The daughter, Emily Grover, plans to sue the Escambia County School District for violating her civil rights over the incident, which revolved around the October 2020 homecoming dance at Tate High School. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the school district are both named in the suit, according to a notice of intent obtained by WEAR-TV.
The FDLE previously accused Grover and her mother, 51-year-old Laura Carroll, of conspiring to abuse the district’s voting system to name the daughter homecoming queen in 2020. Carroll, a former assistant principal at Belleview Elementary School, allegedly gave her daughter access to the system, allowing her to cast 246 votes for herself. The department also claimed that Grover bragged about the plan to her fellow classmates.
The two women were arrested following the investigation and hit with a litany of charges: offenses against users of computers, computer systems, computer networks, and electronic devices; unlawful use of a two-way communications device; criminal use of personally identifiable information; and conspiracy to commit the offenses. All but the last charge were third-degree felonies, with the conspiracy charge being a first-degree misdemeanor. Grover was charged as an adult at the time.
The charges against Grover were dropped after she pleaded no contest and completed a supervised program. Nevertheless, she alleged in her notice to file a lawsuit that the incident had a detrimental effect on the trajectory of her life. She was expelled from Tate High School, lost her offer to attend college, and lost a full-ride scholarship, according to her attorney, Marie Mattox.
“This is a black cloud that is traveling with Emily everywhere she goes,” Mattox added. “She needs to be able to start her life over without this wreckage of the past and be able to live a normal life that she intended to live.”
Mattox alleged to WEAR-TV that the FDLE never reached out to the company that ran the software used in the homecoming election. The Escambia County School District and the FDLE have until mid-October to respond to the intent letter.
“Number one, she didn’t engage in any criminal activity,” Mattox added. “And number two, if there had been a thorough investigation conducted to do a forensic evaluation on any computers, then you would say Emily was not involved at all in casting any votes.”
Both the FDLE and the Escambia County School District offered no comment when reached by Newsweek, with the district noting that it could not comment on pending litigation.
Escambia County is situated the furthest west along the Florida panhandle, along the border with Alabama. Pensacola is both its largest city and county seat. Tate High School is located around 14 miles north of the city in Cantonment.
Updated 9/6/2022, 6:25 p.m. ET: This article was updated to reflect responses received from the FDLE and the Escambia County School District.
