West Palm Beach man accused of making racist threats and intimidating voters at Loxahatchee polling station

WEST PALM BEACH — Deputies have arrested a man accused of yelling antisemitic and racial slurs at a woman campaigning on the street early voting site in Loxahatchee, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Nicholas Farley, 30, faces up to 10 years in prison on two counts of voter intimidation and election interference. According to his arrest report, Farley yelled obscenities as he circled the parking lot of the Acreage branch library in a white van on Thursday, Oct. 24.

When asked by deputies, Farley denied that he knew about early voting. He then gave the name of a pro-Nazi website and began delivering a racist lecture, repeating and adding to the slurs witnesses accused him of using in the library parking lot.

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The officer who arrested Farley said Farley apparently enjoyed talking about his hatred of the Jewish and African-American communities.

During the interview, which was recorded on the deputy’s body camera, Farley said he uses slurs to describe anyone he doesn’t like, including “those who commit crimes and don’t support America and patriots like him.”

“When I asked Mr. Farley how a patriot like him doesn’t know when early voting is, he said he’s a different patriot,” the lawmaker wrote.

Elizabeth Loudon, the 25-year-old woman Farley accused of assaulting outside the library, campaigned for Republican candidate Meg Weinbergerwho is running for the Florida House. Loudon told investigators that she didn’t immediately register Farley’s comments because, as a campaign supporter, she had “a lot of unhappy people yelling at her.”

She and other witnesses said Farley sped across the library parking lot to derogatory music, drove toward the activists and swerved at the last moment. Loudon, who said she planned to stay longer and vote, left in fear.

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Sunday’s arrest was not Farley’s first.

West Palm Beach police officers arrested Farley in July for allegedly threatening a biracial couple with a gun as they walked through downtown West Palm Beach. According to the couple, Farley pulled up next to them in his van and started yelling racial slurs.

The woman, who is white, said Farley told her she was “committing genetic suicide.” When her boyfriend asked him to repeat what he said, witnesses said Farley pointed a gun and threatened to shoot him.

Police charged Farley with aggravated assault with a firearm. Prosecutors closed the case within two weeks of his arrest, citing a lack of evidence.

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About two months later, a woman called 9-1-1 to report a man yelling racial slurs at her African-American children and others playing at Acreage Park in West Palm Beach. The witness said that when she met the man, later identified as Farley, he called her a “race traitor”.

Deputies investigating the incident at the library also identified Farley as the person who called the West Palm Beach Police Department multiple times in June and yelled racial slurs at the dispatcher.

Farley was appointed a public defender and remains in the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was booked on the day of his birth. State records show he is registered as a nonpartisan voter.

Hannah Phillips reports on criminal justice for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [email protected]. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on the Palm Beach Post: Deputies Arrest West Palm Man Accused of Intimidating Voters at the Polls