Republican governor Ron DeSantis suspended Monique H. Worrell, an Orlando state attorney and Democrat this Wednesday after alleging her leniency towards violent criminals. He accused her of incompetence and neglect of duty, charges her office vehemently denies.
Charges against the state attorney
“Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which cases to bring and which not, but what this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion and has effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida,” said Ron.
On Wednesday, in Tallahassee, he said that Monique's office had avoided seeking mandatory minimum sentences for gun and drug trafficking crimes, allowed juveniles to avoid serious charges or incarceration, avoided seeking more serious sentences when they were available, limited charges for child pornography, and inappropriately allowed some offenders to avoid having a criminal conviction on their records.
Who is the suspended state attorney, Monique H. Worrell?
Monique H. Worrell was the elected state attorney of Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, including Orange and Osceola counties.
Interestingly, anticipating that she might be suspended, in March Monique released data showing that her prosecution rate was similar to that of her predecessors. In an interview at the time, she also mentioned the dangers of a governor misusing his executive power to remove officials who belong to the opposite political party.
{{/usCountry}}Interestingly, anticipating that she might be suspended, in March Monique released data showing that her prosecution rate was similar to that of her predecessors. In an interview at the time, she also mentioned the dangers of a governor misusing his executive power to remove officials who belong to the opposite political party.
{{/usCountry}}“This could flip any day — we could get a Democratic governor who then decides to go around suspending all Republican prosecutors because we are not in alignment in ideology,” she said. “It has to stop. This is a dictatorship. This is not a democracy.”
Elected in 2020, she was known to be in the sights of the governor. Earlier this year, he criticised her office and his general counsel sent her a letter seeking documents of previous arrests.
Suspending Democrats is not new for the Republican governor
It is the second time the Republican governor running for President has suspended an elected state attorney.
In August 2022, he removed Andrew H. Warren, a top prosecutor in Tampa, for signing a statement along with other 90 prosecutors, vowing not to prosecute people who seek or provide abortions.
To be noticed is the fact that both Andrew and Monique are Democrats and are supported by the liberal billionaire investor George Soros.
Ron uses derisive mentions of George's name and his removal of Andrew to cheers as he campaigns for President.
Many who are aware of the suspension, are calling Ron ‘a Nazi’ and comparing his governance to an example of ‘classic authoritarianism.’ People aware of the politics are taking his decisions as they are and not what he and his office are framing them to be.