FAC Weekly Update 2026-09-02-The Word of the Week is “Retaliation”

Weekly update for September 2, 2026. This is recording number 389.

Dear Members and Advocates,

There are weeks when you just have to wonder whether the people running the registry understand how their own actions help make our case for us.

Within a couple of weeks after being named as a defendant, Flagler County conducted what it called a “first of its kind” enforcement operation targeting people on the registry. Coincidence? We aren’t going to tell you what to think. But we will tell you that their own local news, FlaglerLive, noticed the timing, too. In an article headlined “On Heels of Lawsuit Challenging Registrations, Flagler Sheriff Arrests 40 Sex Offenders In Compliance Sweep,” FlaglerLive specifically connected the operation to FAC’s lawsuit and observed that the timing “may not have been as coincidental as it seems.”

It seems that after being sued, Flagler County reviewed its entire population of registrants – 139 people – and arrested 40 of them (representing approximately 30% of the entire registered population in the county). The Sheriff’s Office announced 168 felony registration violation charges. This wasn’t an operation that uncovered people committing new sex crimes. According to the reporting, none of those arrested was accused of committing a new sex offense. The arrests were about alleged failures to comply with the extraordinarily complicated registration requirements – things like failing to report an internet identifier or update vehicle information.

And then came the press conference. Sheriff Rick Staly appeared with members of his department, representatives from FDLE, and Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark. And, graciously making the trip from Tallahassee, FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass (the main Defendant in the lawsuit) showed up in his cowboy hat. Commissioner Glass was asked about FAC’s lawsuit. His response was that he could not comment on ongoing litigation. Fair enough. But perhaps the operation and Commissioner Glass’ presence at the press conference itself was a form of commentary. Sending a message to the registrant community that if we’re going to sue them, this is what they have the power to do to us. Message received… and shared with our lawyers.

And then, at the end of the press conference, Sheriff Staly delivered what may be one of the most useful statements in this case. His final message to registrants; “move out of Flagler County. I don’t care where you go.” (fast forward to 43 minutes into the press conference). His message to people on the registry in Flagler County was, in substance, to leave Flagler County. That’s quite a message from a public official to a class of people who have supposedly completed their sentences and are supposedly being subjected to a mere “civil” regulatory scheme. Thank you, Sheriff. Seriously. That statement may be one of the best exhibits we could ask for.

There were some other “curious” developments last week. FAC was invited to appear as a guest on NPR’s Friday Roundup program. We were scheduled to discuss our lawsuit and what it means – not just for people on the registry, but for constitutional rights and the limits of government power. A couple of days before the program, we were told that we had been bumped. That’s television and radio. Things change. Stories develop. We understand that. Still, we were curious, so we tuned in to see who took our slot and were surprised (ok, totally not surprised) to learn that the replacement guest was Lauren Book. We had a similar experience with another South Florida publication. An eager journalist scheduled an interview with FAC last week. On the day of the interview, however, the journalist got “sick” and the interview was canceled. We haven’t heard back. We hope they’re feeling better.

We won’t speculate about why these programming decisions were made. We weren’t in the room, and we may never know what happened behind the scenes. But it does remind us that there’s a very powerful opposition pushing their own self-serving narrative surrounding sex-offender laws in Florida, and they will use their wealth and power to try to silence our voice in the conversation. Of course, none of this changes what we are doing. FAC’s federal lawsuit is moving forward. We did not file this case because we expected government officials to applaud us. We filed it because constitutional rights are not supposed to depend upon whether the government likes the people exercising them. And that is ultimately what this fight is about.

The good news is that the efforts to obstruct and silence our voices in the media won’t work in the courtroom. And the events in Flagler County may have been intended to demonstrate the County’s everlasting and unyielding power over us, but instead, it demonstrated exactly why the registry needs to be challenged.

Stay strong and let’s keep fighting,

The Florida Action Committee

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