Person behind fake child abuse claim against Jennifer Jenkins remains unknown
A police investigation into a fake child abuse claim against Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins has failed to uncover the person behind the false report.
The investigation into the claim — filed amid what Jenkins described as a campaign of harassment against her family for her support of the Brevard County School District's mask mandate that was then in effect — was closed in November for lack of leads, according to a case report from the Satellite Beach Police Department.
New evidence could reopen the case for further investigation, according to the report signed by investigating Detective Anthony Holland. Satellite Beach police have urged anyone with information to come forward.
Calls and messages to police representatives were not immediately returned.
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Police began the investigation after determining the claim that Jenkins was abusing her young daughter, filed in September with the Florida Department of Children and Families, was "completely false," the report said.
Detectives tracked the fake complaint, filed through the DCF online portal, to a public IP address owned by Verizon Wireless, according to the report. Further investigation determined the address was being accessed hundred of times by different devices within the relevant time frame, the report said.
Phone numbers associated with accounts that accessed the address around the time the fake report was submitted failed to yield further leads, either going unanswered or being out of service. Verizon was "ultimately unable to locate or provide" identifying information associated with a connection between the IP address and the DCF website, the report said.
"Due to all potential leads being exhausted, this case will be closed as open/inactive," Holland wrote.
Jenkins on Tuesday said she was "grateful for Detective Holland's empathy and responsiveness" in the case, as well as to the DCF investigator who checked out the initial claim.
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"To the person(s) who did or orchestrated this, your disturbing attack will never deter me from doing what is in the best interest of the students and staff of Brevard Public Schools," Jenkins said in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY. "All you achieved was displacing resources from the community that could have been helping children in need."
The false report was part of series of "harassing" incidents that included reported vandalism and a series of heated protests by anti-mask mandate activists outside Jenkins' Satellite Beach home, Jenkins said. Her account of the incidents garnered national media attention amid a rancorous mask debate raging in school districts across the country.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Fake child abuse claim against Brevard School Board member unsolved
