Boyton mayoral candidate's mask violation sentencing turns bizarre

A candidate for Boynton Beach mayor convicted of two first-degree misdemeanors was ordered to pay a fine on Monday during a bizarre sentencing hearing that included the 63-year-old defendant stretching out on the courtroom floor and appearing to speak in tongues.

Circuit Judge Ashley Zuckerman ruled that Cindy Falco DiCorrado, an anti-mask advocate, must pay a $411 fine but ignored the state attorney's recommendation of six months of probation, along with community service and other fines.

A group of around 25 supporters clapped and cheered after the sentencing was announced.

"I didn't know if she would be sterner, but I knew in her heart, as I dealt with her many times, that she partially wanted to do the right thing," Falco DiCorrado said of Zuckerman. "She did what she needed to do. My appeal will say everything."

Falco DiCorrado was arrested Jan. 14 at the Einstein Bros. Bagels restaurant on Glades Road and State Road 7 in suburban Boca Raton by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office after she refused to comply with a deputy's commands to leave, according to an arrest report.

She claimed that an exemption from the county's mask mandate, which was in effect at the time, for religious and medical reasons allowed her to go inside the restaurant without covering her nose and mouth.

A six-member jury deliberated for less than one hour on Feb. 8 before finding Falco DiCorrado guilty of trespassing and resisting an officer without violence, both punishable by up to a year in jail. She represented herself in court.

Pretrial hearings and the one-day trial in the case featured peculiar, sometimes, incomprehensible motions and statements by Falco DiCorrado, and the Monday's sentencing was no different.

When addressed by the judge, Falco DiCorrado repeatedly responded by identifying herself as "the woman arrested, kidnapped, photographed and detained."

At one point, she asked Zuckerman, "Does the state register people as property?"

After Assistant State Attorney Jeremiah Romano detailed his sentencing recommendation, Falco Di Corrado was given the chance to answer.

She followed by lying on her stomach on the courtroom floor and praying, reciting the Lord's Prayer at least a dozen times, before appearing to speak in tongues.

Zuckerman allowed Falco DiCorrado to continue without any interference for nearly 10 minutes.

Falco DiCorrado is part of a four-candidate field running for Boynton Beach mayor along with City Commissioner Ty Penserga, Realtor Golene Gordon and community activist Bernard Wright. They are competing to succeed Mayor Steven Grant, who is term-limited.

"I'm a constitutionalist," Falco DiCorrado said after sentencing. "I believe every American should have the freedom to breathe, to have a belief system and stand firm on that. ... I'm running so that Boynton Beach will have a future."

According to court documents, Falco DiCorrado declined a pretrial plea agreement that would have dropped both charges if she completed 50 hours of community service within six months.

Falco DiCorrado supporters demonstrated outside the courthouse before the sentencing, asking for Gov. Ron DeSantis to give Falco DiCorrado a full pardon, and then spoke on her behalf in the courtroom.

The protest was organized by Chris Nelson, an activist in Fort Lauderdale with Free Florida, a group that says it fights against "unconstitutional COVID measures."

State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who filed more than a dozen lawsuits challenging local ordinances requiring face coverings, also wants a pardon. Sabatini wrote DeSantis on Feb. 18 that Falco DiCorrado's arrest "occurred during a period of unprecedented panic, frenzy and misrepresentation in Florida history."

Zuckerman ordered that adjudication be withheld on each of Falco DiCorrado's charges, meaning her record will be clean if she pays her fine without a year.

Falco-DiCorrado is a former Boynton Beach advisory board member who was forced to resign in December 2017 after she was accused of making racist comments and other inappropriate remarks.

She also made national news and became fodder for late-night comedians after appearing at a Palm Beach County Commission meeting in June 2020 dressed in a "Trump Girl" T-shirt while ranting about the county-imposed mask mandate, asking commissioners, "Where do you derive the authority to regulate human breathing?"

More attention found Falco DiCorrado last year after she posted a photo on social media where she is seen posing with a group of Proud Boys - a far-right organization blamed for acts of political violence - as they flashed white-power signs with their hands.

jmilian@pbpost.com

@caneswatch