Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced the suspension of Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, a decision that has been looming over the prosecutor since February, when the governor condemned her office following a deadly shooting spree in Pine Hills.
At a press conference, DeSantis said Worrell has been “clearly and fundamentally derelict” in her duty and said her policies justify her removal from office.
In his executive order, the governor said Worrell’s office had a pattern or practice to avoid minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes, drug trafficking offenses and allowed juveniles to avoid serious charges or incarceration altogether. He also accused her office of limiting charges for child pornography.
“Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which cases to bring and which not, but what this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion and has effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said, flanked by Attorney General Ashley Moody, and two Republican sheriffs whose department’s are outside Worrell’s circuit.
Andrew A. Bain, a judge in Orange County, has been appointed by the governor to take Worrell’s place.
“It does not accomplish anything to prosecute a case with no intent to stop crimes,” Bain said. “I will make this office accountable to the community we serve and ensure criminals who poison society, cause mayhem and murder are held accountable under the law.”
At a press conference two hours after her suspension was announced, Worrell said she will fight the decision in court. She will also continue her campaign for reelection.
“I am your duly elected state attorney and nothing done by a weak dictator can change that,” she said, adding that “under this tyranny, elected officials can be removed simply for political purposes and by the whim of the governor, and no matter how you feel about me, you should not be OK with that.”
Worrell further said crime is down in her circuit. She also said her suspension, which comes as DeSantis’ campaign for president has been falling behind former President Donald Trump in the race for the GOP nomination, was “a smoke screen for Ron DeSantis’ failing and disastrous presidential campaign.”
Republican voters are expressing less interest in “woke” issues that have been at the forefront of DeSantis’ campaign, recent polling shows, and want a nominee more focused on law and order.
“He needed to get back in the media in some positive way that would be red meat for his base and he will have accomplished that today,” she said, calling the governor the man “who single-handedly destroyed democracy in the state of Florida.”
Lingering conflict before suspension
In announcing Worrell’s suspension, DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody both cited the shooting in downtown Orlando that left two police officers injured last Friday as an example of the consequences of Worrell’s policies.
On Monday, two days before her suspension, Worrell rebuked accusations from police union officials who said her office should have done more to keep the man accused of shooting the officers behind bars when he was arrested earlier this year.
Worrell defends against police union’s ‘soft on crime’ criticism after shooting of Orlando officers
Worrell said the 28-year-old with a lengthy criminal history was out on bond at the discretion of the judge over the case. She noted that bond decisions are not made by prosecutors.
The police union’s criticisms were the latest of many public denouncements of Worrell by the heads of the largest law enforcement agencies in the Ninth Circuit, as well as GOP officials including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and DeSantis.
Scott in a post on social media Wednesday called Worrell’s suspension “the right move.”
“Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies are eroding our communities and families’ ability to feel safe,” he said. “… In February, I called on SA Monique Worrell to deliver the justice and accountability needed for the families affected by shootings in her district and said her suspension would be fully justified. She failed to do her job. Families deserve better.”
DeSantis’ general counsel Ryan Newman sent a letter to Worrell’s office days after the governor came out against her office demanding records from the Pine Hills shooter’s previous cases which, except for a misdemeanor marijuana offense, occurred before Worrell took office in January 2021.
The letter also demanded records of every instance in which a person arrested for a felony or in violation of probation was not charged by her office. Worrell complied with the request and immediately labeled it an effort to “build a case” to eventually justify her suspension.
She has said Orange County Sheriff John Mina and Osceola Sheriff Marcos López interviewed local law enforcement as well as spoke to her former employees to find out if she has policies of non-prosecution to aid the governor’s office. Both sheriffs have denied this.
However, at the press conference, Moody referenced letters received “from the sheriffs [in the Ninth Circuit] that detailed why [Worrell] is not acting in a way that is protecting the public.”
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd at the same press conference also said, “I’ve talked to the sheriffs of Osceola and Orange and I can tell you unequivocally they fear for the citizens of the community.”
DeSantis’ Public Safety Czar Larry Keefe testified in November that, while soliciting complaints from Florida sheriffs about their local prosecutors, he spoke with Mina, who had grievances about Worrell similar to the ones against Andrew Warren, a former Hillsborough County prosecutor suspended by DeSantis last year after he pledged not to prosecute those seeking or providing abortions or gender-affirming health care.
Warren’s case seeking to be reinstated was thrown out in June by the Florida Supreme Court, which found that Warren waited too long to file a petition.
In a statement Wednesday, Mina said he was not invited to attend the governor’s press conference announcing Worrell’s suspension. DeSantis was joined by two sheriffs from other circuits, both of them Republicans: Judd and Brevard County’s Wayne Ivey.
“Our focus at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office is to protect our community from violent criminals,” the statement said. “We rely on our partnership with the State Attorney’s Office to ensure those offenders are held to account and kept off our streets. We look forward to working with Judge Andrew Bain in his new role as State Attorney.”
In a statement, López welcomed Bain, adding “the safety of our community is and always will be my number one priority.”
“The criminal justice system only works when law enforcement investigates and arrests those who commit crime and the State Attorney’s Office prosecutes those offenders,” he said.
Bain at the news conference said he will aim to “restore our relationship with our fellow justice partners in law enforcement.”
DeSantis vendetta targets Worrell, sends shrapnel flying | Editorial
Officials, courts react
On Wednesday morning, a flyer was being passed around the courthouse in Orlando announcing Worrell’s suspension and the pause of court proceedings.
“There is no court this morning,” the flyer said. “Please go to your office or work station as you normally would and begin your normal work tasks.”
According to an email from Lisa Munyon, chief judge in the Ninth Judicial Circuit, all court proceedings were halted until 1:30 p.m.
State Rep. Anna Eskamani and Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried called the move by the governor politically motivated.
“This is absolutely disgusting — State Attorney Monique Worrell is a duly elected official and the only Black woman serving as State Attorney in Florida right now,” Eskamani said in a statement. “Her removal is a complete slap in the face to Orange and Osceola County residents and another example of Governor DeSantis eroding our local control and democracy. This politically motivated action by the Governor in a predominantly democratic part of the state should alarm everyone. DeSantis is extreme, unfit to serve, and must be held accountable.”
“Ron DeSantis has gone too far,” said Fried in a statement. “Monique Worrell is a devoted public servant — one who was elected overwhelmingly by her constituents. This political hit job threatens our democracy and undermines the will of the people.”
‘It’s shameful’: Monique Worrell responds to criticisms from DeSantis, Rick Scott
Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, whose district includes part of Orange County, said the move was an offensive “powerplay” by DeSantis.
“This is not a governor doing his due diligence,” she said. “This is a bully over asserting himself in the decisions that voters have already made.”
At a virtual press conference Wednesday afternoon, Davis – together with fellow Democratic Reps. Michele Payner, Ashley Gantt and Angela Nixon – called for the immediate reinstatement of Worrell, and issued a call to action for people to get engaged to confront what Davis called “a direct attack on democracy.”
Gantt said DeSantis “is blatantly ignoring the voices of Orange County and Osceola County voters… democracy is literally being eroded right now.”
The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in a statement accused DeSantis of weaponizing government.
“Gov. DeSantis is once again exceeding his authority,” said the organization’s president, Luke Newman. “He has disregarded the will of the people in an effort to make a personal political splash. Each of the 20 elected state attorneys in Florida have wide discretion in choosing which cases to prosecute.”
Warren, the former Hillsborough County prosecutor, said Worrell’s suspension was “[a]nother illegal and unconstitutional attack on democracy by a small, scared man who is desperate to save his political career.”
Warren in a statement added that DeSantis “wants to be a bully, but he’s actually a coward who has repeatedly violated the rule of law and the will of the voters to cover up his own weakness.”
Suzy Lopez, the woman appointed by DeSantis to take over Warren’s position as state attorney in Hillsborough County, voiced her support for the governor’s second suspension of an elected prosecutor.
“[DeSantis’] decisive action today is the result of another prosecutor who wants to create laws instead of enforcing them,” she wrote on social media. “I hope the changes in the 9th circuit will result in the same level of success we have had at restoring the voice of crime victims in our courtrooms.”
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a Democrat and former sheriff, said he lacked the information to “defend the actions of the state attorney or the inactions of the state attorney,” while adding that “the governor apparently has his reasons.”
“What I’ve said before is that there has to be a high bar to remove an elected official from office and I don’t know what all the reasons were there,” he said.
Roger Weeden, a longtime defense attorney in Central Florida, called Worrell’s suspension “an affront to democracy and the citizens of Orange and Osceola County, who elected her with full awareness of her progressive platform.”
Families tell DeSantis, Scott not to make Orlando shooting victims ‘political pawns’
Mark NeJame, a local defense attorney who is representing the families of those killed in the Pine Hills shooting spree, said “what the governor has done is outrageous.”
NeJame said he initially supported another candidate in the 2020 election for state attorney, but he has since “come to respect your integrity and character greatly.”
“The people of Central Florida, Orange and Osceola County, elected her, and if they are unhappy with her, then that’s why we go to the polls and that’s why we have ballots,” he said. “For the governor to exceed his authority for political opportunism is disgusting and dangerous.”
Judge Bain takes over
As a county judge, Bain handles civil disputes involving $30,000 or less. He was appointed to the position by DeSantis in 2020. Before that Bain, 37, worked as a prosecutor for about seven years in the Orange-Osceola circuit, handling cases involving misdemeanors, felonies and juvenile delinquencies.
Speaking alongside the governor Wednesday morning in Tallahassee, Bain cited his prior experience working at the agency alongside longtime homicide prosecutor Pam Davis and former state attorney, now Circuit Judge Jeff Ashton as having shaped his philosophy.
He called state attorney “a very simple job.”
“We are here to prosecute crimes and to hold people accountable. My plan is to bring back that simple understanding, get back to the basics of what we’re here to do,” he said.
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During his time overseeing criminal cases in county court, Bain ranked last among Orange County criminal judges in a judicial qualification poll by local defense attorneys, with respondents describing him as “state-leaning” or prosecution-biased.
During a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters, Bain confirmed his membership in the Federalist Society, a powerful conservative legal organization. DeSantis has often selected the group’s members when making appointments, including to Florida’s Supreme Court.
“I am a member simply for this reason: My grandmother was a sharecropper, so when she came time to harvest her harvest in her family and the landowner shorted her, she had no legal recourse because the judges made the laws,” he said. “And that’s purely unfair. And that stuff’s been going on forever.”
The society says it advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, rather than for judges to interpret the law.
“It’s unjust that somebody would not know what the law is before they showed up in court,” he said. “That seems to be an unfair process that you can’t, we cannot sustain in our society.”
The new chief assistant state attorney will be Ryan Williams, according to a source familiar with the situation. Williams ran against Worrell in 2020. He received 9,157 votes in the Democratic primary, the least of any of the four contenders.
Williams previously worked at the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office, including under Worrell’s predecessor, Aramis Ayala. But Williams left the office for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, where he prosecuted murder cases that Scott, as governor, reassigned from Ayala’s office due to her opposition to pursuing the death penalty.
Ryan Gillespie and Mark Skoneki of the Sentinel staff contributed.
ccann@orlandosentinel.com; jeweiner@orlandosentinel.com
Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed a statement released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The statement was from Sheriff John Mina.