ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell on Friday held a news conference in response to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s criticisms of her work.
Prior to Worrell’s news conference — which was originally focused on addressing the increase in road-rage cases — Uthmeier spoke in Orange County to call on Worrell to bring forth charges in a case where they were dropped against a man caught “masturbating while facing a bunch of kids playing in a public splash pad.”
During the news conference, Worrell responded to Uthmeier’s claims that she is failing to do her job by showing case notes, which included a conversation between the attorney assigned to the case and a child’s father. He said the child didn’t see anything and was not aware of what was happening.
[WATCH BELOW: Florida attorney general criticizes Worrell’s prosecution in deadly road-rage shooting]
Based on the statute, prosecutors could not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Worrell said the victim’s father was upset but understood the reasoning.
“I am standing before you today telling you that I trust the word of the attorney who was assigned to this case when he said, although those actions were wrong, he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were illegal, and that is the only standard by which we go forward in prosecution,” she said.
Worrell also responded to Uthmeier’s claim that she dropped a child-pornography case, however, she said it was transferred out of her office and is being handled by the statewide prosecutor.
Worrell said Uthmeier “can take all the shots that he wants” when accusing her of her work.
“I’ve been an attorney for 25 years and I have practiced criminal law for that entire time and I recognize that while I may not know everything that there is to know, I absolutely understand the system, how it works and I can quickly read notes and get up to speed on what happened on something. And if he can’t do that, then he really should be quiet because his ignorance is loud,” she said.
[WATCH BELOW: Florida offers to help Worrell prosecute cases]
Worrell was suspended in 2023 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who made the announcement after months of war of words with Worrell, sparked by the Pine Hills shooting in February that killed three people. In her place, DeSantis appointed Andrew Bain. In Bain’s administration, Worrell said the number of non-arrest cases went up. She returned to office after defeating Bain in the November election.
Friday was not the first time Uthmeier held a news conference aimed at Worrell. Earlier this month, he urged her to withdraw the prosecution against a woman charged with murder in a deadly road-rage incident.
Then, back in April, Uthmeier and Worrell had dueling news conferences to address her office’s backlog of unprosecuted cases. Uthmeier criticized Worrell’s policy that limits the types of non-arrest cases her office would accept from law enforcement agencies, offering to lend several prosecutors from his own office to help.
During an update last month, Worrell said her office made progress with the non-arrest backlog from 12,670 in April to 10,687 as of late August. Worrell also said she wants to start a five-year plan to push things in the right direction, with her office having nearly 5,800 open cases at the time and only 12 felony attorneys.