Florida COVID data critic Rebekah Jones reaches agreement on felony charge [View all]
Source: Tampa Bay Times
FORT LAUDERDALE — A fired Florida health department data manager charged with illegally accessing state computers after she publicly accused officials of wanting to make COVID-19 statistics look less dire has reached an agreement with prosecutors that should result in the case being dropped.
Rebekah Jones, who helped design the state’s coronavirus website, signed an agreement with prosecutors admitting guilt to a charge of illegally accessing the state’s computer system and requiring her to pay $20,000 to cover the investigation’s costs, perform 150 hours of community service and see a mental health counselor monthly. If she completes those requirements, the charge will be dropped within two years. The agreement was filed late last week at Tallahassee’s circuit court.
Jones, who lost a bid for Congress last month, was charged in January 2021 with one count of offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks and electronic devices. Investigators say that in late 2020, months after she was fired, Jones illegally accessed a state emergency-alert messaging system known as ReadyOp.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Jones downloaded and saved confidential data and sent a message to 1,750 state employees that urged them to “speak up before another 17,000 people are dead” — the number of Floridians who had died of COVID-19 by that point.
Read more: https://web.archive.org/web/20221212192927/https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2022/12/12/florida-covid-data-critic-rebekah-jones-reaches-agreement-felony-charge/
The moral of today's story is to not believe someone just because they are telling a story which reinforces what you already believe.
= new reply since forum marked as read
