ORLANDO, Fla. – The Florida Supreme Court Thursday upheld the suspension of Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell, ruling that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision was reasonable based on his allegations.
Six of the justices agreed while the seventh dissented.
Worrell, elected as state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit in 2020, was suspended last year for neglect of duty and incompetence. DeSantis claimed she avoided issuing mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses and said she followed practices that allowed juvenile offenders to avoid jail time, adding that in some cases those policies led to worse crimes.
In seeking reinstatement by the Florida Supreme Court, Worrell’s attorneys said DeSantis’ suspension was an “arbitrary, unsubstantiated exercise of the suspension power,” that she never had specific policies to avoid mandatory minimum sentences and that she followed state practices regarding juvenile offenders.
“Instead, the order vaguely refers to Ms. Worrell’s ‘practices and policies’ throughout but notably fails to identify a single, specific policy or practice, making the order distinguishable from recent cases involving other Florida state attorneys, where the executive orders identified specific policies alleged to constitute a neglect of duty,” the complaint read, referring to DeSantis’ suspension of Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022.
The state high court justices, however, disagreed.
“We cannot agree with Worrell that the allegations in the Executive Order are impermissibly vague, nor that they address conduct that falls within the lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” the opinion read.
The court said the Florida Constitution prohibited the justices from “examining or determining the sufficiency of the evidence supporting those facts.”
Worrell released the following statement regarding Thursday’s ruling:
“Today’s opinion is disappointing but not a surprise. The governor appointed most of the justices on Florida’s Supreme Court. They took the easy way out by refusing to examine whether the governor’s claims had any factual basis. They do not, and the Court today, with the exception of the dissenting justice, rubber-stamped a political stunt.
“There is no evidence that citizens in the Ninth Circuit have experienced a higher rate of violent crime based on my administration’s “practices or policies,” and the Executive Order is notably silent on violent crime statistics. Those statistics show that violent crime rates are lower in the Ninth Circuit during my tenure than they have been over the past ten years. We treated people equitably and fairly and worked to hold law enforcement accountable—which the governor does not like. I still believe in the right of voters to choose their State Attorney, even if Florida’s politics currently do not respect this principle. When I am reelected, I will continue putting public safety and accountability above politics. I wish the governor would do the same.”
Monique Worrell, suspended state attorney
DeSantis appointed Andrew Bain to serve out her term as state attorney.
Worrell is running to be re-elected to the post against Bain, as well as the Republican winner of the state attorney primary in August.
Florida Supreme Court opinion by Christie Zizo on Scribd
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