The Florida data scientist, who claims that state officials fired her for refusing to change coronavirus numbers, said she plans to hand herself over to law enforcement a month after authorities raided her home.
Rebekah Jones, who helped develop the Covid-19 dashboard in Florida, has been in a public battle with the state for a month since she claimed officials expelled her from her position because she refused to provide data. manually change to support the reopening plan. She announced on social media on Saturday that she intended to surrender to authorities.
“To protect my family from continued police violence and to show that I am ready to fight for everything they throw at me, I changed myself Sunday night in Florida,” Jones said.
A search warrant was issued at Jones’ home in Tallahassee after she allegedly had access to a Department of Health communications platform and sent a group text on Nov. 10 to warn users that it’s time to talk before 17,000 people died. ‘
She denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that the raid began on December 7 to ‘silence’ her online speech and curry favor with Governor Ron DeSantis. Authorities seized Jones’ computer, cell phone and other devices.
Jones claimed in a Twitter thread on Saturday that a warrant had been issued for her arrest on a charge unrelated to the December raid, and that authorities had not found evidence that she had sent the November 10 message .
‘However, the police did find documents that I received / downloaded from sources in the state, or something like that … it is not clear at this stage what they say exactly that I had, but what I should not have had no, but an agent confirmed that it had nothing to do with the subject of the warrant, ‘Jones said. “The raid was based on a lie.”
Jones also alleges that an agent told her attorney that authorities may file more charges against her in an attempt to censor her speech, if she speaks out against police.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed to NBC News on Sunday that agents were working with Jones’ attorneys on her surrender and would release more information after Jones was arrested.
It is unclear what charge Jones faces on her surrender. Jones’ lawyer declined to comment on NBC News.
Jones’ departure from the state Department of Health came after he stopped publishing the list of coronavirus deaths reported by Florida medical investigators – a version that was sometimes 10 percent higher than the official state. .
A DeSantis spokesman said in a statement following Jones’ allegations in May that Jones had “shown a repeated course of insubordination” and “blatant contempt”.
Jones has since sought protection against whistleblowers and developed another coronavirus dashboard, which she described in her lawsuit against the state as “meticulously accurate and honest data”.
