Mailer dings state House foe for 2001 arrest
However records show that charge was dropped
A mailer sent by Florida House District 47 candidate Stockton Reeves dings his opponent, Mikaela Nix, for a 2001 arrest for petit theft — although court records show that the charge was dropped.
The two Republicans are facing off for the party’s nomination in the Aug. 28 primary.
The winner will face Democrat Anna Eskamani in the Nov. 6 general election to represent a district that includes downtown Orlando east of Interstate 4.
Nix was 19 when she said she made a bad decision on a shopping trip with friends and took a $14 shirt without paying for it. However, in a Facebook post on her campaign page, she said it was a “lesson she has never forgotten.”
“We made a bad decision about a $14 shirt,” Nix, 36, said Friday. “Unfortunately, it happened. The good news is I have some amazing parents that pretty much killed me.”
“Our family is very, very strict … My parents were very upset about it but also very understanding,” she said.
Reeves said he sent the mailer because he didn’t think Nix owned up to the arrest and that “I felt like voters deserve the facts.”
The mailer has a photo of Nix’s mugshot and says she “has a record of breaking the law.”
Reeves, too, had a runin with authorities.
In 2003, Reeves was cited by Gainesville police for an open container violation, but the municipal ordinance was dropped as part of a pre-trial diversion. He said he paid a $25 donation.
Reeves said the citation came while he was at a University of Florida football game, and was walking down the street with an empty bottle of beer.
“That was me and I did it,” he said. “It was one bottle of beer.”
Of her arrest, Nix, now an attorney practicing family law, said she’s used it in talks with her students at Valencia College and when she speaks to young people going through the juvenile justice system.
“I think this was a desperate attack,” she said. “I think this is why young people don’t want to run. This is why we have to broaden our tent.”