An Orlando resident working for a company that was contracting campaign work to Josh Weil’s congressional bid was arrested on Friday for allegedly stealing a bike from a Palm Coast home. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Monday that 35-year-old Arlecia Brown, a woman who was noted in her arrest report for having traditionally male features such as facial hair, is in custody.
According to the FCSO’s report, Brown was walking in Palm Coast’s L Section when she was shown on a security camera walking up to the house where the bicycle was stolen from. Brown, who was initially identified as a male in the report based on appearance, was later found in a fenced-in backyard adjacent to a vacant lot with the bicycle.
Upon interviewing Brown, deputies said they obtained a confession of taking the bike from an open garage. Brown reportedly told deputies that she was an employee of Josh Weil’s ongoing congressional campaign. This would turn out to be untrue; Brown was employed by Trailblazing Canvassers, a third-party organization hired by Weil’s campaign. Brown has 19 prior arrests and is a convicted felon. Criminal background checks would’ve been Trailblazing Canvassers’ responsibility.
Brown was charged with two counts of unlawful possession of personal identification, possession of burglary tools, petty theft, burglary of an occupied dwelling, burglary of an outside county, and soliciting without a permit. Bond was set at $67,500 and Brown remains at the county jail as of Monday evening.
“This individual was hired by and worked for a third party contractor,” said Weil campaign manager Wendy Garcia. “This is an unacceptable incident and we support the justice system working to deliver accountability. The individual is no longer authorized to do any work on behalf of our campaign.”
Weil is running to represent Florida’s 6th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives following the resignation of Michael Waltz to serve as Donald Trump’s national security adviser. He secured the Democratic nomination in the primaries and faces Republican Randy Fine, Libertarian Andrew Parrott, and Independent Randall Terry.
In the hours following the FCSO’s announcement of Brown’s arrest, the Fine campaign distributed a response statement characterizing the criminal charges as being indicative of a deeper pattern within Weil’s camp. “This isn’t an isolated incident,” Fine said. “This is part of a pattern of violent behavior and radical extremism that follows Josh Weil. He is paying a violent felon to stalk neighborhoods, endangering the very people he claims to want to serve.”
Further statements by Fine’s campaign made veiled reference to Weil’s differing religious beliefs in connection to his purported extremism. Weil was criticized for not mentioning his faith, in contrast to Fine’s own frequent references to Judaism. He went on to call Weil ‘dangerous’, and referenced a past arrest for driving without a valid license and accusations of rough conduct against a student in Weil’s teaching career.
