Kent Hovind Arrested for Assault, Battery, and Burglary (2002)
Arrested in August 2002 in an incident involving a CSE secretary. Charges were dropped in December 2002. Same year he was also cited for a misdemeanor zoning violation for operating Dinosaur Adventure Land without proper county permits.
The Arrest
In August 2002, Kent Hovind was arrested in Escambia County, Florida, on charges of assault, battery, and burglary. The incident involved a secretary at Creation Science Evangelism (CSE), Hovind’s ministry organization based in Pensacola, Florida.
The charges were ultimately dropped in December 2002, and no conviction resulted from the case.
Zoning Violation
In the same year, Hovind was cited for a misdemeanor zoning violation related to the operation of Dinosaur Adventure Land, his creationist theme park in Pensacola. The park was operating without proper county building permits, in defiance of local zoning requirements.
Hovind had argued that as a ministry, Dinosaur Adventure Land was exempt from building permits — a claim the county rejected. This pattern of claiming religious exemption from civil law would later feature prominently in his federal tax fraud case.
Context
These 2002 incidents represent the earliest documented legal troubles for Hovind, predating his 2006 federal indictment by four years. The assault arrest, while not resulting in a conviction, established a pattern of confrontational behavior. The zoning violation demonstrated Hovind’s long-running refusal to comply with government regulations — a defiance he framed as religious liberty but which courts consistently rejected as legal obligation avoidance.