Video showing Randy Fine hiding behind desk is latest in bizarre feud with Jennifer Jenkins
A video circulating on social media shows State Rep. Randy Fine apparently hiding behind the desk of his Palm Bay office, in what his critics say was an effort to evade a subpoena in a lawsuit brought by Brevard County School Board member Jennifer Jenkins.
Fine has denied dodging the subpoena and said he was following safety protocols, established in the wake of antisemitic threats over his support for Israel in its war with Hamas, when he said an unidentified man approached the office and began "banging" on the door and windows.
The five-minute cell phone video, taken Oct. 30 through a window of Fine's office by a private investigator hired by Jenkins' lawyer, appears to show Fine ducking behind his desk with the lights off as the investigator knocks on the window.
Brevard attorney Jessica Travis, who is representing Jenkins, said in court filings the investigator was trying to serve Fine in relation to Jenkins' ongoing lawsuit against fellow School Board member Matt Susin.
The private investigator did not announce his identity or purpose before trying to enter the building, Fine said, which he said is allowed only by appointment. A second video clip shows the man identifying himself to an employee of a neighboring office who came out to investigate.
More: Brevard School Board member Jennifer Jenkins sues chair Matt Susin over public records
Fine vs. Jenkins: A look at the ongoing feud between State Rep. Randy Fine, School Board member Jennifer Jenkins
The episode is the latest in the contentious and often bizarre political feud between Fine and Jenkins, who has accused Fine of colluding with Susin to inflame anti-transgender sentiment around Brevard Public Schools. She has sought to depose Fine in the public records suit against Susin, which she filed in March after Susin declined to hand over months of call logs and text messages from his personal cell phone.
Jenkins has said she believes the records will prove Susin worked with Fine to amplify ultimately unfounded rumors that a transgender student sexually assaulted a classmate last year at Johnson Middle School in Melbourne. A similar report at Space Coast Jr./Sr. High School was dismissed by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office for lack of evidence.
Fine spearheaded a legislative push to rollback protections and treatment options for transgender youths in Florida earlier this year.
Susin has said the records Jenkins is seeking either don't exist or are exempt from disclosure under the state's public records laws. He has denied colluding with Fine.
In court documents, Travis said the incident was part of a string of efforts by Fine to evade the order to testify. (Travis was one of two lawyers representing FLORIDA TODAY in a 2020 lawsuit.)
Servers have "gone to Randy Fine's office and home, called him, and even attempted to contact him through Facebook Messenger to coordinate personal service, but Randy Fine has not replied or cooperated," Travis wrote in a Nov. 29 filing.
"One server videotaped his efforts and captured Randy Fine diving behind his desk and hiding rather than coming to the door to accept service," she wrote of the October incident.
Fine filed a complaint with the court over the incident, accusing Travis of calling him while the investigator was on site and leaving a voicemail threatening to release the video if he didn't answer the door. Fine says he did not receive the voicemail until after the man had already left.
"We know he is present, and we have him on video ducking down behind his desk. My suggestion, other than doing a motion in this regard and making the video public in that respect, that Mr. Fine simply goes to the door" and accepts the subpoena, Travis said in the voicemail, according to a transcription included in Fine's Oct. 31 complaint.
"Ms. Travis' voicemail appears to be some kind of threat to release video that she believes is embarrassing in order to effectuate service, which seems highly unethical, if not blackmail or extortion," Fine wrote in the complaint.
More: Ethics commission finds probable cause against Randy Fine in dispute with West Melbourne
Travis denied the message was meant as a threat, telling FLORIDA TODAY that she meant she would have to enter the video as evidence that Fine was avoiding service if she were to file a court motion to force his cooperation. She declined further comment.
Jenkins said in a statement that Fine was using the threats as a smokescreen to avoid responding to the subpoena and drag out the case.
"It's easy to disseminate lies behind a keyboard on a social media page, but doing so under oath comes with the penalty of perjury," Jenkins said in a statement to FLORIDA TODAY. "One should question anyone who goes to such extents to avoid being forced to tell the truth."
"What is abhorrent is falsely using the rise of antisemitic attacks to evade giving a testimony under oath, when people in our community and around the world are facing credible threats to their lives," Jenkins wrote.
Fine said in his own statement that the doors to the office have remained locked at all times since Oct. 7 due to security threats and called the video clip "doctored," without elaborating.
"The doctored video only a shows a few seconds of over 15 minutes of violent banging on the doors and windows which only ended after an employee of an adjoining office confronted the assailant," Fine wrote.
"After working with law enforcement, the Representative learned that the man taking the video was impersonating a process server, and at the direction of Jenkins, committed multiple serious crimes," he wrote, adding that he planned to press charges against Jenkins, Travis and others over the incident.
Fine said he believed the man committed a crime because the video recording contained audio. With some exceptions, audio recording a person without their consent is illegal in Florida.
"Until those arrests are made, there will be no further comment," he added in the statement.
More: Brevard judge dismisses Jennifer Jenkins' 'cyberstalking' case against Rep. Randy Fine
Fine and Jenkins have been locked in a bitter political feud that has spanned social media to the School Board dais and State House floor, to national headlines and the courts.
Jenkins unsuccessfully filed multiple attempts for a restraining order against Fine over his Facebook posts targeting her in 2021. She accused him of helping to orchestrate protests outside of her home over her support of a school mask mandate, which she said escalated into outright harassment and vandalism.
Fine denied being involved in the incident, which became national news. Jenkins has also leveled multiple other accusations against Fine and filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which was dismissed.
Fine faces potential ethics code violations over an incident last year in which he threatened to interfere with state funding for the City of West Melbourne and the Special Olympics after Jenkins was invited to a fundraiser for the organization held by the city's police department.
Eric Rogers is a watchdog reporter for FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on X: @EricRogersFT.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Video of Florida Rep. Randy Fine hiding behind desk is latest in Jenkins feud
