The Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office dropped all charges against Tasha Ford, the South Florida model who spent the night in jail earlier this month after she videotaped a group of cops who had detained her 16-year-old son.
Now Ford is working on getting the Boynton Beach Police Department to return her video camera, which would enable me to post the video and show the world what really took place that night.
Police arrested Ford on a felony eavesdropping charge as well as resisting arrest without violence after she showed up to a movie theater parking lot where police had detained her son for allegedly trying to sneak into a theater.
She started filming the cops as soon as she stepped out of her car. Police told her it was illegal to film people without their knowledge, which in itself, was acknowledging that they were being filmed.
At first, she was under the impression the judge had dropped the felony eavesdropping charge but she later found out it was still pending and that the judge had only released her upon her own recognizance the morning after her arrest.
However, this week she learned that the State Attorney has dropped the charges altogether, stating the following in a document:
“Based upon the facts and circumstances articulated in the probable cause affidavit and police report, the Committee unanimously determined that the State will not be able to establish beyond a reasonable doubt either that the defendant’s actions constituted a violation of the interception of communication statute or that the officers were acting in the lawful execution of a legal duty.”
The story, which was never reported by the mainstream media, became one of this month’s most popular articles on Photography is Not a Crime, so far accumulating more than 130 comments as well as sparkingvariousdiscussions on otherwebsites.
Here is the document. Police mistakenly listed her middle name, Sharron, as her first name, in case anyone is curious about the discrepancy.