St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph waves an American flag as she begins her comments during a meeting Nov. 21, 2023. | St. Johns County
Published on July 12, 2024 at 11:19 am
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Nearly a year after St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph waved an American flag and urged people to vote against her colleagues, a federal judge has ruled she did nothing wrong.
Joseph was under investigation because other members of the County Commission wanted to determine whether she violated election law when, sitting on the dais, she encouraged the public to vote against officeholders who supported development.
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The judge’s decision stems from the County Commission’s meeting Nov. 21, 2023, when Joseph made what she called a “public service announcement.” Joseph had recently been the lone dissenting vote in a County Commission decision to expand the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club and The Lodge and Club.
Joseph waved a small American flag and reminded her Ponte Vedra constituents that County Commissioners Roy Alaimo, Henry Dean and Christian Whitehurst would be on the ballot in 2024.
“(Do you) feel you aren’t being listened to and developers control the board?” Joseph asked the audience. “No response to your emails? You know what? There’s hope. In less than nine months, we have an election.”
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Joseph was promptly censured for her comments, and the County Commission, at the urging of Dean, sought outside legal counsel to determine whether Joseph violated a law that prevents sitting elected officials from using their elected positions to campaign.
In response, Joseph sued the Board of County Commissioners, seeking an answer as to whether her free speech had been violated. Joseph dropped that lawsuit, but not before the county spent $25,000 in legal fees.
Nearly a year later, in an order released this week, U.S. District Court Judge Harvey Schlesinger said Joseph did nothing wrong.
“Just because the speech occurred at a County Commission meeting,” he wrote, “does not mean a county commissioner loses her First Amendment rights.”
Schlesinger said the law doesn’t leave much room for gray areas.
“The Supreme Court has made it clear that elected officials may speak freely on political topics and has rejected interests that assertedly justify curtailing that right,” he said, later noting: “The threatened prosecution is now chilling Commissioner Joseph’s political speech and preventing her from participating actively in this primary election. This is a significant harm.”
Joseph did not immediately respond to Jacksonville Today’s request to comment, but in a news release shared with Action News Jax, she said the decision was a victory for the First Amendment. She accused others on the County Commission of trying to keep citizens in the dark.
“My colleagues weaponized the criminal justice system to silence me,” Joseph said. “Why? So they could prevent the election of candidates who oppose overdevelopment.”
Joseph is not up for reelection until 2026, but she has endorsed candidates Ann Taylor and Ann-Marie Evans for County Commission Districts 1 and 5.
Those races, and the County Commission District 3 race, will likely be decided in the August primary election, well before the general election in November.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct that it was a federal judge that cleared Joseph of wrongdoing, not a grand jury.
