d think that would be the end of it. Obviously, she’s got issues.”
Jones helped create the state's dashboard of coronavirus data. She was fired from her post in May after she raised questions about the data. She had been reprimanded several times and was ultimately fired for violating Health Department policy by making public remarks about the information, state records show.
Officers served a search warrant at Jones' home in Tallahassee Monday after a message had been sent that implored employees still at the Health Department "to speak up 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."
Rebekah Jones posted the video online showing agents entering her Tallahassee home after claims of an investigation into a data breach of the state's system.
Jones hasn't been charged with any crime and has denied sending the message, though court records show that the alert system can be accessed via a username and password that many department employees share.
"On this situation, there was an intrusion of a very sensitive system. It’s an emergency alert system, if somebody gets a hold of that they can do a lot of damage you could really frighten a lot of elderly people, a lot of vulnerable populations," DeSantis said Friday.
DeSantis said the department of health reported the intrusion to law enforcement.
"Law enforcement looked at the intrusion, they identified the IP address, then they did what any investigator would do, they subpoenaed the internet provider, the internet provider provided this residence as the IP address that did the intrusion," DeSantis said. "They got a search warrant, got the devices and guess what? They’re probably going to be able to match the devices to the intrusion, at which point that’s clearly a felony offense."
DeSantis said he was aware of the investigation but didn't know what law enforcement was doing.
Bodycam video released by FDLE on Thursday shows that officers tried multiple time to contact Jones. Officials said agents had "knocked and called" Jones, but she refused to come to the door for 20 minutes and hung up on them.
DeSantis voiced criticisms when a reporter characterized it as a raid on Friday.
"It’s not a raid with all due respect, what you just said is editorializing," DeSantis said. "I’m not going to let you get away with it."
DeSantis also gave his support to the officers who were at Jones' home.
"They’ve been smeared as the Gestapo for doing their jobs. They did a search warrant. Why did they do a search warrant on the house? Because her IP address was linked to the felony. What were they supposed to do? Just ignore it? Of course not, they went, they followed protocol," DeSantis said. "We have video from Tallahassee PD showing they were very respectful, she was not cooperative, it was not a raid, they were serving valid process in accordance with the laws and Constitution of the United States and the state of Florida."
Jones told officers that her lawyer told her not to answer the door. When asked, she said it wasn't about Monday's incident, but a prior involvement with police. She currently is being prosecuted for a misdemeanor stalking charge.
"I think Floridians want government to protect them. I think they want these sensitive systems to be protected," DeSantis said. "I don’t think they want them to be intrusion and just because you’re a darling of some corners of the fever swamps, that does not exempt you from following the law."