Former Palm Beach County GOP leader charged in Capitol riot

Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post
·4 min read
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Using Facebook photos and video captured during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the FBI this week accused a one-time Palm Beach County, Florida, commission candidate and former GOP heavyweight of joining the deadly rampage.

Jody Tagaris, 67, who lives near Jupiter, is charged with four federal misdemeanors, accusing her of illegally entering a restricted building and being disruptive and disorderly once inside. She faces a maximum year-long prison sentence on two of the charges and six months on the two others..

This Facebook photo depicts a woman wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, an American Flag scarf, blue jeans, and a unique U.S. Olympics American flag jacket while masked posing in a frame of a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door at the US Capital with the caption, “The Capital. . . .back at hotel safe! Got tear gassed but okay!”.
This Facebook photo depicts a woman wearing a red Make America Great Again hat, an American Flag scarf, blue jeans, and a unique U.S. Olympics American flag jacket while masked posing in a frame of a broken window next to the Senate Wing Door at the US Capital with the caption, “The Capital. . . .back at hotel safe! Got tear gassed but okay!”.

After a brief video hearing before a U.S. magistrate in West Palm Beach on Tuesday, she was released after posting a $50,000 bond. She is to appear in federal court in Washington at an unspecified date to enter a plea to the charges, court records show.

Tagaris, who was a potent force in Republican circles when she ran for a commission seat in 2002, couldn’t be reached for comment. Stuart attorney Jeff Gorman, who represented her during the hearing, was also unavailable.

Surveillance video shows the woman in the American flag jacket enter the U.S. Capitol through a broken window near the Senate Wing Door. The woman remained in the Senate Wing Door lobby area for a period of time where she took pictures and engaged with U.S. Capitol Police officers.
Surveillance video shows the woman in the American flag jacket enter the U.S. Capitol through a broken window near the Senate Wing Door. The woman remained in the Senate Wing Door lobby area for a period of time where she took pictures and engaged with U.S. Capitol Police officers.

In court papers, FBI agents say Tagaris’ undoing began when they were alerted that she had posted a photo of herself on Facebook, sitting in a broken window of the Capitol.

The caption on the photo was: “The Capital. … back at hotel safe! Got tear gassed but okay!”

While the woman was masked, she was wearing a MAGA hat, an American flag scarf, blue jeans, and what agents described as a “unique U.S. Olympics American flag jacket.”

As they reviewed video footage that was taken as the mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol, a woman wearing the same clothes turned up again and again, agents said.

They saw her with her mask lowered, joining a crowd filing into a Senate lobby where she took pictures and “engaged with” Capitol police. The video shows her then entering a room near the Senate chamber, where she sits at a conference table, agents said.

After she and other rioters were ordered to evacuate the building, a police body camera captured the woman, wearing the same telltale clothing, outside the Capitol, agents said.

Jody Tagaris of Palm Beach County is captured by a Washington Metropolitan Police Officer’s body camera after she was expelled from the U.S. Capitol. Tagaris is seen in the video wearing the same unique U.S. Olympics American Flag jacket and Make America Great Again red hat that was worn by the Defendant while inside the U.S. Capitol.
Jody Tagaris of Palm Beach County is captured by a Washington Metropolitan Police Officer’s body camera after she was expelled from the U.S. Capitol. Tagaris is seen in the video wearing the same unique U.S. Olympics American Flag jacket and Make America Great Again red hat that was worn by the Defendant while inside the U.S. Capitol.

Co-worker identifies Tagaris

A co-worker, who knows her as Jody Echevarria-Tagaris, identified her as the woman sitting in the broken window, agents said.

Later, after they got a search warrant to review her Facebook page, agents said they confirmed her identity by looking at photos where they could see what she looked like unmasked.

They said they also found other pictures she posted, in the same outfit, as she documented her journey to Washington. “My Trump hat for the 1/6 rally in DC,” accompanied one post.

A search of her cellphone records also showed she was in and around the Capitol when Trump acolytes stormed the building with stun guns, pepper spray, baseball bats and flagpoles used as clubs, agents said. Five deaths are blamed on the riot.

Tagaris is among more than 400 people who have been charged in connection with the riot that temporarily blocked Congress from certifying the results of the election, which Trump and his supporters falsely claim was fraudulent. It is the largest investigation in the history of the U.S. Justice Department.

Arrests have included others from South Florida, such as a Boynton Beach Marine veteran, a Fort Pierce man and at least two men who live in Broward County.

During the early 2000s, Tagaris was a prominent Republican activist. Then known as Jody Warmack, she was a member of the executive committee of the county’s Republican Party.

Identifying herself with a conservative bloc of the party, she challenged sitting Commissioner Mary McCarty in a bruising 2002 primary race, which she lost in a landslide. While she flirted with the idea of challenging her nemesis in 2006, she didn’t run.

The FBI also found statements in the Facebook account made by Jody Tagaris that she was traveling to Washington, D.C. on or about January 5, on a 6:00 p.m. flight to attend President Trump’s rally and that she would be making posts to let everyone know that she was ok.
The FBI also found statements in the Facebook account made by Jody Tagaris that she was traveling to Washington, D.C. on or about January 5, on a 6:00 p.m. flight to attend President Trump’s rally and that she would be making posts to let everyone know that she was ok.

Instead, she became embroiled in a bitter fight with the children of her wealthy ex-husband, Nicholas Tagaris, who made millions running a successful computer components manufacturing business in the Boston area.

The children accused her of kidnapping their stroke-addled father and remarrying him so she could get his money. She, in turn, accused them of poisoning their father against her so they would get his riches.

The ugly dispute finally ended when Tagaris agreed to divorce him a second time and return millions of dollars worth of property, sports cars, boats, motorcycles and personal belongings.

In return, she got to keep $100,000 along with a $460,000 house near Jupiter and a Porsche that were bought with his money.

jmusgrave@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Former Palm Beach County GOP leader charged in Capitol riot