Orlando-based State Attorney Monique Worrell filed a complaint against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) after he moved to suspend her last month over “neglect of duty and incompetence” and accused her of failing to prosecute cases properly.
Worrell asked the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday to declare the order invalid over a lack of evidence provided to support DeSantis’s allegations.
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“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 46-page petition by Worrell’s attorney states, alluding to another state attorney DeSantis suspended in 2022.
The Democrat was elected in 2020 as state attorney in the 9th Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties and received backlash from being allegedly too soft on crime. Her lawyers argued there are no facts to prove the state attorney’s policies resulted in lower incarceration rates.
“Such data, even if accurate, reflects a host of factors unrelated to the practices or policies of the state attorney and thus cannot be relied on to demonstrate that Ms. Worrell has practices or policies that result in lower incarceration rates,” the court filing reads. “Moreover, because there is no duty for a state attorney to maximize incarceration rates, lower than average incarceration rates are no evidence of neglect of duty or incompetence.”
Attorneys and lawmakers at the Orange County Courthouse on Tuesday called for Worrell’s reinstatement, citing DeSantis’s vague allegations and calling the order unconstitutional.
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When announcing Worrell’s suspension in a 15-page executive order, DeSantis said there was a “duty to act to protect the public from this dereliction of duty.” Worrell’s suspension comes over a year after DeSantis ousted Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, a Democrat, on similar grounds after accusing him of neglect of duty. As of August, Warren is still fighting in court after he appealed DeSantis’s decision.
The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment.
