Over 100 protesters gathered at the interim Pulse memorial Aug. 21 after FDOT removed its nearby rainbow crosswalk. (Photo by Bellanee Plaza)
ORLANDO | Three protestors were arrested at the Pulse memorial crosswalk Aug. 31 and charged with defacing a traffic device.
The arrest of Maryjane Kristena East, 25, Donavon Todd Short, 26, and Zane Ian Aparicio, 39, came one day after a judge released Sebastian Suarez, who was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol for the same offense Aug. 30.
Blake Simons, an attorney with the Simons law firm, represented Suarez. He was released from jail after a judge found FHP had no probable cause to arrest him for his actions on Aug. 30.
Simons was at the crosswalk as the three protestors were arrested. He said he will be representing them in court. When the law changed, he made a Facebook post to notify the community and to tell people to call him if they needed an attorney.
What concerned Simons the most was that FHP is watching over one particular crosswalk in front of the Pulse memorial, where people have decided to exercise their First Amendment right to free speech.
”Right now they are trying to silence people, exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech by charging by arresting people under an obscure statute that I’ve never seen anybody arrested under, even in my time as a prosecutor,” Simons says.
An arrest document for Aparicio says he was “in possession of a piece of sidewalk chalk actively marking and defacing the painted crosswalk surface.”
The report goes on to say Aparicio drew on the white reflective part of the crosswalk as well as the unpainted portions, “thereby altering the visibility and intended function.”
Simons explains there was no probable cause in the first arrest, but FHP got more detailed in the alleged reasons for the other arrests.
The three people are now free without pending charges. The charge of interference with a traffic device is set at the cost of $1,000 or more and is a felony.
The protestors were arrested after allegedly coloring in the contentious crosswalk with rainbow colors and writing the words “Right to free speech” in the black spaces. They were freed by a judge Sept. 1.
While the judge found probable cause, the individuals were still released on their own recognizance without having to pay bail, except for one who got held up as they were walking out of the jail, Simons says. They were told to turn around because FHP came back with another allegation of criminal mischief.
“ In my legal opinion, there’s no way a charge for criminal mischief can be upheld for the actions that have been taken,” Simons shares.
Criminal mischief refers to willfully and maliciously damaging or defacing someone else’s property, such as through vandalism, graffiti, or other acts of destruction.
“ Willful and malicious, those are two elements that they would have to prove for criminal mischief,” Simons says. “And nobody is out there maliciously or willfully damaging or injuring property. They’re using water-soluble chalk to express their freedom of speech. So the criminal statute for criminal mischief, I don’t see any logical way that could hold up at all.”
FDOT said the cost to return the crosswalk to its original state is $1,562.
Simons says FDOT painting over the Pulse crosswalk in the middle of the night was done out of a place of “hate.”
”I see that it is meant to intimidate and silence the community that I belong to,” Simons shares. “As somebody with the education and licensure that I have, I’ve taken it on myself to be there to represent my community and fight for my community because my community is my world and I’m not gonna stand by while government officials and government departments try to silence us.”
He says this is very clear that it’s a targeted move.
FHP was replaced by a new team of FHP troopers sitting in the Dunkin’ Donut parking lot across from Pulse, and five minutes after the three individuals were arrested and taken away, two different vehicles rolled up to the crosswalk and performed a burnout, leaving rubber tire marks.
They drove away while FHP sat there in their patrol vehicles and watched, Simons says as he witnessed the act.
“ The fight is about a First Amendment right to free speech and the targeting against the LGBTQ community,” Simons says. “That’s the issue.”
