Florida Supreme Court upholds suspension of Monique Worrell

Left: Suspended Orange-Osceola District Attorney Monique Worrell (D). Right: Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (Photo by Paul Hennessy / SOPA Images/Sipa USA).

The Florida Supreme Court has refused to reinstate an elected Democratic prosecutor who was suspended by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for “incompetence.”

Monique Worrell is the elected district attorney for Orange-Osceola County in Florida. DeSantis suspended Worrell by executive order in August 2023 for alleged “dereliction of duty” and “incompetence.”

In his order, the governor accused Worrell of abusing her powers as prosecutor by systematically failing to enforce minimum sentences required by Florida law and failing to fully prosecute repeat offenders. DeSantis’ order prohibited Worrell from performing any acts, duties, or functions of public office and suspended her indefinitely without pay.

DeSantis then appointed Andrew Bain, a former Orange County judge and member of the conservative Federalist Society, to replace Worrell on an entire suspension.

Worrell, a former public defender and professor at the University of Florida, sued DeSantis shortly after her suspension to get her job back, claiming her suspension was invalid because DeSantis could not prove any actual wrongdoing on her part.

Worrell argued in her lawsuit that she could not be blamed for the case processing times and accused DeSantis of abusing his suspension power as a kind of “take-my-word license” to suspend anyone with whom he has political differences.

Worrell said she handled her cases in accordance with ethical rules and exercised her discretion as a prosecutor in a way that conserved the prison’s scarce resources.

“The duty of a prosecutor is not to maximize incarceration rates at all costs,” Worrell argued in her complaint.

In its ruling Thursday, Florida’s highest court sided with DeSantis, saying that “prosecutor discretion does not constitute a complete defense to allegations of incompetence or dereliction of duty.” Five of the court’s seven judges were appointed by DeSantis. The two who were not appointed by DeSantis — Justices Jorge Labarga and Charles Canady — were both appointed by DeSantis’ predecessor, Republican Charlie Crist.

The judges did not point to any specific misconduct by Worrell, but simply concluded: “We cannot agree with Worrell that the allegations in the Executive Order are impermissibly vague,” and rejected Worrell’s objection to vagueness on the grounds that it “really concerned the sufficiency of the evidence relied upon in the Executive Order.” The trier of fact is tasked with clarifying actual misconduct in office, the ruling said.

Labarga, the lone dissenter in the case, wrote that he would have granted Worrell’s request because the allegations in DeSantis’ executive order were not sufficient to give Worrell sufficient time to present a meaningful dissent.

Another justice, Renatha Francis, voted with the majority but wrote a dissenting opinion criticizing judges for their improper involvement in the governor’s suspension of public officials.

“I believe that continuing to adhere to the current manner in which these suspension cases are adjudicated does a disservice to our state Constitution’s clear commitment to the Senate to review suspensions,” Francis wrote.

Worrell responded to the ruling in a press release, saying the outcome was “disappointing but not a surprise.”

“The governor appointed most of the Florida Supreme Court justices,” Worrell noted. “They took the easy way out by refusing to consider whether the governor’s claims had any factual basis. They don’t, and the court today, with the exception of the judge who dissented, sanctioned a political ploy.”

Worrell pointed out that DeSantis’ order is “conspicuously silent” on violent crime statistics, saying that the violent crime rate in her jurisdiction has been lower during her tenure than in the previous decade.

Worrell ended her statement by attacking DeSantis, who she said had political motives.

We have treated people equally and fairly and worked to hold law enforcement accountable – something the governor doesn’t like. I still believe in the right of voters to choose their prosecutor, even if Florida politics currently doesn’t respect that principle. If I am re-elected, I will continue to put public safety and accountability above politics. I wish the governor would do the same.

Under Florida law, the Republican-dominated Senate is responsible for conducting a trial that would decide Worrell’s ultimate fate.

Worrell is not the only prosecutor DeSantis has suspended. The former presidential hopeful suspended Hillsborough County Attorney Andrew Warren in August 2022 over similar concerns about alleged incompetence after Warren said he would not prosecute violations of the state’s 15-week abortion ban.

You can read the full judgment in the Worrell case here.

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