LEON COUNTY – The former Florida data scientist who accused the state of covering up the extent of pandemic, could face serious charges if convicted of illegally downloading state health data.
“Mrs. Jones you have been a third-degree felony under…” a judge informing Rebekah Jones of her charges via a ZOOM meeting.
Jones appeared before a judge Monday morning for the first time since her arrest on felony charges; where she told reporters, she tested positive for COVID-19.
“I just tested COVID positive you guys,” said Jones.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Jones allegedly illegally accessed the Department of Health’s computer system. But a former Miami-Dade County judge says the state is lacking evidence against her.
“They really haven’t found any evidence to help them in regards to the computers and other cellphones, and other computer equipment that she had,” said Jeff Swartz.
Swartz, a Western Michigan University Cooley Law School Professor, says that doesn’t mean Jones is in the clear of possibly facing a felony conviction.
In the arrest report SNN obtained by the FDLE it states:
“Evidence retrieved from a search warrant on December 7th shows that Jones illegally accessed the system sending a message to approximately 1,750 people and downloaded confidential FDOH data and saved it to her devices.”
“The only thing that they would possibly be able to show is by back tracing entries into the information they were trying to find something that connects her with that,” said Swartz.
According to Jones, Florida investigators “found no evidence” related to the incident that officials said had triggered the raid. She wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “police did find documents I received/downloaded from sources in the state, or something of that nature.”
Jones has always been vocal on Twitter that she’s done nothing illegal went coming forward against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“She was putting data on the portal which the scientist didn’t believe was valid data,” said Gov. DeSantis back in May.
However Criminal attorney Ron Filipkowski says her defense team won’t be able to rely on Florida’s whistle blower laws.
“The whistle blower laws protect you for coming forward with misconduct that you learn during the course of your employment,” said Filipkowski.
But both Filipkowski and Swartz believes that these charges are an abuse of the criminal justice process as a means to intimidate other employees of the state.
The warrant also alleges that Jones downloaded and saved health department data — containing contact information for “approximately 19,182 people across the state of Florida.”