Agents ‘vilified,’ FDLE says after releasing Rebekah Jones raid body cam footage

An agent knocks on the door at Rebekah Jones' home. Image via Vimeo/FDLE.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has released body cam footage from its raid this week at Rebekah Jones‘ home, precipitated by statements made online and in the media.

In a press release Thursday, which included one officer’s body cam footage split into two segments, FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said agents were “vilified.” That comes after Jones on Monday said, “they pointed a gun in my face. They pointed guns at my kids.”

Jones on Monday uploaded to Twitter video she recorded of the search and caught the national media’s attention. FDLE confirmed the search was in response to a hack last month into an emergency communications system for the Department of Health, where Jones worked before she was fired in May.

Commissioner Rick Swearingen said he hoped people who criticized how law enforcement handled the search would apologize and condemn Jones’ actions.

FDLE released the video “because of inaccurate and incomplete statements given by certain individuals,” Plessinger wrote.

“This video demonstrates that FDLE agents exercised extreme patience,” Swearingen said in a statement. “Search warrants are one of the most dangerous events a law enforcement officer will engage in and many officers are killed each year during the execution of search warrants. No search warrant is routine or without potential officer safety issues regardless of the underlying crime.”

Tallahassee Police Department officers and FDLE agents first approach Jones’ door at 8:25 a.m., according to the footage. Agents were at the door for 23 minutes before Jones came to the door.

Officers called Jones several times. One officer is heard saying they called Jones and asked to make contact with someone before someone hung up the phone.

Subsequent phone calls went directly to voicemail.

“Agents afforded Ms. Jones ample time to come to the door and resolve this matter in a civil and professional manner,” Swearingen said. “As this video will demonstrate, any risk or danger to Ms. Jones or her family was the result of her actions.”

Jones finally opens the door after an agent pounds her door in five spurts, repeating, “Police, search warrant, open the door.”

FDLE’s video shows an agent pointing his gun as he approaches her front window before she opens the door.

A video camera appeared to be recording the entire time agents were in the residence, and that camera was not seized, FDLE said. Jones’ 31-second video begins when she opened the door for officers.

“The media should also demand Ms. Jones release the entirety of the video she recorded while agents were present in her home,” Swearingen said.

Her video shows officers brandishing guns and telling Jones to exit her Tallahassee home. The video also shows a law enforcement officer yelling at her husband to “come down the stairs now.”

In both videos, Jones can be heard saying in a high-pitched voice, “he just pointed a gun at my children.” Jones’ clip shows that happened after an agent points his gun up her empty stairwell.

Investigators on the scene forensically examined Jones’ husband and children’s devices and determined they had no investigative value. Those devices were not seized in an effort to minimize disruption to the family, FDLE added.

Soon after FDLE released the body cam footage, Jones tweeted her defense.

“Bodycam footage released by police shows they waited about 13 minutes outside while I got dressed, and were ready to break my door down with a sledgehammer. At 13:48, an officer is shown pointing a gun at my face. They thought this would… help them?” Jones wrote. “It also shows me coming out with my arms up, cooperating, with my husband coming down the stairs with my two year old in his arms. My video from inside showed them pointing the guns right at them. This is ‘restraint?’ Really???”

Bodycam footage released by police shows they waited about 13 minutes outside while I got dressed, and were ready to break my door down with a sledgehammer. At 13:48, an officer is shown pointing a gun at my face. They thought this would… help them?

— Rebekah Jones (@GeoRebekah) December 10, 2020

On Monday, Jones blamed Gov. Ron DeSantis for the raid. On CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, she added that the Governor would soon know who she had spoken to in confidence at DOH.

“They took my phone and the computer I use every day to post the case numbers in Florida, and school cases for the entire country,” she tweeted. “They took evidence of corruption at the state level. They claimed it was about a security breach. This was DeSantis. He sent the gestapo.”

The Governor’s Office denied prior knowledge of the search, and FDLE said the investigation began before knowing Jones’ involvement in the case.

“Patient, non-threatening, and professional. Watch both videos,” tweeted Fred Piccolo, the Governor’s communications director.

According to FDLE, a hacker on Nov. 10 sent State Emergency Response Team members text messages through a custom-made communications application for the Division of Emergency Management reserved for emergencies only. The message, first reported last month by the Tampa Bay Times, urged recipients 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. Speak out before it’s too late.”

An FDLE affidavit says investigators secured an IP address tied to Jones’ home as the hack’s source. But she contends that IP address came from DOH’s inspector general’s office, not from an original FDLE investigation.

Monday’s raid was the latest confrontation between Jones and the agency where she once worked.

Jones used to curate coronavirus data for DOH’s dashboard as the department’s Division of Disease Control and Health Protection geographic information systems manager. While the state called her insubordinate, Jones contends she was fired for refusing to manipulate data.

“The blatant disrespect for the professionals who were working around the clock to provide the important information for the COVID-19 website was harmful to the team,” DeSantis’ then-spokeswoman Helen Aguirre Ferré said in May. “Having someone disruptive cannot be tolerated during this public pandemic, which led the Department to determine that it was best to terminate her employment.”

That month, DeSantis accused the national media of latching onto the story because claims Florida would become the next Italy of the pandemic didn’t come true.

“Maybe it’s that there are black helicopters circling the Department of Health,” he said. “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.”

The administration also brought to the media’s attention criminal charges that had been filed against Jones last year.

A review of Leon County court documents shows that Jones was charged in July 2019 with two counts of cyberstalking and one count of sexual cyber harassment. According to court records, one of the cases is still open.

Jones filed a whistleblower complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations in July.

The Nov. 10 hack came in the afternoon after news broke that the state’s Office of Policy and Budget had hired an Ohio sports blogger who downplays the virus’ severity on social media to manage the dashboard Jones once oversaw.

Since her firing, Jones has used publicly available DOH coronavirus data to create an alternate dashboard to track COVID-19 infections. In August, she launched The COVID Monitor to track cases in schools across the country.

FDLE releases full body camera footage from Rebekah Jones search warrant: https://t.co/OOZAdwwds2.

— FDLE (@fdlepio) December 10, 2020