From Sarasota County Sheriff's Office v. Sarasota Herald-Tribune Co., decided June 27 by Judge Charles E. Williams (Fla. Cir. Ct.), the brief factual background (some periods between sentences added in these quotes, since the order apparently inadvertently omitted them):
On April 1, 2022, deputies of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office …, including Deputy Doe #1 and Deputy Doe #2, arrived at an apartment to serve a court-ordered writ of possession for the removal of Jeremiah Evans from the apartment. After the deputies' non-forcible entry, Mr. Evans exhibited a knife and refused to leave. Deputies commanded Mr. Evans to drop the knife, but he refused to do so Deputies then "tased" Mr. Evans, but he stood and advanced toward the deputies while holding the knife in front of his body in a threatening manner. Mr. Evans approached to within eight feet of the deputies and Deputy Doe #2 discharged a firearm, striking him. Medical help was summoned, but Mr. Evans died from the gunshot wound.
On June 1, a Sarasota Herald Tribune reporter (Melissa Perez-Carrillo) made a public records request for a copy of a prosecutor's letter about the incident, and the prosecutor's office released the letter with the officers' last names unredacted. On June 7, Perez-Carrillo asked for the first name, and the Sheriff's office then concluded that the "last name was released in error because the deputy is a crime victim under Marsy's Law entitled to confidentiality." The Sheriff's Office then sought and got a temporary injunction (from Judge Charles E. Roberts), which was issued on June 10 and barred the newspaper and the reporter "from publishing and/or otherwise further disseminating the personal information of Deputy Doe #1 or Deputy Doe #2 including but not limited to their names."
