More than 60 days ago, an environmental group notified the Town of Palm Beach that they intended to sue the town for treating sea turtles. The organization claimed there were violations of the Endangered Species Act.
Up and down the shores of Palm Beach, you may see nests like this one.
“It’s their beach too,” shares attorney Lesley Blackner.
Blackner represents Bear Warriors United, who filed a notice back in July asking the Town of Palm Beach to implement, from March through October, light restrictions, nest markings, and not allow tractors or dogs on the beach.
“We were hopeful that the town would work with us in remediating these very fixable problems,” states Blackner.
But according to Blackner, the town hasn’t abided. However, the town’s police department says they responded to addresses listed in the notice to see if they have been following compliance and have been proactively searching for violations, and continue to do so.
The town says this led to the arrests of three people, including a member of Bear Warriors United.
According to a fourteen-page probable cause affidavit provided by the town, the member of the environmentalist group had called the police department multiple times on various days to complain about individuals harassing sea turtles on the beach.
She took pictures to prove it, as you see posted to the public Instagram page @wildlife_conservation_33480.
But the police department also received a complaint from FWC saying they had photographs showing that same member of Bear Warriors United interfering with sea turtle nests.
Police of the Town of Palm Beach obtained a search warrant for her hard drive, finding photos taken in the same spots the agency found her.
She was arrested for violating the Florida ‘Marine Turtle Protection Act,’ an arrest the police department stands by.
However, the state attorney’s office dropped the charges against her and the two others arrested, saying in a statement to Florida 24 Network, “The State did not have a good faith belief it could convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants committed the crime.”
Blackner was shocked when she heard about the arrest, “I knew this was just garbage; there was no basis.”
Supporters of the accused say their fight to make their asks listed in the notice a reality isn’t over yet, “We are still amounting more evidence and more documentation, and the case will be filed at some point.”
The group is getting ready to file a lawsuit but is awaiting to see if the town meets their specific requests, “I have no idea what they are going to do,” says Blackner.
