ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A write-in candidate for Rochester City Council has been released from jail after being charged with threatening a sitting council member.
Clifford Florence Jr. is charged with harassment. He walked out of the Monroe County Jail Tuesday afternoon and denies doing anything wrong.
But City Council member Michael Patterson says Florence threatened him in the City Hall parking lot after a hearing in June. The complaint says when Patterson was walking to his car, Florence threatened him, saying if they weren’t in the City Hall parking lot he would “whoop his (expletive).” Patterson goes on to say Florence threatened to go to his house saying “I know where you live.”
Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “Did you do that?”Clifford Florence Jr., charged with harassment: “This is the first time I’ve been to ask some of those things. Everything that was said about me is absolutely negative and not true.”
Florence turned himself in to Rochester police at 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Berkeley Brean: “How are you feeling?”Clifford Florence Jr.: “I’m feeling relieved just to have the taste of freedom again.”
News10NBC spoke to Councilman Patterson on the phone but he declined to talk on camera. His complaint says the conflict happened June 12, a hearing where the public gets to talk to council. Those hearings are not recorded.
This conflict goes back to Florence’s grandfather, the famed civil rights leader Dr. Franklin Florence. The family says the city promised to re-name multiple places in the city after Dr. Florence, including the stretch of Plymouth Avenue in front of Florence’s historic church. But the family says that hasn’t happened.
Minister Clifford Florence, father of Clifford Florence Jr.: “It was promised that it was going to be done. Not done.”
Minister Clifford Florence is Florence Jr.’s father. He and a team of supporters were in court when Florence Jr. was charged. The father and son tried to run for mayor and city council. Florence Jr. lost in the primary, finishing 12th in a field of 15. But they’re still running as write-in candidates in November.
Minister Clifford Florence: “So we hope this gives him a boost in the write-in for city council.”
Clifford Florence Jr.: “It’s a good girls, good boys club and if you speak up against that this is what you come out of. You spend the night in jail.”
This case could go very quickly. The court set a date for a bench trial for October 21, a week and a half before the election.
News10NBC asked City Council and the mayor’s office for any resolutions concerning the re-naming of Plymouth Avenue after Dr. Franklin Florence, who died two years ago. The Brennan Center for Justice says 18% of local elected officials faced threats recently and nearly half of state lawmakers experienced threats.
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Clifford Florence Jr., charged with harassing councilman, says accusations are ‘absolutely negative and not true’ WHEC.com.
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