• Three men face misdemeanor charges after being accused of disrupting a Muslim prayer event at the University of South Florida.
• Charges include disturbing a religious assembly and disorderly conduct, both first-degree misdemeanors.
• Prosecutors declined to file hate crime charges, drawing questions from the community.

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Three men have been formally charged with misdemeanor offenses after prosecutors say they disrupted and harassed a group of students and community members during an Islamic prayer gathering in a University of South Florida parking garage.

Richard Penkoski, Christopher Svochak and Ricardo Yepez each face one count of disturbing a religious assembly and one count of disorderly conduct, both first-degree misdemeanors, the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday. 

The charges stem from an incident on the morning of Nov. 18, 2025, in the Collins Boulevard parking garage on the USF Tampa campus. According to the State Attorney’s Office, a group of 11 people — including members of the university’s Muslim Student Association — had gathered for prayer when the three defendants approached and repeatedly interrupted the assembly.

Prosecutors said the men harassed and confronted the group, forcing the participants to end their gathering early. They cite videos, including those posted on social media by the defendants, as well as victim statements, to state that the students were targeted specifically because they were engaged in religious worship.

The case reached the State Attorney’s Office through a direct referral from law enforcement, and no arrests were made at the scene, prosecutors said. 

The charge of disturbing a religious assembly is filed under Florida Statute 871.01, which prohibits willfully interrupting or disturbing any assembly of people gathered for the worship of God.

In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office acknowledged questions “from some community members about why prosecutors did not pursue a hate crime enhancement” under Florida law. 

“While one’s words may be offensive, the criminal justice system punishes actions, not words alone,” the spokesperson said. “Both the Florida Constitution and United States Constitution protect offensive viewpoints as much as our freedom to practice our religion.”

Prosecutors, however, reiterated their commitment to protecting religious freedom.

“Our office will defend every person’s right to worship freely, peacefully, and without fear,” the spokesperson added. “No one should have to choose between practicing their faith and feeling safe.”

Penkoski told The Christian Post that he disagrees with the state attorney’s office that the event he and his associates disrupted in November was a religious gathering.

“Florida now thinks that getting together and praying is a religious assembly,” he told CP via email Thursday. “I wonder if they're going to hold that same standard when a group of Christians are praying in front of abortion clinics.”

He also argued that “eating bacon in front of Muslims and making them cry over it” does not meet the standard of disorderly conduct, and took exception with prosecutors’ description of the incident as ongoing, saying the group has “admitted, repeatedly, that they finished the prayer” before the incident occurred.

“How can you disrupt something that was never disrupted and finished?” Penkoski said. “[Florida] has repeatedly dismissed cases when events finish without disruption when someone makes the claim of disruption of a religious assembly or event.”

The three men are scheduled for arraignment in the coming weeks.

One of the defendants, Svochak, went viral for disrupting another Islamic prayer event also in November in Murphy, Texas, where a group of Muslim teens prayed outside a Yemeni coffee shop just down the street from the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), a mosque that has itself been at the center of controversy. 

While CAIR-Texas, the state's chapter of the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, called for Svochak to be prosecuted for the incident, no charges were filed in that incident.

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/street-evangelists-charged-with-misdemeanors-in-florida.html