Four exuberant football fans who rushed the field after the University of Florida’s upset win over Texas are facing first-of-their-kind, felony trespass charges under a new law a Republican Senator said was intended to punish protesters of President Donald Trump during his appearances in the state.
Lawmakers in Tallahassee said they never intended the new law to be used against fans storming football fields after a huge victory. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it in May.
And famed former UF head coach Steve Spurrier said in a new interview he thinks such fan actions at college games energize players and make a lifetime memory for students.
Two UF students and two older men were handcuffed and arrested Oct. 4 after police said they ran onto Steve Spurrier-Florida Field after the team’s 29-21 victory over the then-No. 9 Longhorns. It was a rare moment of exhilaration so far this season for UF, whose record fell to 2-4 after Saturday’s loss to No. 5 Texas A&M.
A review of statewide criminal records across Florida shows that the felony charges recommended by law enforcement in their cases would be the first filed under the new law, which took effect May 16. It bans anyone from entering an area secured by law enforcement or a large, ticketed sports or entertainment event without a ticket — with penalties up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Such cases were previously handled as misdemeanors. The new law, which two Democratic state lawmakers voted against, puts running past police onto a football field after a big game on the same criminal level as aggravated assault, bribery, drug possession or child abuse.
When the bill was making its way through the Legislature earlier this year, even lawmakers who wrote it said it wasn’t intended to punish what has been an occasional college tradition at some schools for decades.
At a hearing of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in March, Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, asked, “So, just to be crystal clear, if somebody goes onto the field, they won’t be charged with a felony?”
“That’s not the intent, and they can quote me in the case law if that becomes an issue,” said the bill’s sponsor, Fort Myers Republican Sen. Jonathan Martin.
Martin, the Chair of the criminal justice committee, said during the hearing that the bill was meant to provide tougher penalties against Trump protesters.
“This is specifically intended to address the Secret Service efforts to keep our President safe while he’s in the state of Florida,” Martin said. “Currently people who are trespassing at those events or locations where the President is located are only committing a misdemeanor. This keeps happening very frequently.”
At the Senate floor vote, Martin said law enforcement “were the large drivers of this bill.”
The bill passed unanimously in the House. In the Senate, Orlando Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith voted against it, and Sen. Tracie Davis, a Jacksonville Democrat, recorded a “no” after the official vote.
Martin, a civil and personal injury lawyer, didn’t have time last week to discuss the bill he wrote or its application in the case of the four UF football fans, his aides said.
House lawmakers said the new law was also motivated by chaos at the Copa América international soccer match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami in July 2024, when thousands of fans — many without tickets — rushed the gates. Police ejected 54 people from the stadium and arrested 26.
“This would give them a mechanism to go after those folks,” said Cape Coral Republican Rep. Mike Giallombardo, who wrote the House version of the bill.
At UF, the criminal charges contrast with other universities where similar scenes sometimes end in celebration. In August, after Florida State beat Alabama, FSU fans flooded the field but no trespassing arrests were made, according to court records. The ACC fined the university $50,000.
In Gainesville, the State Attorney’s Office hasn’t yet formally charged the four fans in their criminal cases, according to court records. The four were arrested on the felony charges at the stadium, booked into the jail across town then released without having to pay bail.
They include UF students Landon Beckham Kingsle Kefford, 21, of Parkland, and Danek Everett Blalock Cirafesi, 19, of Somerville, New Jersey. They were banned from the stadium for three years. The others were Kevin Wilcox Joy, 35, of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and John Paul Schmidt, 27, of Greensboro, North Carolina. The latter two were banned from the university’s campus for three years, not just the stadium.
None of the four returned emails or text messages to discuss their arrests. Cirafesi and Schmidt pleaded not guilty last week.
There are no records of UF fans as a crowd ever rushing the field, one of the only schools in the SEC with that distinction. Spurrier — who coached UF from 1990 to 2001, won Florida’s first Heisman in 1966 as a player and runs a popular steakhouse in Gainesville — said wistfully he has seen that kind of exuberance at other schools.
“When I watch these other schools do it, that’s a memory of a lifetime for those students,” Spurrier told Fresh Take Florida, a news service at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Spurrier famously encouraged fans last year to rush the field if the Gators beat LSU under Coach Billy Napier. UF won 27-16, but the fans stayed in their seats.
“I was hoping it would put a little incentive into our team,” Spurrier said. “According to Coach Napier, they had a little extra juice thinking the students were going to swarm out there if we beat LSU that night.”
Bennett Hutson, the defense lawyer for Joy and Kefford, said he believes authorities recommended the felony charges to deter future incidents. The university openly discourages fans from running onto the field after games, with announcements during the game and messages displayed on the scoreboard.
“They want to get the message out that they don’t want people to do this,” Hutson said. “They want people to respect their integrity, the integrity of the stadium and the safety of the student athletes and all the staff.”
In Florida, there were two earlier misdemeanor arrests under the new law, both in Miami. A 19-year-old was accused of interfering with a sporting or entertainment event after police said he jumped the turnstile at a music concert at the Hard Rock Stadium in August. A judge offered to sentence him to 25 hours of community service and keep the arrest off his record.
The other misdemeanor arrest involved Alejandro Antonio Alvarez Narvaez, 27, of Key Biscayne, who police said ran onto the field last month after the University of Miami’s 49-12 victory over the University of South Florida. Police arrested him under a different provision of the same law, which carries a misdemeanor penalty of up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. His arraignment was scheduled for Oct. 27.
The defense lawyer for the other two men in Gainesville, Dean Galigani, did not immediately return phone messages.
Hutson predicted the case will end up without his clients facing a felony record or years in prison.
“If it’s a kid doing something dumb and he doesn’t hurt somebody … they’re not trying to change that kid’s future,” Hutson said. “So, the case will get handled in a way that meshes with that.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected][1]. You can donate to support our students here[2].
References
- ^ [email protected] (floridapolitics.com)
- ^ here (www.uff.ufl.edu)