The Hillsborough County court is looking for disgraced St. Petersburg business owner Kevin McBride.
The avid YouTube-er, non-apologetic anti-LGBTQ-ranter, and former men’s march organizer had been appearing before judge Laura Ward after he was arrested in Tampa for battery on a police officer during last March's Pink concert, but court documents show that he failed to appear on July 2, which led Ward to issue a capias, or warrant, which she left outstanding on July 10.
At the Pink concert, McBride, 51, was charged with resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer (each a third-degree felony).
In the months since, court documents show that McBride was examined by a doctor who said that he was indeed competent and able to proceed in the court process. In June, he was asked to surrender firearms and ammo and subject himself to both electronic monitoring and random searches. On June 26, a request for McBride to travel to California was denied along with his public defender’s written objection and emergency motion to strike the random searches ordered by the court.
A St. Petersburg Sheriff also attempted to make contact with McBride on June 30 to see if he complied with court orders to provide the state with the name of the monitoring service company he chose to use. Documents show that law enforcement was able to “make contact with the defendant’s girlfriend,” but unable to locate McBride.
A court document e-filed on July 1 says that there is probable cause to believe that McBride violated a court order, that his pretrial release should be revoked and that he should be held without bond.
If the courts are looking for McBride, they might want to consult his YouTube channel. On July 12, he published a video saying that he was in Washington D.C. protesting “about how devastating and how horrible the LGBTQ and feminist movements have been to our country.” On the same day, he posted a video saying that he’s drained his accounts as part of his fight for “right over wrong, crooks in our government and even law enforcement.”
“I’m going homeless tonight,” he said in the video, “I’m completely out of money. If you can help, I certainly appreciate it.”
A document from the Hillsborough Court says that a pre trial is set for August 20. A jury trial is supposed to follow on August 26.
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