Fla. Woman Jailed for Throwing Drink at Rep. Gaetz

A woman from Tallahassee, Florida, was arrested and charged with battery after allegedly throwing a drink on Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at a wine and food festival over the weekend.

Gaetz said Tuesday that he pursued charges against her “to uphold the civility our community deserves.”

“I will never allow the safety of Northwest Floridians to be compromised,” Gaetz said in a statement posted to his Twitter account, where he also shared the woman’s photo. “Thank you to the Walton County Sheriff’s office for taking swift action.”

The woman, Selena Jo Chambers, 41, is facing charges of one count of battery on an elected official, a felony, and one count of misdemeanor battery after the incident Saturday night at the South Walton Beaches Wine and Food Festival, the Pensacola News Journal reported. 

According to a sheriff’s department report, Gaetz told police that Chambers recognized him and started cursing at him, and threw her drink at him while she was walking past him at the event. 

Chambers told police that she tripped and spilled her drink on Gaetz, but admitted she recognized him before that happened. A woman with Chambers said that she, not Chambers, was the one who cursed at Gaetz while they passed him. 

Police arrested Chambers at the festival and took her to the Walton County Jail.

Gaetz addressed the incident on his “Firebrand” podcast Tuesday, and defended pressing charges, saying he didn’t have a problem with being criticized but that the incident crossed the line. 

“If we start allowing stuff to be thrown or hurled, if we allow people to be harmed, there is a severe risk of escalation and accident,” he said. “We don’t want to see anyone in harm’s way, whether it’s family members, supporters, or even our detractors.

“We want them to be safe, too, but when they really cross the Rubicon beyond just words to throwing stuff and striking me and striking a gentleman I was speaking with, with a drink, then that has really caused harm to our community. And it’s something that we want to contain and extinguish and not see going forward.”

Saturday wasn’t the first time someone has been arrested for throwing a drink at Gaetz. In 2019, Amanda Kondrat’yev was sent to prison for 15 days after throwing a red slushie at the congressman when he was leaving a campaign event in Pensacola, the newspaper reported.