Warning about Governor Ron DeSantis and Mafia vengeance against Monique Worrell

Echo editorial opinion published in the Orlando Sentinel newspaper:

Time and again, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis has gotten away with actions that few other governors would even consider. Among them: Vendettas against other elected officials that he pursues with the lethal enmity of a Mafia don.

"Weak, small and reckless: how Ron DeSantis, Republican Napoleon, met his Waterloo," Sydney Blumenthal in The Guardian.

When he set his sights on 9th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell, he’d already ejected one duly elected prosecutor — Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren —from office. 

Monique Worrell defeated Jose Torroella in the general election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney on November 3, 2020.

It was a move that a federal judge decried as blatantly illegal (but said he was powerless to stop).

The governor’s lengthy justification of Worrell’s suspension was tailored to address many of the issues U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle listed in that fiery, despairing order and even the challenge Warren filed at the Florida Supreme Court level.

But now Worrell has fired back with a lawsuit that exposes the many factual inconsistencies in the governor’s suspension order. 

In fact, Worrell takes devastating aim at the central assumptions DeSantis uses to buttress his wobbly argument. And, she elbows aside the weak reasoning the Florida Supreme Court used as it shuffled Warren’s complaint aside.

When DeSantis first suspended Worrell, we said she was well-capable of defending herself. She’s proven that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

A prosecutor’s job: DeSantis’ order reels off a procession of statistics that he uses to accuse her of “neglect of duty” and “incompetence,” including conviction rates for homicides, sexual batteries and other serious violent crimes. In each of those categories, there are other circuits where prosecutors post lower rates, Worrell said in a Thursday press conference. 

Meanwhile, DeSantis failed to cite specific policies Worrell enacted, or how they relate to those conviction rates.

That’s because there are none, she says. Her office evaluated each case on its own merits. But the parade of statistics is irrelevant, because Worrell’s prime duty as a prosecutor is not to maximize convictions. It’s to seek a just outcome in every case her office handles —

....one that considers the strength of the evidence in each case (❗), the potential that an accused person’s rights have been violated and other factors.

That’s where her argument hits hardest. In blasting her decisions, DeSantis is taking aim at a core component of a state attorney’s job: A concept known as “prosecutorial discretion.”

This requires a basic review of arrests that require prosecution, including all felonies and some misdemeanors. Prosecutors have the sole power to determine which charges should be formally pursued. They are also responsible for evaluating the strength of the evidence behind each case, because while police only have to establish probable cause to arrest someone, the prosecutor will eventually have to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. This review is critical to the American system of justice, because while prosecutors often work closely with law enforcement, their discretion allows them to be a critical backstop against abuse of police power.

That sets up an inevitable conflict. It’s not uncommon for police agencies to disagree with prosecutors’ decisions. DeSantis has adroitly exploited that, setting local law-enforcement leaders against both of the suspended prosecutors. From what we can see, that tactic is working. But DeSantis operatives have been caught lying before, and it would not surprise us to learn that strategic falsehood has played a significant role in those apparently fractured alliances.

My way or the highway:  The bottom line is this: Voters who elected Worrell to head the Circuit 9 prosecutor’s office (which includes Orange and Osceola counties) knew she favored a model of prosecuting that puts a heavy emphasis on rehabilitation and violence prevention, with alternatives such as diversion for less-serious offenders and careful consideration of decisions to move juvenile offenders into adult court. With experience as the former head of the Ninth Circuit’s Conviction Integrity Unit, Worrell came into office understanding the factors that could lead to the worst outcomes of all — cases where an innocent person ends up in prison for a crime they did not commit.

“As state attorney, I promised to seek justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly — and that is exactly what I have and will continue to do,” she says.

Voters who were paying attention knew all this, and made it overwhelmingly clear that they wanted Worrell in office — she won election with more than 66% of votes cast. DeSantis may disagree with her style of prosecution. In fact, he seems to take issue with the idea that she should exercise any discretion at all. But Worrell doesn’t work for him, and her failure to adopt his prosecutorial philosophy doesn’t meet the legal requirement for removing her from office.

In essence, DeSantis suspended Worrell, just for doing her job. That’s such a ridiculous over-reach that the most biased observers should be able to see it.

It’s ‘governor,’ not ’emperor’: DeSantis seems increasingly convinced that his wishes and whims should govern each decision that every elected official in Florida makes — starting with the Florida Legislature.

That imperious arrogance has also breached the revered independence of Florida’s judicial branch.




Which is why Worrell’s complaint might be doomed anyway. The state Supreme Court is packed: Five of the seven justices are DeSantis nominees, most of whom were elevated to the court despite a glaring lack of experience. Of the remaining two, one (Charles Canady) has proven to be one of the governor’s staunchest allies. While DeSantis routinely loses cases at the federal level, the state court has been far more indulgent of his whims.

In this case, however, the DeSantis's abuse is so egregious, so obvious that even his hand-picked acolytes will (may) have trouble denying it. Even if they do, Worrell’s ultimate fate is in the hands of voters. She’s already filed for re-election.

For now, however, she’s offered an excellent illumination of just how far DeSantis is willing to go. In that, she retains the status she always claimed: That of public servant, defending the rights of Ninth Circuit residents just as capably as she defends herself.

There are words for times like these, words crafted by one of this nation’s most revered poets.

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Worrell may be out, for now. But she is not down. This time, finally, DeSantis may have picked the wrong fight.

Above excerpt is from the poem “And Still I Rise,” copyright 1973,by Maya Angelou.