{"id":39086,"date":"2023-11-17T17:21:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39086"},"modified":"2023-11-17T17:21:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T22:21:35","slug":"fla-house-candidate-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-for-incident-at-lakeland-clinic-and-pays-fine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/11\/17\/fla-house-candidate-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-for-incident-at-lakeland-clinic-and-pays-fine\/","title":{"rendered":"Fla. House candidate pleads guilty to misdemeanor for incident at Lakeland clinic and pays fine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An abortion-rights activist now running for the Florida Legislature pled guilty to a charge of attempting to disturb a lawful assembly for an\u00a0incident in May\u00a0in which she allegedly threw underwear toward a sheriff\u2019s deputy.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Court records show that Bonnie Patterson-James <\/a>of Lakeland signed an agreement to plead guilty, with adjudication withheld. Patterson-James agreed to pay a fine of $320.50, plus $200 for investigative costs and other fees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office arrested Patterson-James, 55, in May, a few days after she protested a groundbreaking for a new building at Options for Women, a pregnancy center at 4504 S. Florida Ave. in Lakeland. During the private event, Patterson-James stood on the adjacent property of the Lakeland Women\u2019s Health Center, a clinic that performs abortions, and spoke loudly through a bullhorn as a series of speakers addressed an audience under a tent at the construction site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Lakeland police officers<\/a> working at the event made no effort to stop Patterson-James’ heckling of the speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the dedication ended, Patterson-James threw a pair of rolled-up women\u2019s panties toward state Rep. Jennifer Canady, R-Lakeland, as she stood near Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Billy Strickland, according to a PCSO report. Strickland, who was attending as a guest on behalf of Sheriff Grady Judd, said the underwear struck him in the leg<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strickland went to the property next door and sought to identify Patterson-James, who declined to give her name, according to a PCSO affidavit. Strickland learned her identity but didn\u2019t arrest her at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Days later, a deputy stopped Patterson-James as she was driving and arrested her on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, a third-degree felony, and resisting arrest without violence, a first-degree misdemeanor. When the State Attorney\u2019s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit submitted a charging document in June, those charges were removed and Patterson-James was charged with attempting to disturb a lawful assembly, a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patterson-James said that her lawyer had agreed with the State Attorney\u2019s Office that she would plead no contest but that Judge Catherine Combee would only accept a plea of guilty, with the defendant adding the words \u201cin my best interests.\u201d Patterson-James said she planned to petition the court to have her record for the misdemeanor sealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patterson-James is the founder of Lakeland Inclusive Diverse Voice, an organization that has coordinated demonstrations for abortion rights. She traveled to Tallahassee during the last legislative session to protest a bill, co-sponsored by Canady that would bar most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since her arrest, Patterson-James has filed to run as a Democrat and challenge Canady for the State House District 50 seat next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An abortion-rights activist now running for the Florida Legislature pled guilty to a charge of attempting to disturb a lawful assembly for an\u00a0incident in May\u00a0in which she allegedly threw underwear… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[6781],"class_list":["post-39086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-fla-house-candidate-pleads-guilty-to-misdemeanor-for-incident-at-lakeland-clinic-and-pays-fine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}