PALM COAST, Fla. – A Florida man has landed himself in jail after he allegedly took a bite out of a slice of pizza from inside a RaceTrac and left without paying for it because he was “tired” after work and “didn’t have the money,” according to an arrest affidavit from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. 

Ronald Broaddus, 62, was arrested and charged with petit theft on Friday after the incident that unfolded at the gas station on SR-100 in Palm Coast, the affidavit said. 

A RaceTrac employee told deputies that a man, later identified as Broaddus, stole pizza and frozen yogurt and left the store without paying, according to the affidavit. The employee said he went outside to confront Broaddus, who initially said he did pay for the items even though two people inside the gas station said he didn’t. 

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“I told him, ‘I’m calling the police.’ He proceeded (as I’m on the phone with dispatch) to throw away the pizza box and ice cream. He came back to his bike (as I’m still on the phone with dispatch) and said, ‘You better watch your back because I’m going to kick your a***,” the employee said, according to the affidavit. “He then proceeded to step toward me with his bike in a hostile way. I stayed far enough back so he could not touch me. He then rode away.”

The employee said RaceTrac wished to pursue charges, and also trespass Broaddus from the location. 

The two slices of buffalo chicken pizza and a cup of frozen yogurt totaled $8.98 before tax. 

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Another deputy located Broaddus nearby and initiated a traffic stop. In a post-Miranda interview with deputies, Broaddus said he went into the gas station, picked up the frozen yogurt and pizza and walked outside to eat. The man said he was approached by an employee and told him that he didn’t have enough money to pay for the items, but would pay for it at a later time. 

“(Broaddus) then stated that he threw the pizza and ice cream away after the clerk threatened to call law enforcement,” the affidavit said. 

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He was placed under arrest for petit theft and was transported to the Flagler County Inmate Facility. Broaddus’ sister was contacted and she retrieved the bicycle after the arrest. 

Broaddus told deputies that even though he was trespassed from the gas station, he “will be returning” to “defacate on the property,” the affidavit said. 

Broaddus remains in custody on $1,000 bond. 

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Arguing that the issue is moot, voting-rights groups on Friday urged an appeals court to reject an attempt by the state House and Senate to shield lawmakers and legislative staff members from testifying in redistricting lawsuits.

Lawyers for the groups filed a 44-page brief at the 1st District Court of Appeal that said they decided in December 2022 not to continue seeking depositions of lawmakers and staff members as part of a constitutional challenge to a congressional redistricting plan passed in spring 2022.

As a result, the groups said an appeal of an October 2022 decision by a Leon County circuit judge that could have led to depositions is moot.

But attorneys for the House and the Senate have continued pursuing the appeal, arguing that a legal concept known as “legislative privilege” bars requiring testimony from lawmakers. Ultimately, the House and Senate want to take the issue to the Florida Supreme Court and to undo a 2013 ruling that allowed such testimony in certain circumstances.

The voting-rights groups’ brief said that “in December 2022, there was no longer a live issue — or even the threat of one — for this (appeals) court to resolve.”

“This appeal is unquestionably moot,” the brief said. “It challenges the circuit court’s October 27, 2022, order allowing appellees (the voting-rights groups) to depose a limited subset of legislators and staff involved in the 2022 congressional redistricting process on a limited number of topics. But those depositions never happened.”

In a March 11 brief, however, attorneys for the House and the Senate argued that the “appeal raises questions of great public importance” and that the 1st District Court of Appeal should send the case to the Florida Supreme Court. The Legislature ultimately wants the Supreme Court to “recede” — essentially reverse course — from the 2013 ruling in a case known as Apportionment IV.

“Apportionment IV erred in rejecting an absolute legislative privilege in civil cases and instead establishing a shapeless, standardless balancing analysis as the purported safeguard of the prerogatives of the legislative branch,” the March brief said. “That error threatens the legislative process with grave consequences and should be overruled.”

A coalition of groups, such as the League of Women Voters of Florida and Equal Ground Education Fund, and individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature. They contend the plan violated a 2010 constitutional amendment that set redistricting standards, including a standard that said plans could not “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

The 1st District Court of Appeal in December 2023 upheld the constitutionality of the plan, and the groups have appealed to the Supreme Court, where that issue is pending.

But as part of the case, the plaintiffs in 2022 also sought depositions from six current and former lawmakers and five current and former staff members. The Legislature fought the depositions, but Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in October 2022 said he would allow the lawmakers and staff members to be questioned, with some limits.

Marsh cited the 2013 Supreme Court precedent.

“The appropriate line in this case is where the doors to the House and Senate meet the outside world,” Marsh wrote. “Accordingly, each legislator and legislative staff member may be questioned regarding any matter already part of the public record and information received from anyone not elected to the Legislature, their direct staff members or the staff of the legislative bodies themselves. They may not be questioned as to information internal to each legislative body that is not already public record (e.g., their thoughts or opinions or those of other legislators.)”

In addition to arguing that the appeal of Marsh’s ruling is moot, lawyers for the voting-rights groups also wrote in Friday’s brief that there is “no absolute legislative privilege in Florida.”

But in the March brief, attorneys for the House and the Senate wrote that historically, “the legislative privilege safeguarded the integrity and independence of the legislative process and assured that fear of personal repercussions would not sway the votes of lawmakers or chill the freedom of speech and action in legislative deliberations.”

The current and former lawmakers involved in the dispute are former House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor; former Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero; former Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach; Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island; Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach; and Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island. Each had a leadership role in the 2022 redistricting process.