MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — A 41-year-old Tallahassee woman was arrested over the weekend for allegedly throwing a drink at Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz at a wine festival.
The woman, Selena Chambers, has been charged with one count of misdemeanor battery and one felony count of battery on an elected official. Chambers has been released on bond, according to the court docket.
In a statement posted to his website Tuesday, Gaetz thanked the Walton County Sheriff's Office for their "swift action" and said that he "will be pressing charges against this individual in order to uphold the civility our community deserves."
Chambers has pleaded not guilty. Matthew Karp, an attorney for Chambers, said in a statement Tuesday that they "intend to vigorously defend against the allegations of Rep. Gaetz."
Karp said that his team's investigation "has initially shown Rep. Gaetz to have been both an aggressor and agitator," in a "verbal altercation" between the congressman's group and women attending the festival.
"We look forward to taking his deposition," he said in the statement.
According to a Walton County Sheriff's Office police report, Gaetz told officers at the scene on Saturday that Chambers and another woman were "cursing" at the congressman and his family. Gaetz said Chambers then threw a drink, which hit him in the left shoulder, according to the police report.
Another person at the event, who was speaking to Gaetz at the time of the alleged incident, told officers that he too was hit, according to the police report, and that he was "soaked" from the drink. That individual told police that Chambers then "walked away" while "yelling and flipping him off."
Neither Gaetz nor the man he was speaking with was injured in the incident, according to the police report.
After being detained, Chambers told law enforcement she had been drinking alcohol. She said, according to the police report, that "she was walking and tripped and spilled her drink on Representative Gaetz." A woman who was with her at the festival told officers she cursed at Gaetz as they walked away from the congressman.
In 2019, another woman was previously sentenced to 15 days in federal custody for throwing a sports drink at Gaetz. Amanda Kondrat'yev was part of a group protesting outside a town hall meeting at a Pensacola restaurant. A cup struck Gaetz in the back as he left the meeting, and several witnesses identified Kondrat'yev as the person who threw it.
Gaetz, first elected to Congress in 2016, is known for his strong support of former President Donald Trump and his membership in the arch-conservative Freedom Caucus in the House. Earlier this year, Gaetz announced that the Justice Department had decided not to file charges against him following a long-running sex-trafficking investigation.
