‘I Have a Right to Speak!’: Florida Dad and 14-Year-Old Son Held at Gunpoint After False Bank Robbery Tip, Then He Was Arrested Trying to Show the Video to County Officials
A Black Florida man detained at gunpoint in 2021 with his 14-year-old son after he was falsely accused of robbing a bank was arrested after trying to show video of the unlawful detainment to Escambia County Commissioners last month. Albert Jackson Jr., 49, was accused of battering a female county employee who was standing next to him at the podium in front of commissioners while she was trying to determine the content of the video he wanted to show. But video from the Oct. 16 meeting shows Jackson slightly touching the woman’s arm in contact that appeared incidental. Albert Jackson Jr. (right) was arrested at a county commission meeting while trying to show commissioners a video on a USB drive he is holding, showing him and his son being falsely detained at gunpoint by deputies after someone falsely accused them of robbing a bank (Photos: Escambia County and Albert Jackson Jr.) Jackson says he was only trying to keep her from seizing the USB drive he had inserted into a computer that would have allowed him to show the video to commissioners. “She was reaching across to pull it out of the computer, and I just stuck my hand out,” Jackson said in a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star. But she responded as if he had violated her personal boundaries. ‘Do It Later’: Florida Father Refused to Stop Uber Eats Runs to Find His Missing 4-Year-Old Because He Feared a Bad Rating, Police Say “Please don’t touch me,” said Escambia Strategic Communications Director Kaycee Lagarde, who said she wanted to review the contents of the video before he was allowed to present it to the commission in case it was “graphic." Escambia County Commissioner Mike Kohler then berated Jackson, making him out to be out of control. “Mr. Jackson, you do not touch a staff employee, period,” Kohler said. “You have no right to touch a fellow employee. Control yourself.” “I have a right to speak, and I have a right to show this information,” Jackson responded. “This is my 14-year-old son, and I was accused of bank robbery.” “I just don’t know what the contents of this video are, and we are livestreaming, so I need to make sure it's not anything graphic,” Lagarde said. “You’ve had other people come up here and speak and they put in a USB drive, and they hit play,” Jackson told the commission. “Is there something on there that would be offensive?” Kohler asked. “Everything’s offensive,” Jackson replied, referring to the video that shows his then-14-year-old boy handcuffed in the back of a patrol car after two of his neighbors contacted deputies, falsely accusing him of being the bank robber. Also offensive is that the real bank robber was described as a 200-pound Hispanic man with olive skin wearing a shoulder-length black wig who looked nothing like Jackson, who said the real suspect pistol-whipped a bank employee before leaving the bank with $5,000 and still has not been caught. “For me, offensive is not an aspect in a public forum,” Jackson explained in the interview. Jackson agreed to take a seat to allow the video to be reviewed so he could present it to the commission, but he ended up arrested instead after a deputy asked him to step outside. Jackson stepped outside, and the deputy demanded his identification. “I said, ‘Well, what crime do you suspect me of committing?’” Jackson said. “He said, ‘I'm investigating.’ I said, ‘Well, I don't have to help you with your investigation.’” The deputy continued demanding his identification but was unable to articulate a reasonable suspicion that Jackson had committed a crime. “He didn't say anything until afterwards when he said ‘battery,’” said Jackson, who believes Lagarde had him arrested to keep him from showing the video to the county commission. The arrest report, which describes Lagarde as the victim and Jackson as the suspect, states that Lagarde was "crying" and "scared" of Jackson, and had to go into another room to get away from him after he "aggressively grabbed her arm" while she tried to pull the USB drive from the computer to review the video. On 10/16/2025, while working an extra-duty job at the BOCC building at 221 Palafox Street, I observed an argument at the podium between a white female and a Black male. I then heard from the County Commissioners' bench someone yell, "Stop touching her." I then noticed the white female walked to an office on the right side of the meeting room. I made contact with the white female who identified herself as V/Kaycee Lagarde, and who seemed to be crying, the Director of Communication for the BOCC building. V/Lagarde stated that while she was stopping the video from playing in the live stream, S/Jackson aggressively grabbed her right arm and pulled it away from the laptop against her will on three occasions to prevent her from stopping the video. V/Lagarde stated that she felt scared and decided to go inside the communications offices. Watch the interaction with Lagarde that led to his arrest in the video below. The False Detainment Jackson and his then-14-year-old son were on the roof of their house making minor repairs on Aug. 10, 2021, when they heard sirens. The sirens were headed to the bank robbery taking place less than a mile from their home, but they knew none of that at the time. But for some reason, one of his neighbors, Paula Thompson Rappe, told another neighbor, George Guthrie III, that he likely robbed the bank — despite him having been on the roof with his son while the robbery was taking place. Rappe then called the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, telling them “I have a picture of someone I think could be the bank robbery suspect,” according to a lawsuit he filed against both neighbors, accusing them of slander, libel, negligent and false reporting to law enforcement, as well as civil conspiracy. According to the lawsuit: Defendant Rappe published a picture of me, my wife and son to Deputy Nathaniel Weller implying that Plaintiff was the armed bank robber that committed the armed robbery of the Warrington bank. The picture was taken on March 27, 2019 at 7:32pm, the picture does not depict anyone matching the description of the armed bank robbery suspect. Defendants Rappe and Guthrie also made false statements to Doyle Gresham, Todd Glaze, Daniel Weller, Megan Matthews, Nathaniel Perry and Donald Griffin during their interviews implying that “Plaintiff was the armed bank robbery suspect” . Rappe has since passed away, but her estate is now the defendant in his lawsuit along with Guthrie, whose son is married to Rappe’s daughter. Jackson, who had no previous history with either neighbor, was unaware he was being falsely accused of robbing the bank as he drove his son fishing three hours after hearing the sirens, after finishing the work on the roof. But a deputy pulled in front of him, forcing him to slam on the brakes, and within seconds, several deputies were pulling him out of his car. The father and son each spent about an hour handcuffed in the back of separate patrol cars before they were released after a deputy realized they were not involved in the bank robbery, the claim states. We were subjected to what amounted to torture for over an hour. I was hot boxed, a torture technique used to get information from suspects by using the heater in the car and parking the car in the sun. I suffered heat exhaustion and dehydration. My son's shoulder was injured, and in the in-car video, he appeared to be blacking out from the pain. He asked for help but was left alone in the car several times. We were in fear for our lives. The video he was trying to show the county commission showed his son sitting handcuffed in the back of the patrol car, appearing to be in pain and distress. Jackson said he spent the next few years trying to obtain evidence and information from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. When he finally obtained the video, he wanted to show it to the county commission to show them what had taken place. But not only did they not appear interested in viewing it, he ended up arrested on questionable charges of battery and resisting arrest without violence, which he is confident he will beat, which would then allow him to write and file another lawsuit. Jackson is representing himself in the pending 62-page lawsuit he wrote, which contains four years of evidence he has compiled since he was first threatened at gunpoint with his son, changing his life forever. “Their goose is cooked,” he said.
