The organizer of a June 3 pop-up party in disrupted traffic throughout Lake Butler was arrested on Tuesday.
According to a Union County Sheriff’s Office (UCSO) social media release, Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) deputies arrested Diamond Wanae Golden, 23, of Gainesville on Tuesday.
Deputies executed the UCSO arrest warrant for Golden, who allegedly organized the party.
The release stated an, “Investigation revealed that on Saturday, June 3, 2023, Diamond Golden organized a party and informed all her friends and followers using Facebook to go to ‘155 N.W. 3rd Street’ in ‘Lake Butler’ for her party. This ‘pop-up’ party caused total disruption throughout Lake Butler with all major roads blocked in both directions, people hanging out of cars and yelling obscenities, loud music, actively resisting and refusing commands from law enforcement to stop their illegal behavior.”
Many of the individuals at the party were allegedly intoxicated, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, in possession of illegal substances, driving under the influence, affray, discharging a firearm and battery on others. One of the individuals allegedly committed aggravated battery with serious bodily injury, was arrested and remains in the Union County Jail.
“The organizer brought all this trouble to the Lake Butler community through her promotion of this ‘pop-up’ event,” the release stated.
UCSO received a search warrant for Golden’s Facebook account which would confirm her role in participating and organizing the event. During the pop-up party, Golden started deleting evidence of her role, but UCSO was able to obtain results from the Facebook search warrant confirming Golden’s posts and filed an arrest warrant.
“Golden knew that a crowd this size participating in the activities would overwhelm the resources of our agency. Golden has been involved in parties like this before and knows the problems that can occur,” the release stated.
On July 24th, Judge Mitchel Bishop signed an arrest warrant from UCSO Golden charging her with inciting or encouraging a riot, which is a third degree felony with a $50,000 bond. Golden has also been trespassed from Union County and the city of Lake Butler public parks.
UCSO will be seeking restitution for its department and all law enforcement agencies involved, including the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office and its multi-agency SWAT team for responding and assisting in restoring order in Lake Butler.
“This type of illegal behavior will not be tolerated in Union County and thank you for all the support we have received from our community,” said Union County Sheriff Brad Whitehead in the release.
UCSO will continue to investigate all parties involved and more arrests may be pending.
