Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended the state’s only Black and female prosecutor, State Attorney Monique Worrell, on Aug. 8, citing a “political agenda.”
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, DeSantis claimed that the Democratic prosecutor failed to enforce the law while prosecuting cases. DeSantis, who has said he’d use lethal force at the southern border to stop immigrants from entering the country, claimed that Worrell was too soft on crime during a conference at the state Capitol building.
For months his office has blamed Worrell for allowing 19-year-old Keith Melvin Moses — the accused gunman in a shooting spree in February that left a 9-year-old, a TV reporter, and a 38-year-old woman dead — to be out on the street despite his lengthy juvenile record. But, except for one marijuana charge, all of Moses’ alleged crimes before the shooting happened before Worrell took office.
The governor also cited the shooting of two police officers in Orlando to justify the suspension.
A suspect identified as Daton Viel was shot and killed by the SWAT team following the shooting at a traffic stop in downtown Orlando two days before Worrell’s suspension. Viel had been arrested for sexual battery and was out on bond.
“He was still let out on bond and then tragically shot two Orlando police officers,” said DeSantis of Viel. “Prosecutors have a duty to faithfully enforce the law,” he added. “One’s political agenda cannot trump this solemn duty.”
As Worrell pointed out this week, judges have the power to grant bonds, not prosecutors.
Worrell, who was elected with 67 percent of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties back in 2020, responded to the suspension on social media and called DeSantis “a weak dictator.”
“If we’re mourning anything this morning, it’s the loss of Democracy. I am your duly elected for the Ninth Judicial Circuit,” she said. “And nothing done by a weak dictator can change that….
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