TAMPA BAY: Man arrested at a county meeting is hospitalized

The man arrested at a Pinellas County Commission meeting Tuesday was in Northside Hospital on Thursday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Ozona resident John Schestag is still in the custody of the Pinellas County Jail, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.

Schestag was arrested Tuesday after speaking out against the commission's new decorum rules. He said the county attorney lied and was told to leave.

Schestag was arrested after leaving the assembly room when he stopped just outside the door and wouldn't continue after deputies said they told him to leave.

A First Amendment expert has criticized the commission's new rules as restricting free speech. Schestag was jailed Tuesday on three misdemeanor charges, and his bail was set at $1,000.

He was taken from the jail to Northside Hospital about 3 a.m. Wednesday after he complained of stomach pain, Pasha said.

A hospital official said they have no record of him as a patient.

But under a new federal health privacy law, patients can ask not to be listed in those records. So long as Schestag is in jail custody, taxpayers pay his medical bills, Pasha said.

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