Jeffrey Marcus Gray, a 55-year-old resident of Forest Court in St. Augustine, was arrested on a felony charge of armed trespassing Sunday morning after he refused to leave the immediate vicinity of the Funky Pelican, the restaurant at the Flagler Beach pier.
The pier is public property, as is the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. The restaurant itself leases its space from city government in Flagler Beach. But individuals may be trespassed from public sidewalks or parks or other public property, if not without raising potential legal issues. The Funky Pelican, in business since 2011, features large, public blackboards on its walls fronting State Road A1A, where members of the public are invited to express themselves, albeit courteously and congenially.
A Flagler Beach police officer reported to the area in front of the restaurant after getting a complaint about a man holding a sign that read “God bless homeless vets.” Gray was holding the sign. The officer told him of reports that Gray had been harassing people. “Have you seen me harass anybody?” Gray told the officer, who then told Gray that he was free to go. Gray was not interested in moving. Nor would he identify himself or present a form of identification.
A Funky Pelican employee told the officer that Gray “was harassing people coming in and out of the restaurant and also taking pictures of people,” according to Gray’s arrest report. (It may be intimidating, rude and unnecessary to take pictures of people coming in and out of a business, but it is not illegal as long as the person taking the pictures is on a public right of way.) The employee told the officer that Gray “was resistant to their request to stop harassing the customers, and he refused to leave upon their request.”
The business asked police to trespass Gray, even though Gray appeared to have been on the sidewalk throughout: the police report describes Gray as “standing in front of The Funky Pelican on the City of Flagler Beach Boardwalk area”–in other words, on public property, commonly crisscrossed by passersby. The officer “verbally trespassed” Gray and asked him to “simply move down the sidewalk one way or another.” Gray refused.
A sergeant arrived at the scene and trespassed Gray both from in front of the Funky Pelican and the City of Flagler Beach Boardwalk area and the Pier. Gray, the report states, “was warned numerous times verbally about being trespassed and continued to refuse. Subsequently. Jeffrey was arrested for trespass after warning.”
Once Gray was arrested, officers searched him and found he was carrying a loaded .380-caliber pistol (also not illegal in Florida, which last year removed the requirement that individuals may only carry a firearm with a permit.) That increased the trespassing charge from a misdemeanor to a third-degree felony (“trespass armed with a firearm”). The report notes that Gray had set up cameras, which presumably contain evidence of pictures or video he may have taken. The report does not specify those details. Gray was booked at the Flagler County jail and released on $2,500 bond the same afternoon.
