#Anonymous – #JusticeforJosiah – Justice for #JosiahPinner
On January 11th. 2019, undercover sheriff’s deputy Philip J Montesi was traveling at 66mph in a 45mph zone in an unmarked car when he struck and killed Josiah Pinner. Josiah was a 15-year-old youth that was crossing North Florida Boulevard north of 124th Ave. This was a hit-and-run, which is a felony. However, what followed was nothing but a conspiracy to cover up the death of a loved youth. The local Tampa Bay media is assisting in the conspiracy to cover up the facts in relation to the death of Josiah Pinner.
The placed in office, by corrupt mafia-tied Sheriff Chad Chronister. The corrupt mafia bought Hillsborough county district attorney, Andrew H Warren, who refuses to prosecute the undercover deputy dog, Philip J Montesi. Instead, he is going off the botched and doctored sheriff’s department accident reports. According to the accident report, the sheriff’s office did not test Philip J Montesi for drugs or alcohol at the scene. Instead, the Hillsborough County Sheriffs’ Department sought to make the victim the bad guy.
On the 17th day of January, we the people, shut down both Florida and Fletcher Avenues as we marched to the District One Hillsborough County sheriff’s office to seek answers. Over 400 locals participated in this protest. A few days later, we returned to District One office, only to find that the entire parking lot and the street leading to the office were barricaded to prevent all access to the building and grounds.
Over 100 locals and family members were in attendance and were witnesses to the sheriff’s deputies preventing anyone from even accessing the sheriff’s office. As we protested, many deputies mocked and laughed at the heartbroken family members. Anonymous finds this behavior an absolutely shameful display of police state-style tactics and nothing more than badge bully intimidation against the local community. We stood tall and proud in memory of Josiah Pinner.
Phillip J Montesi has been involved in four traffic accidents in two years while on duty. All of which involved Montesi exceeding the speed limit. Every investigation into these accidents deemed his speed and distractions as unavoidable and excused immediately. One accident involved an older pedestrian, who was out for his morning walk, and even wearing a yellow visibility vest. Montesi claimed he was distracted by his in-car laptop and was immediately excused. As with the Josiah situation, this victim also was ticketed.
We, in the Tampa Bay community, are sick of the corruption and the total lack of regard for our rights, and the attempts made to silence our grievances. Many of us went to attend a Hillsborough County Commissioners meeting and voiced our concerns and views. In return, we were laughed at and mocked by the corrupt county commissioners Ken Hagen, Stacy White, Lesley Miller Jr., Pat Kemp, Kimberly Overman, Sandra Murman, and Mariella Smith.
They vocalized that their only involvement with the county sheriff is solely in passing along the budget. In recent days, it has been shown that Ken Hagan is doing unlawful things as a county commissioner and he is still voting on issues that are a direct conflict of interest, the unlawful actions are concerning.
What do we expect? We expect corrupt Sheriff Chad Chronister and Hillsborough County District Attorney Andrew H. Warren to be charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. We expect more accountability than a mere 5-day suspension for Deputy Montesi. We expect a full and honest investigation into the death of Josiah Pinner. Much of this falls under the RICO act, as the conspiracy and contamination of evidence is clear to see. All officials involved have not only failed to honor their oaths of office but also failed to protect and serve.
Our peaceful protest deprives them of the three following things: CAPITAL, CONTROL, and CREDIBILITY
“We are legion. we do not forgive, we do not forget, the corrupt should expect us.”
The Outcome of the Investigation Into Josiah Pinner’s Death
Everything the family and the community feared came to pass. On April 2, 2019, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office announced that Deputy Philip Montesi would face nothing more than a five-day unpaid suspension and an order to complete an advanced driving course. One day earlier, then-State Attorney Andrew Warren announced that no criminal charges would be filed, claiming there was “insufficient evidence” to support a vehicular homicide charge. Warren leaned on the argument that, under Florida law, speed alone is not enough to establish vehicular homicide, even though investigators confirmed Montesi was driving 21 mph over the limit in a residential area during a non-emergency surveillance detail.
An internal affairs investigation did conclude that Montesi violated the agency’s own standard operating procedure by speeding when he was not responding to an emergency. Yet that finding carried no real consequence. Josiah’s father, Jesse Pinner, said he was shocked the deputy who killed his son would keep his job and his badge. “I’ll forever fight for my son. I’ll forever be his voice,” he said. His grandmother, Tammy Pinner, was blunt: a five-day suspension was not nearly enough, and the deputy should have been arrested, charged, tried, and sentenced. The family’s attorney, Edward Reyes, said at minimum Montesi should have been fired, asking how anyone could place a value on a child’s life.
The sheriff’s office also leaned on the medical examiner’s note that Josiah had THC in his system, an all-too-familiar tactic of shifting blame onto a dead child who could no longer speak for himself rather than reckoning with the deputy who was speeding through a dark residential corridor in an unmarked car. It was the same victim-blaming playbook the family and Anonymous had warned about from the very first marches.
The Pinner Family’s $200,000 Settlement With Hillsborough County
Because Montesi was on duty when he killed Josiah, Florida’s sovereign immunity rules meant he could not be sued as an individual. The family was forced to pursue the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office itself for negligence. A November 2021 invoice later obtained by 10 Tampa Bay revealed that the agency paid $200,000 into a trust account for the Estate of Josiah Pinner, and in March 2022 family attorney Edward Reyes confirmed the settlement had ended the civil litigation. Reyes said the family chose to settle simply to bring an end to court proceedings that had been agonizing for Josiah’s loved ones.
No amount of money was ever going to be justice. In the aftermath, the family paid nearly $18,000 of their own to relocate Josiah’s grave after it was repeatedly vandalized, an added cruelty heaped onto a grieving household. The smallness of the settlement stood in stark contrast to other cases against the same agency, including the $15 million a federal jury awarded the family of 14-year-old Andrew Joseph III, whom the sheriff’s office was found 90% responsible for killing after he was wrongfully ejected from the Florida State Fair in 2014.
Where the Officials Are Now
The officials Anonymous named have largely escaped accountability and, in several cases, were rewarded. Andrew Warren, the state attorney who refused to charge Montesi, was himself suspended from office by Governor Ron DeSantis in August 2022 and ultimately replaced by Suzy Lopez, a move tied to Florida’s political battles rather than the Pinner case.
Chad Chronister, the sheriff who publicly stood by the decision not to charge his deputy, was re-elected unopposed in 2024. On November 30, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump tapped Chronister to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The nomination collapsed within days. Facing backlash from conservatives over an unrelated 2020 pastor arrest, Chronister withdrew himself from consideration on December 3, 2024, and remains the sheriff of Hillsborough County. A man whose agency killed a 15-year-old and shielded the deputy responsible came within a hair of running a federal law enforcement agency.
Deputy Philip Montesi never faced a courtroom. His career continued. The road where Josiah died eventually received a new light and an additional crosswalk, small physical changes the family pushed for so that no other parent would lose a child the same way.
The Fight for Josiah Continues
Every January 11th, the day the community calls Josiah’s “angelversary,” his family and supporters gather near the site on North Florida Avenue to release balloons and lanterns at 6:25 p.m., the time he was struck. On the fifth anniversary in 2024, his mother, Joanne Rojas, stood once again among candles, photos, and “Justice for Josiah” signs. “I still hurt every day,” she said. “Every day we wake up, it’s to fight for Josiah.”
The family’s grief has hardened into resolve. Relatives have named their own children after Josiah to keep his memory alive, and the community continues to stand with other Tampa families who have lost loved ones to the same agency. The themes Anonymous raised at the outset have only been reinforced by the years that followed: a deputy who walked free, a system that protected its own, and a family left to fight on alone. The struggle to hold the powerful accountable for abuses of power did not end with a settlement check.
We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. The corrupt should expect us.
