An Everglades scientist found guilty of contempt of court will surrender in July to serve a 10-day jail sentence, according to a judge’s order issued Thursday.
Tom Van Lent was sentenced to time behind bars after the Everglades Foundation accused him of stealing trade secrets three years ago. Van Lent denied stealing protected documents, but a judge found him guilty of criminal contempt after he disobeyed an order to stop deleting information from his computers. Van Lent said he was erasing personal documents.
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“I will be surrendering to the court on July 17,” Van Lent said Thursday. “The Everglades Foundation’s relentless campaign against me reflects their fear that their organization will be exposed for putting politics and money above science in the Everglades.”
The Everglades Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
The case shocked the tight-knit Everglades community after Van Lent quit in 2022. On his last day, he tweeted that he was going to work for a different nonprofit — Friends of the Everglades, founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, who he said “put facts over politics.”
The rift came after Van Lent raised concerns over a $3 billion reservoir being constructed south of Lake Okeechobee and considered a key piece in ongoing restoration efforts to deliver more clean water to southern marshes and Florida Bay. Van Lent and other scientists worry the project fails to include enough stormwater treatment marshes needed to meet strict pollution limits. Foundation leaders initially agreed with the concerns, but later pivoted to backing the project.
During a two-day hearing in 2023, an IT expert hired by the Foundation testified that Van Lent downloaded thousands of documents and folders from his work computer, although he and other staff who testified were not able to say what they contained.
In a statement, Friends of the Everglades board president Philip Kushlan and vice president Peter Upton praised Van Lent and said the 10-day jail sentence detracted from restoration work.
“We are more resolved than ever to be a force for positive change and sound science,” they said. “It’s not too late for the Everglades Foundation to ask the court to waive this vindictive jail sentence and we encourage it to do so.”
Van Lent agreed to surrender after the Foundation’s attorney, who prosecuted the contempt case for the judge, filed a motion in April asking to have Van Lent arrested.
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