Rebekah Jones , the Florida data scientist turned whistleblower who accused state self-assurance of manipulate covid-19 information , turn herself in to local police on Sunday nighttime to , as sheput it , “ protect her family ” from ongoing police force harassment . Her announcement came just one Clarence Shepard Day Jr. after Florida confidence go forth anarrest warrantalleging she illegally reach the state of matter ’s computer organisation .
accord toJones ’s lawyer , she tested positive for covid-19 after turn herself in , marking a dangerous , ironic twist in a months - long saga trigger by the deadly virus .
Once I ’m lucid again , prompt me to give thanks everyone for their amazing funding .
Screenshot: WPTV News/YouTube (Other)
COVID is not a trick . I ’ve never been so sick in my life . I ’m isolating until I can go back home to my class .
Please take care of yourselves , your health , and each other .
jurist will prevail .
— Rebekah Jones ( @GeoRebekah)January 19 , 2021
Last May , Jones made national headlines after beingoustedfrom her role as the managing director of Florida’scovid-19 dashboardover what she claimed was a refusal to put off some of the numbers surrounding the province ’s total coronavirus caseload . Upon being fired , she went on to createher own dashboard , which she claimed to show the real , grueling Book of Numbers authorities did n’t want people to see .
After months of twirp her inquiry ( interspersed with scathing criticism on themany , manyways Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ’s mangled the land ’s coronavirus approach ) , Florida law of nature enforcement functionary foray into Jones ’s dwelling in December and arrogate her computing machine and data equipment .
AsCBS News reportedat the clock time , the hunting warrant resulted from the Department of Health – Jones ’s former employer – issuing a ill in early November over someone gaining unauthorised access code to its internal emergency qui vive systems . Per the DOH ’s complaint , an anonymous sender used the system to warn employees “ to speak up before another 17,000 hoi polloi are utter , ” and that they “ do n’t have to be part ” of something they “ recognize ” is ill-timed .
Jones laterfiled suitagainst these law enforcement functionary arguing that the search warrant was served “ with no logical object or purpose , ” aside from terrorizing her and her kin .
1 / There will be no update today .
At 8:30 am this morning , body politic law number into my planetary house and take all my hardware and technical school .
They were serving a indorsement on my computer after DOH filed a ill .
They pointed a heavy weapon in my nerve . They pointed guns at my kids .. pic.twitter.com / DE2QfOmtPU
— Rebekah Jones ( @GeoRebekah)December 7 , 2020
In the aftermath of the foray , one of Jones ’s followers localise up alegal defense fundon GoFundMe that racked up nigh to $ 168,000 dollars within little more than a day after Jones tweeted out the above . As of this authorship , that identification number ’s jumped up tomore than $ 290,000 .
finally , the Florida Department of Law Enforcement charged Jones on “ one count of offensive activity against users of reckoner , computer system , computing machine web and electronic devices , ” accord toa local CBS affiliate . “ Evidence retrieved from a lookup warrantee on December 7 shows that Jones lawlessly accessed the system station a message to close to 1,750 citizenry and downloaded confidential FDOH data and save it to her devices , ” the Department added .
Before turn herself in , Jonestweetedout on Sunday that “ Insurrectionists planning attack across the country this hebdomad and Florida is jailing scientists for the crimes of cognize and speaking . ”
She lateraddedshe was “ censored by the state of Florida until further posting . ”
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