GAINESVILLE – Florida’s new Halo Law, the controversial statute intended to protect law enforcement from harassment, went into effect at the start of this year. Now the first people arrested and prosecuted under it say they were left in the dark.
At least eleven people so far have been arrested on charges of violating the new law, which bans people from being within 25 feet of a police officer, firefighter or paramedic at the scene of an incident, according to a statewide survey of the latest criminal violations by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Those accused can face a misdemeanor charge if they stay after a verbal warning to get back. It outlaws behavior described as “conduct directed at a first responder which intentionally causes substantial emotional distress in that first responder and serves no legitimate purpose.”
Back when lawmakers were debating the bill's passage, then-Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, cited the citizen’s recording of the police officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020 and asked the bill's sponsor, Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Hialeah Gardens, whether a bystander recording a scene after being told to stop could be arrested.
Avila acknowledged that a first responder's emotional distress level – the threshold for an arrest – could be subjective. "They are certainly trying to perform their duties and save a life, as well as stabilize a situation," Avila said. "Anything that certainly impedes upon that is harassment."
The law went into effect Jan. 1 and initially saw split support: Detractors said the law would restrict free speech and protests, while supporters said it was necessary to protect law enforcement and other first responders. The law includes no specific protections for anyone recording or merely quietly watching police or firefighters within 25 feet.
Those arrested say the law needs to be changed already.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrested Katelynn Justice, 29, on a misdemeanor violation of the Halo Law at 1 a.m. on Jan. 1 – one hour after it went into effect.
Justice and her husband were at Ms. Newby’s, a bar in Panama City Beach, with friends for New Year’s Eve. While using the bathroom, deputies arrested her husband over a fight with the bar’s security. When she came out, she saw a deputy place his knee on his neck, pinning Justice’s husband down.
“Can someone please tell me what’s going on? Why is my husband on the ground?” she said she asked the deputies.
Sheriff’s deputies told her to step aside before later putting her in handcuffs. Justice asked deputies why she was arrested multiple times – including while in the police car – but was told nothing, she said. Prosecutors dropped her charges on Feb. 10, according to court documents.
Justice said the arrest was traumatic: She wasn’t aware of the new law, felt she acted reasonably and worried she would be fired from her medical practice for being arrested.
“Anybody that’s married would be a little concerned and right there by their husband,” she said.
Justice did not remember law enforcement telling her to stay 25 feet away from them, she said. A deputy wrote in the arrest report she was told to “back up” and described her as “hovering” near the scene of her husband being arrested.
Elsewhere in the Panhandle, Kaleb Matthew Freeze, 19, said he was frustrated by the police’s lack of transparency. After a fight broke out Jan. 25 at a friend’s house, Freeze said someone punched his girlfriend. He said he asked Santa Rosa County sheriff’s deputies what happened but was waived off.
Freeze said deputies arrested him without saying anything.
“Immediately, I’m the first person they arrest,” Freeze said.
In his arrest report, a deputy said Freeze ignored “multiple verbal orders” to step back and “continued to yell and scream, throwing his arms in the air, all while remaining within five to 10 feet of deputies who were trying to conduct interviews.”
Freeze faces a court hearing June 27 in the case. Prosecutors formally charged him with resisting an officer without violence.
In Gainesville, police said Adri Nicole Day, 46, interrupted officers investigating a noise complaint and refused to leave, saying, “I ain’t going nowhere, I know my rights,” according to her arrest report. Police arrested her under the new state law after an officer said he warned her to stand 25 feet back.
Prosecutors dropped the charge in a plea deal in which Day, who police said is homeless, pleaded no contest to resisting an officer without violence and possession of a small amount of drugs in her purse. A judge sentenced her to 4 months in jail earlier this month.
In Dania Beach, a Broward County sheriff’s deputy said Angel Morales, 35, of Fort Lauderdale approached authorities during a traffic stop in February and shouted at them. The deputy said he warned Morales to stay back 25 feet, and Morales said, “Do you want to get hurt?”
A magistrate convicted Morales five days later of resisting an officer without violence and breaking the new Halo Law, and sentenced him to 10 days in jail.
In practice, the Halo Law lets police get rid of witnesses temporarily and take their phones as evidence if they violate it, said Matt Landsman, a Gainesville-based defense attorney. Landsman has not directly worked on a case relating to the Halo Law or its violations.
“It’s doing exactly what I suspected it was for, which is to stop people from monitoring the police, not for safety,” he said.
The Santa Rosa County sheriff’s top lawyer, Jennifer Rogers, said in a statement that deputies aren’t required to notify anyone of the 25-foot rule to be arrested. She called it a good practice but not mandatory.
The law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in April 2024, allows someone to be arrested “after receiving a verbal warning.”
Barney Bishop, a representative for Florida Smart Justice Alliance, a lobbying group that advocates for public safety, said the law came from repeated problems with activist citizens he described as anti-law enforcement, and has been effective so far.
“There’s no reason with magnification on your cell phones that you need to be closer than 25 feet to see or hear what is going on,” he said. “The idea that this inhibits First Amendment speech is hogwash. It doesn’t hold any water.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporters can be reached at aidanbush@ufl.edu.