Three persons serving meals to the homeless at the iconic Lake Eola Park downtown Orlando, were arrested on Wednesday.
Orlando police said, 54-year-old Johnathan K. McHenry, 24-year-old Jessica Lynn Cross and 50-year-old Benjamin B. Markeson, members of Orlando Food Not Bombs, were taken into custody, accused of violating an Orlando ordinance that bans feeding of large groups of people without a permit.
According to their arrest affidavits, McHenry, Cross and Markeson, “knowingly help conduct and participate in the distribution or service of food at a Large Group Feeding at Lake Eola Park, a park facility owned or controlled by the City of Orlando.”
The affidavits also state that the arrestees conducted similar feedings of more than 25 persons at Lake Eola Park on May 18 and 23, and Large Group feeding permits were issued in person at the time on the spot. An illegal feeding of more than 40 individuals also took place on May 25, police said.
The affidavits also charge that the three knowingly violated the ban on large group feeding.
Since 2006, Orlando Food Not Bombs has been challenging the City’s Ordinance saying it violates their first amendment rights and is “anti-homeless.”
In April earlier this year, a federal appeals court upheld the Ordinance that bans large group feeding without a permit, after the City appealed a federal judge’s ruling in September 2008, which sided with the local group.
McHenry, Cross and Markeson were booked into the Orange County Jail around 7:00 pm, each on a $250.00 bond.
