DeSantis Suspended Her, Floridians Reelected Her: State Attorney Monique Worrell

Photo of Ron DeSantis and Monique Worrell. Photo by Governor Ron DeSantis, Facebook | State Attorney Monique H. Worrell - Ninth Judicial Circuit, Facebook

The silence is loud in Orange County and Osceola County after Monique Worrell ran for State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit on November 5 and won despite having been suspended from this exact position by Governor Ron DeSantis a little over a year ago. 

This all started back on August 9, 2023, when DeSantis officially suspended Worrell, who had been in office since January 5, 2021, for “neglect of duty and incompetence”, which he made a statement about on his official website. 

However, this statement has since been removed from his website and is currently a broken link. The statement is now only viewable through an internet archive.

The same goes for DeSantis’ executive order, Executive Order 23-160, that suspended Worrell. It leads to a broken link or just to the homepage of DeSantis’ official website, and was not sourceable through any other means besides an internet archive.

In his statement, DeSantis claimed that “Worrels’s practices and policies have too often allowed violent criminals to escape the full consequences of their criminal conduct, thereby endangering the innocent civilians”. In support, Attorney General Ashley Moody added that “Worrell abdicated her responsibility as the circuit’s top prosecutor and her actions undermine the safety and security of our state and Floridians”.

DeSantis’ 40-page executive order also alleges that Worrell’s records as a prosecutor show that she tends to evade minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes, to discourage her assistant state attorneys from getting minimum mandatory sentences for drug traffickers, to fail to properly prosecute “serious crimes committed by juvenile offenders”, to place limitations on the number of charges given to someone in possession of child pornography, and more.

Under this reasoning, DeSantis employed “Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution” to appoint Andrew Bain to serve in Worrell’s place. Bain is a former 9th Judicial Circuit Judge in Orange County and was previously the “Assistant State Attorney in the 9th Circuit under State Attorney Jeffrey L. Ashton”.

According to the executive order, Worrell was suspended until “a further executive order is issued”, or until further notice. In response to her suspension, Worrell took DeSantis to court.

Unlike DeSantis’statement and the executive order, the Supreme Court of Florida still has its opinion of the court case that came out of Worrell petitioning for her job back on June 4, 2024.

Worrell specifically petitioned for a “writ of quo warranto and a writ of mandamus”, meaning that she wanted the court to determine that she had a right to hold public office and a right to return to her official duties as State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit. The Supreme Court of Florida ultimately denied her petition and supported her suspension.

Yet, despite the Supreme Court of Florida’s decision, Worrell still ran for the position she was suspended from in the November 5 General Election this year. She ran against Bain, who was still in office since his appointment. 

Now, the most current election results show that Worrell won with over 56% of the votes in Osceola and Orange County, Florida, and will once again be the State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit.

Regardless of the allegations made against Worrell, it is clear that the people have spoken.
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Article by Ema Tibbetts