Suspended Florida prosecutor tells state Supreme Court that DeSantis exceeded his authority
TALAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis exceeded his authority when he removed a Democratic prosecutor from her elected office after a teenager fatally shot a girl and a news reporter, her attorney told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The state constitution only allows for the suspension of an elected official for flagrant misconduct, and Monique Worrell was simply doing her job as she sees fit β nothing illegal or negligent β when DeSantis suspended her, said her attorney, Laura Ferguson.
βIt is the voters, not the governor, to whom Ms. Worrell is accountable,β Ferguson said.
But an attorney for DeSantis said Worrell's history of not prosecuting crimes committed by minors and not seeking mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes endangers the public in her central Florida district. Statistics show that Orlando and the surrounding area grossly underperformed compared to other prosecuting districts in the state, attorney Jeffrey DeSousa said.
If “it turned out that Ms. Worrell was not only very effective at prosecuting crime, and the data proves that in my view…then I would think that would be sufficient. Now the practice and policy make that even stronger,” DeSousa said. .
DeSantis' office began investigating Worrell earlier this year after 19-year-old Keith Moses was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons, Nathacha Augustin and 9-year-old T'yonna Major. The girl's mother and Spectrum News 13 photographer Jesse Walden were also shot.
Shortly after the shooting, DeSantis' general counsel said in a letter to Worrell that she had previously failed to hold Moses accountable for crimes he allegedly committed before the death. The letter noted that Moses was arrested for cannabis possession during a traffic stop in November 2021. According to a police report, an officer witnessed a gun being thrown out of the car window when stopped. The three occupants had ski masks and had past firearms charges, including Moses, who had a juvenile conviction.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office deputy charged Moses with a drug offense, not a firearms offense. The case was dismissed the following month after prosecutors concluded it was not appropriate to prosecute.
DeSantis is one of a number of Republicans in various jurisdictions across the US who have questioned decisions by Democratic prosecutors.
DeSantis last year fired State's Attorney Andrew Warren, a twice-elected Democrat in Tampa, after he vowed not to pursue criminal charges against seekers or providers of abortion or gender transition treatments. He also had a policy of not pressing charges against people for certain low-level crimes.