Florida Teen to Sue Police, Public School for False Arrest Over Rigging Homecoming Queen Contest

A Florida teenager is preparing to file a lawsuit against the public school system and the state Department of Law Enforcement after she claimed that her civil rights were violated.

Emily Grover said she was falsely arrested in March 2021 because she allegedly hacked into the student's records to pad the votes for Homecoming Queen. Grover had help from his mom, Laura Caroll, who was also apprehended and charged for the tampering.

However, Grover did not challenge her arrest and did community service. After completing the program, the lawyer of the Florida teen said that this was not an admission of her guilt but she willingly participated in the legal proceeding without an idea of the outcome.

Grover and her lawyer managed to have the charges dropped, eventually. They then proceeded to file for a Notice of Intent to reclaim her innocence, per Daily Mail.

She didn't do anything criminal

In a statement on WEAR-TV, Grover's lawyer, Marie Mattox, said that her client has not done any criminal activity. She also said there was no thorough investigation or proper forensic evaluation to prove that the computers used to rig the Homecoming Queen results were tied to Grover. A spokesperson for the local enforcement agency admitted that they failed to verify the information received from the election monitoring company.

The police investigations showed that 117 fraudulent votes were made on just one IP address for a short period. The police also found traces of unauthorized access on the school's voting system to Grover and Carrol's cellphones and computers.

Carroll had access to the school system because she used to work as an elementary school assistant principal. She was suspended from work when this rigging issue came to light.

The mother was booked at the Escambia County Jail, while Grover, who was then 17, was sent to the Escambia Regional Juvenile Detention Center. The teenager later pleaded no contest and was entered into a community service supervised program.

She needs to rebuild her life

However, Grover's lawyer has claimed that there has been a black cloud trailing the teenager since this incident. In fact, Grover lost her college scholarship when she was arrested and later released from jail as the charges were dropped. Mattox insisted that her client should be able to rebuild her life and live normally, without the shadow of the past wrecking her future.

Mattox said that they will wait for the response from the public school and the police regarding Grover's intent letter. If there is no response, the lawsuit will be filed by mid-October.

Escambia Public Schools confirmed they received the letter of intent but will not comment on a pending case. Meanwhile, the trial for Grover's mother is set to begin on Monday, September 19, per ABC 7. In June, Her lawyer fought for the case to be thrown out, alleging that the investigator coerced her to cooperate.