Hopefuls call for police accountability

Democrats at forum also seek reducing inmates

Three Democratic candidates seeking to replace Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala promised at a Thursday forum to hold law enforcement accountable for misconduct as nationwide outrage continues over George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died pleading for help while a police officer kneeled on his neck.

Ryan Williams, Monique Worrell and Deborah Barra agreed there should be “zero tolerance” for police wrongdoing and called for reforms to reduce incarceration rates during an online debate hosted by Freedom 4 Florida, a coalition of progressive criminal justice reform advocates that includes the Dream Defenders, LatinoJustice and Organize Florida. The forum started with a moment of silence for Floyd.

“Law enforcement needs to know the elected state attorney is really closely looking at their behavior,” Williams said.

Ayala is not running for a second term because of her continuing opposition to the death penalty. All the candidates at the debate said that while they didn’t like capital punishment, they would follow the law.

The forum only included three of the four Democrats competing in the race: Worrell, Ayala’s former Conviction Integrity Unit director; Barra, Ayala’s second-incommand and chief assistant state attorney for the judicial circuit; and Williams, who left Ayala’s office in 2017 and currently handles death penalty cases reassigned from Ayala’s office to Ocala-based State Attorney Brad King.

The fourth Democrat, former Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry Jr., did not appear at the debate. Orlando attorney Jose Torroella, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate, was also not at the forum.

No Republican candidates qualified for the race.

The candidates at the forum mostly agreed on criminal justice reform policies they would pursue if elected state attorney, such as reducing the number of juveniles prosecuted in adult court, also known as “direct file.”

“You can’t just stop because the juvenile justice system is broken,” Barra said, pointing to the limited penalty options in juvenile court, even for violent offenders. “Until we can solve the problems with juvenile justice we have to keep direct file on the table, but it would be very limited.”

The Democrats said they wanted to increase the office’s use of civil citations for children instead of arresting them for misdemeanors and expand the office’s diversion programs to make them more accessible to defendants. The attorneys supported the use of body cameras and a Brady list, used to identify local cops considered untrustworthy to testify, as ways to curb police misbehavior.

While both Barra and Williams said they had taken officers to trial for misconduct, Worrell said during her time in Ayala’s office she had seen some cops who should have been prosecuted but were not.

“Police brutality is not OK,” she said. “It must be dealt with severely.”

The candidates agreed the cash bail system that keeps poor people in jail should be reformed but differed in their approaches. Williams called for local lawmakers and counties to help find funding for a revamped system like New

Jersey, while Barra said including judges in efforts to improve the system is crucial. “Cash bail is another form of criminalizing poverty,” Worrell said. “It frees those who have and cages those who have not.”

The forum was moderated by LatinoJustice’s David Ayala, the current state attorney’s husband.

Freedom 4 Florida has previously said it would pressure state attorneys, sheriffs and judges running for election in 2020 to support policies that would reduce Florida’s incarcerated population and stop the spread of COVID-19 in jails and prisons.