Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) gave some good news to a Florida couple facing jail time for breaking the county’s COVID laws, saying on Fox News Wednesday night that he will pardon them — and any other Floridian charged with breaking COVID rules like masking and social distancing.
What is exactly is now?
In September, DeSantis repealed the majority of his state’s COVID restrictions.
This included allowing all gyms to reopen at full capacity and prohibiting local councils from imposing new regulations that would force businesses to close.
Broward County, on the other hand, wanted to impose its own COVID restrictions on mask-wearing and social distancing for companies, which created a dilemma for Mike and Jillian Carnevale, the former owners of Fitness 1440 in Plantation, Florida.
According to WFOR-TV, Broward authorities arrested Mike Carnevale several times for breaching COVID mask mandates. According to WTVJ-TV, one of these events happened in August when he set up his workout equipment in the parking lot of his company and declined to allow members to wear masks.
The Carnevales told Laura Ingraham of Fox News that they had filed a complaint against the county’s requirement that people wear masks during strenuous exercise, and that they had been arrested 24 hours later. They said they were arrested three times, had their company confiscated, and now face up to 180 days in prison after rejecting a 10-day jail sentence.
The problem, according to the couple’s attorney, Cory Strolla, is that they are dealing with a “radical activist judge” who is demanding prison time for not requiring people to wear masks while exercising.
On Ingraham’s program, Gov. DeSantis joined the couple and their attorney to rip the county’s “absolute overreach” and inform them that he will be pardoning them and everyone else charged with breaching COVID prohibitions including mask-wearing and social distancing.
“This is exactly what we ordered against last summer,” DeSantis explained that he had been briefed on the Carnevale case “only recently.”
“I’m glad you have Mike and Jillian on, and I’m also glad to be on to be able to say that, effective tomorrow morning, I’m going to sign a reprieve under my constitutional authority,” the governor stated.
He clarified that his action would “delay the case against both of them for 60 days” and added,
“When our clemency board meets in the coming weeks, we’ll issue pardons not only for Mike and Jillian but for any Floridian that may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing.”
“The fact is, it’s not even right to be wearing masks when you’re exercising,” DeSantis added. “The World Health Organization advises against it. It’s not healthy to be doing that in the first place, so it was a bad restriction.”
“These things with health should be advisory, they should not be punitive,” the governor said.
Watch it here: Fox News
Sources: Theblaze.com (1), theblaze.com (2), foxnews.com, yahoonews.com, nbcmiami.com