Though he has been in jail for almost a month and will continue to be jailed for at least two more weeks, a resolution is in the works for Joshua King, the 29-year-old drunk-driving probationer incarcerated last month on an alleged probation violation after he was expelled from a faith-based rehabilitation facility for refusing to profess his faith in a Christian God.
King appeared in court this morning for what was to be his arraignment on the probation violation. He stood at the podium as his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Courtney Davison, conferred in a sidebar with Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols and Assistant State Attorney Tara Libby, who is prosecuting the case.
There was no arraignment. It was continued to June 16. There was no explanation. King sat back down, and soon was shuffled off back to the jail. Davison later said that the resolution was likely by June 16. (See: “DUI Probationer Sent Back to Jail for Refusing to Profess Faith in God in Christian Treatment Program.”)
King was driving on I-95 in Palm Coast late the night of Jan. 11, 2024, on his way home, when a Florida Highway Patrol trooper pulled him over near Palm Coast Parkway for driving recklessly. He’d been clocked at up to 108 miles per hour. By the time the stop was over, he’d been arrested on his sixth drunk driving charge in less than eight years and booked at the Flagler County jail.
He pleaded four months later, agreeing to go to a rehab instead of jail, and serving five years of probation. He was also due to serve two years in prison in Mississippi on a previous DUI conviction. It isn’t clear if the court tolled, or paused, his probation’s duration pending the two years in Mississippi. He served the sentence in that state between June 2024 and March 6, 2026.
Upon his return to Florida, King and his family had voluntarily picked Faith Farm Ministries, a private, 10-month inpatient addiction recovery program. King was aware it was faith-based, but he claims that at his intake, with his parents standing near him, he was not told that he would have to profess beliefs in a Christian God. A Faith Farm intake official said he was. Two months into his treatment, that’s what took place. King refused, saying he didn’t want to lie.
He asked for a hearing with Nichols (the judge who’d sentenced him was Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, who had retired a few months after pronouncing King’s sentence.) At the May 5 hearing, Nichols told King that he would be violating his probation if he did not continue the program, since his probation was conditional on attending. He said he could not continue on Faith Farm’s terms, and Faith Farm said it was kicking him out.
The judge declared him in violation and ordered him brought back to the county jail until a solution could be worked out. King could have filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus challenging the legality of his detention at the county jail, but he first had to secure an attorney again. He had previously been represented by Assistant Public Defender Evan Altes before Davison.
Because rehabilitation for King was court-ordered, the specific facility was not. Had it been so, then compelling King to profess his faith in God would have been a violation of his First Amendment right to his own freedom of conscience. Davison explained that since King chose the facility himself, he had to follow its rules or suffer the consequences.
King was aware, during his May 5 hearing–at which he was not represented by a lawyer–that by not staying at Faith Farm, he would be violating the terms of his probation. But he asked for time to find a different facility, which the judge did not grant: he would await that possibility in jail.
Yet King remains in jail today on the allegation of a probation violation without a clear disposition. He will be back in court on June 16 at 8:30 a.m.
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