Arrest of Alleged Campaign Worker for Theft in Palm Coast Complicates Uphill Congressional Race for Josh Weil

Arlecia Darnae Brown, a 25-year-old resident of Orlando who claimed to be a campaign worker in a special election locally, was arrested on six felonies, including a life felony charge of traveling to commit a burglary, after allegedly stealing a bike in an L-Section neighborhood in Palm Coast last week.

Shortly before the arrest, a Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy saw Brown canvassing the L-Section neighborhood for Josh Weil, the Democratic candidate in the special congressional election on April 1 to replace Mike Waltz, who formerly represented Flagler and parts of several other counties that form the 6th Congressional District. (Waltz is now the nationals security adviser to the president.) Weil is contesting the seat against Republican Randy Fine, a South Florida senator.




Weil faces a steep, near-insurmountable challenge to beat Fine in a heavily Republican district. The arrest in the final stretch of the campaign is an unexpected complication that Fine, a bombastic politician who thrives on virulence, exploited today through a media hand-out.

A stolen bicycle typically would not draw much public attention or generate a release from the Sheriff’s Office, as this one did today, but for Brown’s alleged association with the Weil campaign. A campaign aide who disseminates announcements of Weil’s events did not return a text, a call or an email, and an attempt to reach the campaign through the local Democratic Party was unsuccessful.

Brown is accused of stealing a BMX bike valued at $379 on March 6 out of an open garage on Lema Lane. (It was recovered). Neighborhood security videos and witnesses helped sheriff’s deputies in their search, even though witnesses mistook Brown for a man, for justifiable reasons: Brown has facial hair, a near-crew cut, and the features of a man. One witness described seeing a man in his 20s with a backpack walk up to the house and into the garage. The residents of the house were home. Security video from a house nearby shows a man fitting the same description walking toward the higher-numbered houses on Lema Lane.

A person seen walking on London Drive matched the description, leading a sheriff’s deputy to speak with him or her at a vacant yard, where the stolen bicycle was found parked between a fence and the back side of a tool shed. The person was soliciting for the candidate on London Drive, distributing fliers. The driver’s license the person provided bore the name Arlecia Brown.




During the interview with law enforcement, Brown “admitted to stealing the bicycle the night before on Lema Lane,” the arrest report states. Brown also admitted to entering the garage of the occupied residence to steal the bicycle. [Brown] stated that she was currently employed by the Josh Weil campaign and paid to solicit material throughout Palm Coast. [Brown] admitted that she did not obtain a permit to do so.” A local Democratic Party official said Weil has few employees, making it unlikely that Brown was one of them, but that Weil has hired canvassing companies whose employee backgrounds he would not be aware of.

After Brown’s arrest, two driver’s licenses were found on her that were not hers, both of Latino men of about 20. The deputies also found two screw drivers and a set of Allen keys deputies said were commonly associated with burglary tools.

That resulted in the six felony counts, including burglary, a second degree felony, and the charge of traveling outside of one’s county to commit a burglary. “This is a perfect example of a crime of opportunity. I encourage all residents to stay vigilant, lock their doors, and report suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately,” Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted as saying in the release. “Thorough detective work and concerned citizens helped lead to a quick resolution in this case of a convicted felon who has been arrested 19 times in the past. I also thank the resident who ‘saw something, said something,’ which helped us quickly locate the suspect and make an arrest.”