VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office is suing the promoters of several unpermitted spring break events in Daytona Beach in March, which led to dozens of arrests and several shootings.
“From here on out, if you come here and you promote an unsanctioned, unpermitted event, we’re coming after you civilly,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said at a news conference Friday.
Chitwood is working with local attorney Aaron Delgado to bring the lawsuits against the promoters, including a promoter named Alicia Brooks and one named Brittany Plummer. There are seven separate lawsuits, with more on the way, Delgado said.
“I’ve lived and worked in Daytona Beach 20+years, and, you know, my office was trashed,” Delgado said. “I got complaints from everybody on Seabreeze (Boulevard). All my friends and neighbors were complaining about the event. And when I talked to the sheriff, I said, you know, we have to find a way to hold these people financially responsible.
Daytona Beach had to impose a youth curfew and a special event zone last month after unpermitted pop-up events drew large crowds, disrupted traffic, and turned violent in some cases.
[WATCH: Daytona Beach cracks down after chaotic Spring Break weekend]
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office arrested 133 people in the first weekend of events on the beach in Daytona Beach and in New Smyrna Beach. The sheriff’s office said some 9,000 to 10,000 people were involved in that pop-up event.
Daytona Beach police also had to investigate four separate shootings on one Saturday night.
After that first weekend, Chitwood sent a notice to the event promoter, urging them to stop promoting subsequent pop-up events.
“If you promote an unsanctioned event and we incur cost and police, fire, EMS, and trash cleanup, you are responsible for the cost of that event,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood at a news conference in March.
The sheriff’s office said the costs of grappling with the events over two weeks, for their office alone, were $800,000.
[WATCH: After weekend chaos in Daytona Beach, Volusia County sheriff urges event promoter to stop]
On Friday, Chitwood also said they were talking to the state attorney’s office to see if there was a way to file criminal charges, using the aggravated rioting statute. If not, they would work with state lawmakers to make it a felony to hold events like these.
Chitwood compared promoting an event like this to walking into a crowded theater and yelling “fire.”
"Think of this for a minute. If you stand up on a plane and yell hijack, if you walk into a crowded movie theater and you yell, fire, fire, fire, you’re getting arrested, charged with a felony," Chitwood said. “Why should you be able to sit hundreds of miles away behind your computer and put a community under economic strain and tighten the noose where nobody can make a dollar, and where you’re painting your reputation, where nobody wants to come here and visit.”
Chitwood said they were also going to go after the liquor license for a bar called The Joint on Seabreeze Boulevard. Chitwood says the bar partnered with the promoters.