Apr 9, 2021
A Florida woman who was caught on tape intentionally coughing on a Pier 1 customer has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.
Debra Hunter of Jacksonville was sentenced to 30 days plus six months probation, along with a $500 fine, anger management classes, and a mental health evaluation.
Last summer, Hunter intentionally coughed on the victim, Heather Sprague, who was filming her for not wearing a mask. Sprague is being treated for a brain tumor and said she spent days searching for a place where she and her family could be tested for coronavirus. What s the worst behavior you ve witnessed in public since the pandemic began?
The episode came during a period in the pandemic when the authorities were responding to heated confrontations across the country over masks and other precautions, with some of those disputes leading to criminal charges for people who spat or coughed on ride-share drivers, store employees and police officers. Retail workers also reported being subjected to verbal abuse and even threats involving guns for enforcing mask rules.
Ms. Hunter said she felt remorse and guilt from “one very poor decision” that had cost her three children nearly all of their friends and had made her feel like a pariah in her community. She said her children had been greatly affected by the hundreds of text messages, emails, phone calls, social media threats and even hand-delivered letters she had received after the video of her coughing on Ms. Sprague gained widespread attention.
Hunter also told the judge that the video shows her in the ‘worst possible light on my worst possible day, and that’s not who I am… if I could take it all back, I would take it all back.’
Debra Jo Hunter, who was recorded in a viral video intentionally coughing on a cancer patient in Jacksonville, Florida, has been sentenced to 29 days in jail.https://t.co/YZOIfgYerj
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But that’s not the way the judge saw it.
Before ordering jail time,
Duval County Court Judge James Ruth said she was struck by the fact that Hunter’s testimony focused less on how she may have harmed the victim, whose coughing
5 hours ago by The Associated Press (AP)
Photo: Angiola Harry
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) A Florida woman whose image went viral when she deliberately coughed on a customer at a Pier 1 store last year in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic has been sentenced to 30 days in jail.
A judge in Jacksonville on Thursday also ordered Debra Hunter to pay a $500 fine, serve six months probation and participate in a mental health evaluation along with anger management.