Florida Supreme Court upholds DeSantis suspension of Democratic state attorney
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Supreme Court of Florida upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of former State Attorney Monique Worrell Thursday.
DeSantis suspended her in 2023, citing failure to prosecute criminals in the Ninth Judicial Circuit.
Worrell legally challenged the governor’s executive order, saying that the governor’s arguments were vague, and also that DeSantis’ allegations against her simply cover “lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” the court said.
The decision wrote that many of DeSantis’ arguments in the order were indeed centered around specific facts of her time in office, warranting grounds for suspension.
“These include citations to prison admission data from the ninth judicial circuit; briefing reports from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice; and documents illustrating the alleged harms that the governor argues constitute neglect of duty and incompetence,” the decision read.
The governor’s office explained that the main factors that played into the suspension included Worrell avoiding minimum mandatory sentencing for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses, limiting charges for child pornography and ignoring “valid and applicable” sentencing enhancements.
“We had a duty to act – to protect the public from this dereliction of duty,” DeSantis said when the order was executed in August 2023.
“Monique Worrell’s administration of criminal justice in the ninth circuit has been clearly and fundamentally derelict, so as to constitute both neglect of duty and incompetence,” he said.
Attorney General Ashley Moody also criticized Worrell, arguing she was “abdicating her responsibility” as the circuit’s top prosecutor and that in-turn, undermining the state’s law and legal system.
“Ms. Worrell, the state attorney in the ninth circuit has dismissed more charges of defense than any other state attorney in the state of Florida during the same period,” she said.
“From January 2021 through June of 2022, the latest publicly available data on the state court administrator’s website, Ms. Worrell dismissed or did not prosecute criminal cases against 16,236 adult defendants,” she added.
The governor replaced Worrell with Andrew Bain, a judge who served on the Orange County Bench of the ninth Judicial Circuit.
Bain is running for election to keep his seat. Worrell is also running to re-take her seat.
