Mediaboss Marketing

Christina Nina Boneta marches in New Port Richey, Florida on Sept. 7, 2020.Dave Decker

The City of New Port Richeys attempts to make Black Lives Matter protesters literally pay for speaking out loudly about police reform have met a dead end.

On Thursday, at least two protesters facing fines related to noise violations told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that their citations have been dropped.

Marlowe Jones confirmed to CL that his noise citations had been dropped, and Christina Nina Boneta, whos accrued more than $2,500 in fines, also stated that her citations and fines have been dropped.

CL reviewed the nolle prosequi (stop prosecution orders) filed by the City of New Port Richey, which show that at least five different protesters including Jones and Boneta saw their cases dismissed.

Joshua Sheridan represented Boneta and a handful of other Pasco activists who were hit with noise violations. He told CL that the ordinanceoriginally meant to crack down on bars, but used broadly by police this summer to try and muzzle protestersis poorly written and rarely used.

In a social media post from Sheridans firm, the Tampa lawyer wrote that a team of attorneys including Laurie Chane, Luke Lirot and James Shaw Jr. did all the heavy lifting, adding that, Today we were pleased to learn Pasco County finally dismissed those citations.

Both Jones and Boneta told CL that this week, the New Port Richey city attorney also tried to offer them $75 plea deals.

It was obviously an attempt to do what they always doscare people. Like, Hey you can either fight this and pay all this money, or why dont we give you a good little number, you know $75, and plead guilty or no contest, Boneta said. That was their last attempt. They know that they were wrong, and they knew that they were targeting us.

CL left a message for New Port Richey City Attorney Tim Driscoll.

Boneta said that in the next few days, BLM protesters are laying low due to the possibility of violence in the wake of last weeks insurrection at the Capitol, but added that local activists would continue to demonstrate and call for change. One particular agency of interest for Boneta is the Pasco County Sheriff which the Tampa Bay Times says has been monitoring and harassing Pasco residents using a cutting-edge intelligence program meant to curb crime.

This is a developing post.

Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow @cl_tampabay on Twitter.

Read more:
Noise citations and fines dropped for Pasco County Black Lives Matter protesters - Creative Loafing Tampa