DeSantis targets Worrell, sends shrapnel flying
Removing a duly elected public official is supposed to be a last-ditch option, one to be undertaken only in the most dire of circumstances. Usually, in Florida, it comes on the heels of criminal charges or proven, grave misconduct.
Lately, however, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been acting more like he’s planning a surprise birthday party — with Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell cast in the role of pinata.
He’s smirked and teased about his intentions to remove her multiple times — showing blatant disrespect toward Orange and Osceola voters who elected Worrell to occupy this critical office in 2020, and a callous lack of concern for the havoc he’s creating with his attempts to weaponize local law enforcement against her. At a recent press conference in Brevard County, DeSantis seemed to be impatiently waiting to hear her name in questions from reporters. He had a flippant answer ready — questioning why Worrell kept “bringing (the potential for her removal) up.”
“Why is she doing that? Is she doing something that deserves removal? I don’t know,” he said in a playful tone.
Worrell has been hitting back because DeSantis’ office, and his allies, have been so blatant about trolling for ammunition. Last week, Worrell told the Sentinel’s Christopher Cann that an Orange County Republican official had contacted one of Worrell’s employees and demanded two examples where “State Attorney Worrell had failed to prosecute cases to get justice for victims of human trafficking crimes.” It’s one of a series of requests that have been rolling into her office, says Keisha Mulfort, Worrell’s chief of staff.
It’s not hard to dismiss that “are you still beating your dog” kind of nonsense. It was even easier to deflect DeSantis’ original blasts at Worrell, which were strictly amateur hour. Right after a TV journalist, a 9-year-old girl and a 38-year-old woman were killed over the course of several hours in Pine Hills, DeSantis hustled to blame Worrell for not locking up the person charged with their murders. Records quickly established that Keith Moses would never have been a likely — perhaps not even a possible — candidate for a longterm jail or prison sentence, and family members of two of the victims pleaded against the appropriation of their grief for political purposes.
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That didn’t stop DeSantis from bleating at every opportunity about “activist prosecutors” whom he claims don’t work with police and look for reasons to let dangerous criminals go. It’s the same line of attack he used when he suspended Hillsborough-based State Attorney Andrew Warren — an action a federal judge slammed but said he could not reverse.
Discord threatens public safety, cause of justice
Worrell doesn’t need us to defend her. She’s been outspoken about her expectation that DeSantis is coming for her — and that this pinata is hitting back. “This is absolute terrorist behavior,” she said Wednesday. She describes the toll it’s taking on the prosecutors in her office: “Everybody is afraid of being the prosecutor who signs the plea deal that results in my removal,” she says.
That kind of collateral damage is what we’re most concerned about. DeSantis’ actions may be targeted toward his personal vendetta against Worrell, but he could be seriously undermining the process of justice in Orange and Osceola counties. In addition to the impact on the 140-plus prosecutors who serve this circuit, he’s breaking down the carefully balanced relationship between Worrell’s office and local law enforcement.
From the outside, many observers expect these relationships to be cordial. In reality, prosecutors — who must meet a far higher standard of proof than the probable cause police need for arrest — often anger law enforcement agencies by declining to prosecute cases because they believe they don’t have enough evidence to secure a conviction, or because they have concerns about the way police handled a case.
Sometimes the police concerns are justified and dangerous criminals go free despite clear warning signs of violent behavior. On the other side of the coin, however, are jurisdictions where prosecutors and police are too tightly aligned, pushing forward in cases regardless of evidence that doesn’t add up. That’s how innocent people end up behind bars.
Striking the right balance requires trust and communication. The governor is hammering away at that with all his might. As a former prosecutor himself, DeSantis has to know that he’s undermining public safety and the cause of justice in Orange and Osceola counties.
Fight to rebuild critical alliances among agencies
That’s already started: Both Worrell and Orange County Sheriff John Mina have talked about the increasing tension between their respective agencies. Recently, she also received a letter from Carl A. Metzger, chief of the UCF police department and president of the Orange-Osceola Police Chiefs Association. It requests statistics that seemingly include data points from thousands of cases.
We ask this of Mina, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez and the area’s police chiefs: Don’t let DeSantis turn you into blunt instruments in his personal vendetta. Keep lines of communication open with Worrell’s office. Work toward your shared priorities, such as better ways to heal violence-torn communities, stop human trafficking and fight the deadly scourge of drugs like fentanyl.
Of course, there’s also the fundamental disrespect DeSantis shows to voters, every time he removes public officials on a whim, or because they dare to disagree with him.
Local voters knew Worrell was a reformminded prosecutor when they chose her as their next state attorney. She’s pushing ideas that make a lot of sense — including alternative ways to close less-serious drug offenses that don’t leave someone with a lifelong stigma of a criminal record, and emphasis on factors that contribute to higher crime rates such as mental illness and easy access to firearms. Needless to say, none of those initiatives are moving forward right now.
When the fog of DeSantis-style war clears, Florida voters need better curbs on a governor’s power to yank other officials from office.
This is no child’s game that will scatter candy and prizes. With every capricious, arbitrary removal of a duly elected public official, DeSantis swings a wrecking ball — with no concern for the destruction he leaves behind. That’s a clear abuse of his constitutional power, and shameful conduct from someone who seems more bent on amassing power than on the needs and priorities of the state he was elected to serve.