Rebekah Jones, the founder of Florida’s official coronavirus database, turned herself in to state law enforcement Monday after authorities issued a warrant for her arrest on Sunday. The warrant alleges she accessed Florida’s computer systems without authorization, a violation of the Florida Computer Crimes Act. Following a raid of her home on December 7, law enforcement state they obtained evidence that “Jones illegally accessed the system sending a message to approximately 1,750 people and downloaded confidential data and saved it to her device.”

Fired from her position in May 2020 for insubordination, Jones claims she was told to manipulate the data collected to support the Republican governor of Florida, Rick DeSantis, and his policy to reopen Florida’s economy. She was fired the same day DeSantis’s economic reopening policy was set to be enforced.

An investigation into Jones began in early November after an unknown individual hacked Florida’s emergency communication system. The message was a call to arms for those responsible for coordinating the medical response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida to act before thousands died from contracting the virus.

On December 7, law enforcement executed a search warrant of her home and confiscated her computer equipment after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLA) confirmed the message sent over Florida’s emergency communication system came from Jones’s residence. After being fired in May, Jones developed a competing COVID-19 database, collecting data and publishing the information online. The arrest warrant for Rebekah Jones and evidence from the search warrant of her property indicate that she accessed data from the Florida Department of Health (FDOH) computer systems, downloaded and saved the data – most likely using the information in the competing database.

Jones has been outspoken on social media where she claims the Florida Department of Health forced her to manipulate data collected. She states that when she refused, her firing was retaliation from Governor DeSantis, himself. Jones has worked to cast herself as a whistleblower for the inaccuracies and manipulations of Florida’s Coronavirus data reporting.

In July, the Trump administration instructed hospitals to not submit daily reports on COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Instead, hospitals are required to report daily reports to the Department of Health and Human Services. The policy change raised questions over data security, access to that information, and the validity of the data collected and disseminated.

TeleTracking, a health data firm, won a contract with the federal government to centralize the data received from states. However, the new policy also stipulated that if hospitals were reporting to their state directly, they could continue to do so without submitting through TeleTracking. Representative Donna Shalala, a former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, argued against the change in policy by stating “Only the C.D.C has the expertise to collect data,” and called the move “politicizing.”

Jones posted a $2,500 bail after her initial hearing. The FDLE requested the court to restrict her from computer and internet access while out on bail, which the court denied. Jones has also filed a lawsuit against the December 7 raid on her home. If convicted, Jones will face up to five years in prison and a fine up to $5,000 for committing a third-degree felony in the state of Florida.