she got pregnant with her students kid and the husband stayed with her...
EXCLUSIVE: Married Florida data scientist axed for refusing to alter COVID-19 stats was fired from university job for having affair with a student and charged with stalking, threatening him with revenge porn, writing a 342-page manifesto on their sex life
PUBLISHED: 12:26 EDT, 26 May 2020 | UPDATED: 12:27 EDT, 26 May 2020
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The fired Florida Health Department employee in charge of the state's COVID-19 response website has a lurid past including three arrests, a torrid affair with her student and being fired from her previous university teaching job, a DailyMail.com investigation can reveal.
Rebekah Jones, 30, claims she was asked to leave by health officials this month because she refused to fudge coronavirus infection numbers. But a different picture has now emerged after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that Jones was canned because of insubordination and called her 'disruptive.'
A DailyMail.com investigation has revealed Jones, a married mother-of-two, was fired from Florida State University for having an affair with one of her students while she herself was a PhD student and instructor in 2017.
The affair - which she chronicled in great detail in a 342-page essay that she filed as part of a now dismissed defamation case - ended with three arrests and revenge porn and cyber stalking cases against her as well as her claim of a pregnancy.
The essay, obtained by DailyMail.com, includes page after page of graphic details on alleged sexual encounters with then-student Garrett Sweeterman, then 21, as well as X-rated text messages about sexual fantasies both were having about one another.
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Rebecca Jones, a married mother-of-two, was charged with three counts of cyberstalking her student Garrett Sweeterman, 21, who filed a restraining order against her. She's pictured with her husband and two children
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She allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement showing naked photos of her student and lover Garrett Sweeterman, 21, (pictured)
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Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017
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Court documents show that Jones has been charged three times
The essay even describes her body's sensations when she had sex with Sweeterman on the floor of her university office, as well as the size of the student's manhood . FSU, like most universities, bans sexual contact between professors and their students.
The affair, Jones claims in the essay and court records, led to a pregnancy. She gave birth to a little girl, Evelyn, in mid-2018.
Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler.
Neither Jones nor Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment.
An email to Jones triggered an automatic reply asking those who contact her to donate to the GoFundMe page of her father and mother. Their house in Mississippi was destroyed by tornadoes April 12. So far, donors sent $6,565.
Sweeterman, who works for a tech company in Tampa, Florida, picked up his cellphone and said: 'I'm sorry, I just don't want to talk about this.'
The affair led to criminal charges for Jones.
Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017.
She once was charged with contempt of court for failing to follow a judge's orders to stay away from the campus of Florida State University.
Public medical documents also show the same judge in Tallahassee, Florida, ordered that she take medications prescribed to her during a mental health evaluation as a condition for her release from one of Jones' three stints in jail.
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Rebekah Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health scientists and public health officers to create and design a comprehensive COVID-19 dashboard
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Neither Jones nor her husband Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment
Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler, believed to be Sweeterman's
According to Tallahassee Police records, Jones discovered Sweeterman's address off campus despite the fact he refused to tell her where he lived, and drove to his house to talk about her pregnancy.
The two apparently argued in front of his university roommates and Jones allegedly kicked the door of Sweeterman's car, denting it.
She drove away from the scene but local cops pulled her over and eventually arrested her.
Jones struck a deal with prosecutors and the case was dismissed after she completed a pre-trial intervention program for first-time offenders.
Jones, however, also got on the radar of university officials.
Because she allegedly texted Sweeterman about using a coat hanger to end her pregnancy and wanting to die, her second arrest affidavit shows, Florida State University campus police knocked on the door of her marital home and attempted to have Jones committed to a mental institution. Jones did receive treatment and was released.
That prompted the university to initiate an investigation into Jones' dealings with her student and eventually the school fired her, according to an arrest affidavit and Jones' detailed essay.
Her contacts with police, however, continued.
EXCLUSIVE: Married Florida data scientist axed for refusing to alter COVID-19 stats was fired from university job for having affair with a student and charged with stalking, threatening him with revenge porn, writing a 342-page manifesto on their sex life
- Rebekah Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health scientists and public health officers to create and design a comprehensive COVID-19 dashboard
- The 30-year-old said in a May 5 email that she was fired for refusing to 'manually change data to drum up support for the plan to reopen'
- DailyMail.com can reveal that she was fired in 2017 from Florida State University when she was a PhD student and instructor for having an affair with her student
- Jones was charged with three counts of cyberstalking her student Garrett Sweeterman, then 21, who filed a restraining order against her
- She allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement
- Jones posted at least 60 pages of a 342-page manifesto with a narrative of the affair with Sweeterman, including screen grabs of sexts between the two
- She claims in the essay that the fling with Sweeterman led to a pregnancy. She gave birth to a little girl in mid-2018 and shares an eight-year-old son with her husband
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
PUBLISHED: 12:26 EDT, 26 May 2020 | UPDATED: 12:27 EDT, 26 May 2020
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5
View comments
The fired Florida Health Department employee in charge of the state's COVID-19 response website has a lurid past including three arrests, a torrid affair with her student and being fired from her previous university teaching job, a DailyMail.com investigation can reveal.
Rebekah Jones, 30, claims she was asked to leave by health officials this month because she refused to fudge coronavirus infection numbers. But a different picture has now emerged after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that Jones was canned because of insubordination and called her 'disruptive.'
A DailyMail.com investigation has revealed Jones, a married mother-of-two, was fired from Florida State University for having an affair with one of her students while she herself was a PhD student and instructor in 2017.
The affair - which she chronicled in great detail in a 342-page essay that she filed as part of a now dismissed defamation case - ended with three arrests and revenge porn and cyber stalking cases against her as well as her claim of a pregnancy.
The essay, obtained by DailyMail.com, includes page after page of graphic details on alleged sexual encounters with then-student Garrett Sweeterman, then 21, as well as X-rated text messages about sexual fantasies both were having about one another.
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Rebecca Jones, a married mother-of-two, was charged with three counts of cyberstalking her student Garrett Sweeterman, 21, who filed a restraining order against her. She's pictured with her husband and two children
+16
She allegedly created a 'revenge porn' website called SurvivingGarrett and sent the link to online boards focusing on women's issues and the #metoo movement showing naked photos of her student and lover Garrett Sweeterman, 21, (pictured)
+16
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Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017
+16
Court documents show that Jones has been charged three times
The essay even describes her body's sensations when she had sex with Sweeterman on the floor of her university office, as well as the size of the student's manhood . FSU, like most universities, bans sexual contact between professors and their students.
The affair, Jones claims in the essay and court records, led to a pregnancy. She gave birth to a little girl, Evelyn, in mid-2018.
Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler.
Neither Jones nor Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment.
An email to Jones triggered an automatic reply asking those who contact her to donate to the GoFundMe page of her father and mother. Their house in Mississippi was destroyed by tornadoes April 12. So far, donors sent $6,565.
Sweeterman, who works for a tech company in Tampa, Florida, picked up his cellphone and said: 'I'm sorry, I just don't want to talk about this.'
The affair led to criminal charges for Jones.
Records show Jones was arrested for the first time and charged with vandalizing Sweeterman's car at the condo he shared with other FSU students in October 2017.
She once was charged with contempt of court for failing to follow a judge's orders to stay away from the campus of Florida State University.
Public medical documents also show the same judge in Tallahassee, Florida, ordered that she take medications prescribed to her during a mental health evaluation as a condition for her release from one of Jones' three stints in jail.
+16
Rebekah Jones led a team of Florida Department of Health scientists and public health officers to create and design a comprehensive COVID-19 dashboard
+16
Neither Jones nor her husband Romer returned calls or responded to emails and text messages asking for their comment
Records show Jones is still living with her husband, 34-year-old Jacob Romer, their eight-year-old son and the new toddler, believed to be Sweeterman's
According to Tallahassee Police records, Jones discovered Sweeterman's address off campus despite the fact he refused to tell her where he lived, and drove to his house to talk about her pregnancy.
The two apparently argued in front of his university roommates and Jones allegedly kicked the door of Sweeterman's car, denting it.
She drove away from the scene but local cops pulled her over and eventually arrested her.
Jones struck a deal with prosecutors and the case was dismissed after she completed a pre-trial intervention program for first-time offenders.
Jones, however, also got on the radar of university officials.
Because she allegedly texted Sweeterman about using a coat hanger to end her pregnancy and wanting to die, her second arrest affidavit shows, Florida State University campus police knocked on the door of her marital home and attempted to have Jones committed to a mental institution. Jones did receive treatment and was released.
That prompted the university to initiate an investigation into Jones' dealings with her student and eventually the school fired her, according to an arrest affidavit and Jones' detailed essay.
Her contacts with police, however, continued.
