Censured St. Johns County commissioner sues board over 'credible threat of prosecution'

St. Johns County Commissioner Krista Joseph has asked a federal judge for an order saying she’s free to endorse efforts to oust fellow commissioners seeking reelection in August.

The commission censured Joseph last month over remarks during a meeting of the elected board that one commissioner labeled a “campaign speech.”

Joseph said in those comments that “developers are controlling the boards” but added: “you know what, there’s hope. [In] Less than nine months, we have an election.”

Joseph was elected in 2022 to serve a four-year term, but three of the commission's five members have terms ending this year. Two of those, commissioners Roy Alaimo and Henry Dean, have listed themselves as candidates for reelection.

A report from a law firm hired by the county concluded this week that Joseph “likely violated” a state law against county officers using their positions to interfere with an election.

That violation would be a misdemeanor at worst , and one statute lets complaints about actions like that be considered by the state ethics commission.

But a lawsuit filed Wednesday by her attorney said Joseph “faces a credible threat of criminal prosecution if she speaks on political topics ... including her preference that voters vote out incumbent commissioners.”

The lawsuit argued the free-speech guarantee in the U.S. Constitution outweighs state law. “Commissioner Joseph contends that she has a federal First Amendment right to make her political views known to the citizens of St. Johns County,” attorney W. Bradley Russell wrote, asking U.S. District Senior Judge Harvey Schlesinger to issue a declaratory judgment affirming the law was on her side.

But Commission Chair Sarah Arnold said in an emailed statement Thursday that she also has to consider “the integrity of civility and the laws that all elected officials, like myself, take an oath to follow.”

Those laws, which Arnold said Joseph “has likely broken,” were written “to allow officials with differing opinions to come together and do the business of government,” said the statement circulated by the county’s public affairs office.

The lawsuit names the Board of Commissioners as a defendant along with State Attorney R.J. Larizza, whose office would have to decide whether to bring criminal charges.

No action had been announced Thursday to move the lawsuit toward a decision.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Censured for remarks, St. Johns County commissioner takes board to court