Jury finds Mar-a-Lago intruder not guilty of trespassing

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Florida jury acquitted a Chinese woman Wednesday of trespassing at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort after she testified she didn’t understand a security guard who told her to leave.

However, jurors did find Jing Lu, 56, guilty of resisting a police o cer without violence during her Dec. 18 arrest. The incident marked the second time in 2019 that a Chinese national was charged with illicitly entering Trump’s Florida resort.

Prosecutors told jurors that Lu purposely intruded in a “calculated” and “planned” manner.

She has been in custody since her arrest because her visa to remain in the United States has expired.

Prosecutors said she ignored a warning to leave the grounds and returned through a side entrance and continued taking pictures. Mar-a-Lago is now Trump’s o cial residence, moving there from New York City last year, but he was not in Florida when Lu was arrested.

Lu, testifying through a Mandarin interpreter, said she paid $200 for a Chinese guide to drop her o at various South Florida locations.

She said her language barrier prevented her from understanding a security o cer’s orders to leave the property.

Security guard Murray Fulton told jurors he used hand gestures to make his warnings clear to her.

Lu’s tour guide then took her to Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue shopping district, where she was stopped by two Palm Beach police o cers. They testified that she wouldn’t consent to being questioned and resisted when they tried to handcu her.

Lu testified that she was scared when the officers approached her, adding that she didn’t know why she was being handcu ed.

Palm Beach County Judge Mark Eissey set Lu’s sentencing for Friday. She faces up to one year in jail on the misdemeanor charge.