Florida will cut a nearly half-million-dollar check to a former state biologist fired over a joke about Charlie Kirk's killing on Instagram, the Tallahassee Democrat reports. Brittney Brown, previously with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, will receive $485,000 to resolve her federal free speech lawsuit: $235,000 for lost employment, $40,000 in back pay, and $210,000 for legal fees and costs. Under the agreement signed Thursday, she also agreed not to seek her old job back or apply to the agency again. She had been employed there for more than seven years, WPTV reports.
Brown was dismissed in September after she reposted a joke about whales reacting to the conservative activist's assassination. Her case, believed to be the first in Florida involving a state worker punished for an online response to Kirk's death, unfolded as public employees nationwide faced discipline over social media posts about the killing. During the lawsuit, a supervisor, while under oath, overstated the number of complaints about Brown's post—saying there were "hundreds" when there were just 50—prompting a federal judge to call the testimony "false" and order the state to pay fees. Brown (who was fired the day after a conservative social media account identified her, the AP reports) says the case highlights political pressure on state agencies; FWC declined to comment. (A man jailed for 37 days over a Kirk-related post recently settled his lawsuit for $835,000.)
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