A look at the ongoing feud between State Rep. Randy Fine, School Board member Jennifer Jenkins

When Jennifer Jenkins was elected to the Brevard County School Board in 2020, she may not have been aware it would ultimately help trigger a national movement for parental rights and a personal feud with a state representative.

Jenkins, a Democrat, defeated Republican Tina Descovich in GOP-dominated Brevard County running on teacher wages and COVID prevention. Descovich went on to join former Indian River County School Board member Tiffany Justice and Sarasota County School Board member Bridget Ziegler and found Moms for Liberty, a rapidly growing national group originally dedicated to fighting mask mandates but later expanded to expunging what it considered offensive material from classrooms.

The lines were drawn with Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, when she supported inclusive LGBTQ+ school policies and he was calling for anti-trans bathroom and school sports laws.

The battle ratcheted up when Jenkins argued and voted for the continuation of school mask mandates during the COVID pandemic despite new state directives. Fine and other Republican politicians vowed to fight any mask mandates and Jenkins and Fine exchanged increasingly heated comments on his Facebook page before he blocked her.

July 29, 2021: Fine urges followers to call Jenkins, posts her phone number

"At tonight’s school board meeting, School Board Member Jennifer Jenkins intends to ask the Board to compel parents to require their children to wear masks next school year," Fine wrote on his Facebook page. "This, despite clear evidence that COVID is neither highly transmissible in school AND has nominal effect on children." And he included Jenkins' personal phone number, which was listed on her qualification paperwork for the 2020 election and thus a public record.

Jenkins later called it doxxing and said it resulted in "hundreds of calls, texts and voicemails."

Oct. 5, 2021: Brevard School Board votes to keep mask mandate, clears audience after outburst toward Jenkins

The Brevard County School Board voted 3-2 against allowing parents to opt out of the district’s mask mandate. After several speakers mentioned previous comments made by state legislators, including Fine, that criticized then-School Board Chair Misty Belford, Jenkins spoke against them.

Several audience members who saw the comments as off-topic began shouting at the board, and Belford had the audience removed before the vote. The board had previously announced plans to vote on new rules to tame the increasingly boisterous public comment period.

Fine said Belford's actions violated the Florida Sunshine Law and filed a criminal complaint.

Oct. 7, 2021: Jeffrey Steele claims child abuse for the mask tied around daughter's head

After Jeffrey Steele's 7-year-old stepdaughter Sofia, who has Down Syndrome, came home with a mask tied around her head, his allegations of weeks of child abuse from the school became incendiary fodder for national media outlets such as "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Gov. Ron DeSantis used it to decry mask mandates, as did Fine, who repeatedly called the school's treatment of Sofia "child abuse" in media appearances, during political committee meetings, on the House floor and on Facebook, calling out Jenkins in particular.

"There's a special place in hell for these people that have done this to that man's daughter, and I assure you we're going to hold them accountable for that," Fine said at a news conference with Steele and DeSantis.

However, experts said that the technique was common for people with Down Syndrome or others who find it difficult to wear a mask, and an investigation by Indian Harbour Beach police found no evidence of abuse or physical or emotional injury. Among other findings, the report also showed the photos Steele produced had been staged days later.

In 2023 a federal judge ruled in favor of the Brevard County School Board and two school employees in a $100 million lawsuit filed by Steele's family. However, some of the claims were sent back to a lower court. The school board eventually elected to settle.

Oct. 14: 2021: Jenkins goes national about harassment

MSNBC interviewed Jenkins after comments she made at the school board meeting about harassment, vandalism and a false Department of Children and Families report against her went viral on social media.

Fine said in a Facebook post that he suspected it was made up. "I’d like to see the police reports," Fine wrote in reply to another comment."I want to know who these criminals are — if they actually exist."

Oct. 20, 2021:  Police reports, neighbors back Jenkins' claims of threats, harassment

Days later, police records and video recordings obtained by FLORIDA TODAY supported Jenkins' claims that she was the victim of a campaign of threats and profanity-laced harassment, that a false report was filed against her for child abuse in early September, and some reports suggested that her detractors cut down a tree in her yard and burned obscenities into her front lawn.

During protests at her home earlier in the year, Jenkins' neighbors described protesters as threatening people, brandishing weapons, and using foul language, including racial and anti-LGBTQ slurs.

Although one of the protesters was caught on video shouting "Fine says hi," Fine denied any involvement in the protests and claimed Jenkins had only herself to blame for the false police report for having "paraded" her daughter in front of protesters.

"If Jenkins really feared for her safety, she would have stayed in her house," he said in a text message to FLORIDA TODAY. "She would not have gone up and confronted those people. She definitely would not parade their child outside ... this is all crocodile tears to get attention. She's a fraud."

Oct. 28, 2021: Jenkins files injunction against Fine for cyberstalking

Jenkins filed a request for injunction against Fine with the 18th Circuit Court of Florida, citing "cyberstalking" and a "campaign of harassment on social media ... inciting followers to harass and threaten me."

The campaign began after Fine posted her phone number, she said, with "daily, sometimes multiple times a day" posts calling her "mentally ill," "child abuser," and more.

Fine called Jenkin’s request “dangerous” and “un-American” in his own statement, posted to Facebook. He called on her to resign if she couldn't take "legitimate criticism."

Jan. 12, 2022: Judge dismisses 'cyberstalking' case against Fine

After some postponements — and after requests for temporary injunctions were denied — Jenkins' case was dismissed. The Brevard County judge sided with Fine's legal team, which argued that his public Facebook posts amounted to protected speech and failed to meet the statutory definitions of harassment or cyberstalking.

Case closed: Person behind fake child abuse claim against Jennifer Jenkins remains unknown

Feb. 2, 2022: State Attorney declines to press charges against Fine

State Attorney Phil Archer declined to pursue charges against Fine for allegations stemming from Fine's public feuds with Jenkins and political consultant Robert Burns, saying a review of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the allegations — which included corruption of a public servant by threat, cyberintimidation and stalking — determined Fine's actions in the case were either permitted under state law or did not rise to the level of a crime.

Along with the announcement, Archer expressed a personal concern about the "heated use of rhetoric ... on both sides" that he warned could lead to a "volatile and dangerous escalation."

In response, Jenkins said. "Please provide examples of my supporters using my rhetoric to write death threat emails. Please provide examples of my supporters saying I sent them to his home, later being vandalized, and resulting in a false (Florida Department of Children and Families) claim."

In a comment to FLORIDA TODAY, Fine again referred to Burns's criminal history and unproven allegations that Jenkins and Burns had been engaged in an illicit affair.

"I was never worried about the claims of Jennifer Jenkins and her lover, the rapist Robert Burns. I never even had to speak to FDLE about it. I think this brings those lovebirds to 0-25 between this and the restraining orders," Fine said. "I hope the public will now hold all accountable for the extraordinary waste of tax dollars they have caused."

April, 2022: Texts show Fine threatened state funding for Special Olympics, West Melbourne over Jenkins feud

In text messages between Fine and West Melbourne City Councilman John Dittmore, obtained through a public records request, Fine told Dittmore that funding requests for Special Olympics and the city in a state budget recently submitted for approval to Gov. Ron DeSantis would be on the governor's chopping block because city officials had invited Jenkins to participate in a Special Olympics fundraising event but had not invited Fine. Officials had invited all the Brevard School Board members, but only Jenkins attended.

"Jenkins just put your project and special Olympics funding on the veto list," Fine wrote. Fine rejected Dittmore's subsequent invitation to attend the event, calling Jenkins a "whore."

Once Fine was told the texts would be made public, he suggested West Melbourne city attorney Morris Richardson should be fired, Dittmore said. Fine has denied threatening either the funding or that he ever spoke about firing the city attorney.

The money stayed in the state budget.

Aug. 11, 2022: Fine asks state to investigate rumors of a transgender sexual assault of a girl

A day after rumors that a girl was sexually assaulted by a transgender student in a bathroom at Johnson Middle School, Fine wrote a letter to Education Commissioner Manny Diaz asking him to investigate the case on behalf of the concerned parents he said contacted him.

“These parents — looking to protect their children — have made queries of the school district, including public records requests, to get to the bottom of what happened. Thus far, they have been stonewalled at every turn.” Fine blamed BPS' practice of allowing transgender students to use bathrooms of the gender that they identify with for making such an incident possible.

A Brevard Public Schools spokesman said the incident never happened and the Melbourne Police Department said it had no records of any such assault.

In response to a public records request, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office released a report of an earlier investigation in June at a different school when a female student accused a transgender student of grabbing her breasts. The case was closed for lack of evidence and conflicting statements but Fine, who previously signed on as a cosponsor for legislation to criminalize gender reassignment surgery and transgender drug therapies for children, shared it on his Facebook page, calling it proof.

Sept. 4, 2022: Melbourne police call transgender assault rumors 'unfounded'

After a nearly three-week-long investigation, Melbourne Police said in a report that allegations of a transgender student assaulting a girl in the bathroom at Johnson Middle School were unfounded.

Fine said he was pleased his letter "exposed the coverup of the 'transgender' sexual assault by Brevard Government Schools," referencing the earlier accusation.

"Because of my efforts, the Florida Department of Education has put forward rules that will require (BPS) to inform parents of their open bathroom policy," Fine said. "Parents are justifiably outraged about their policy, and I am confident that with the voters overwhelming rejection of incumbent wokeist politics on our school board last week, it will be repealed soon."

Nov. 8, 2022: Election flips Brevard School Board

In the 2022 election, the Brevard School Board flipped to a sharp right with Moms for Liberty candidate Megan Wright unseating Belford in the primary and Gene Trent's win over Erin Dunne, leaving Jenkins as the sole Democrat on the board.

Nov. 22, 2022: Florida Board of Education hands down new bathroom rules

The FDOE ordered the Brevard School District to begin segregating bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex, a move that rolled back a guideline allowing transgender students to use facilities in line with their gender identities. The change was approved at a school board meeting against vocal opposition from Jenkins.

Jenkins to run again? Jenkins 'toying' with idea of 2024 run after DeSantis announces school board target list

March 7, 2023: Jenkins sues Brevard School Board, Chair over public records

Jenkins filed suit against then-Brevard School Board chair Matt Susin and the School Board, accusing Susin of illegally withholding requested records concerning months of Susin's call logs and text messages between June and September 2022, specifically calls between Susin and Fine discussing the transgender assault rumors.

Susin has insisted that many of the records don't exist or are exempt from disclosure.

April, 2023: Ethics commission finds probable cause against Fine

A state commission found probable cause that Fine violated ethics rules when he allegedly threatened to veto funding to the city of West Melbourne over a dispute with Jenkins, overturning the findings of an advocate with the Florida Attorney General's office.

According to the Florida Commission on Ethics findings, members "found probable cause to believe that [Fine] abused his position to obtain a disproportionate benefit and that he misused his position by threatening to take away State funding over a personal feud with a Brevard County School Board member, and that he interfered in a council member's response to a public records request for communications related to the dispute."

Fine called the nonpartisan commission a "kangaroo court" and claimed its findings were politically motivated because the decision went against the recommendations of its investigator, whose staff recommended no probable cause.

Oct 30, 2023: Video seems to show Fine hiding behind a desk

Critics claim that a 5-minute video circulating on social media of Fine apparently hiding behind the desk of his Palm Bay office shows him attempting to evade a subpoena in relation to Jenkin's lawsuit against Brevard County School Board Chair Matt Susin.

Fine says 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. Fine also said the private investigator who videoed him did not announce his identity or purpose. A second video clip shows the man identifying himself to an employee of a neighboring office who came out to investigate.

Dec. 21, 2023: Judge halts, then OKs Jenkins' efforts to depose Fine

Circuit Judge Michelle Naberhaus first halted efforts by Jenkins to force Fine to testify in her public records lawsuit against fellow School Board member Matt Susin after a third amended complaint filed by Jenkins' lawyer was tossed out the week before, because she said problems with the complaint "create a legitimate issue as to the permissibility, breadth and scope of discovery."

"Yet again, another Brevard Judge has dismissed yet another frivolous lawsuit from Jennifer Jenkins," Fine said in a text to FLORIDA TODAY. "There was no subpoena to avoid service on; no deposition to be held. No 'perjury' to be avoided. Apparently, there wasn't even a real lawsuit, just the rabid delusions of someone mentally unstable."

Fine failed to note in the statement that the case remains ongoing and that his own attorney had acknowledged a scheduled deposition in a Nov. 29 court filing.

However, the judge reversed that decision the next day she hadn't seen the fourth amended complaint filed to resolve the problems with the third one before her ruling. Jenkins and her lawyer will have to wait if they plan to try serving Fine again, as Florida law allows state legislators to put off legal action close to session.

Contributors: Eric Rogers, Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today

Editor's note: Erin Dunne's name has been corrected.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Randy Fine's feud with Brevard School Board member Jennifer Jenkins