In Orange County and Osceola County, there is a lot of quiet after Monique Worrell won the election for State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit on November 5. She had been suspended from this job by Governor Ron DeSantis a little over a year before the election.
All of this began on August 9, 2023, when DeSantis officially fired Worrell, who had been in office since January 5, 2021, for “neglect of duty and incompetence.” He said this in a statement on his website.
But he took this comment down from his website since then, and the link now doesn’t work. The message can only be seen now through an internet archive.
This is also true for DeSantis’s order, Executive Order 23-160, which put Worrell on leave. The link either doesn’t work or only takes you to the home page of DeSantis’ official website, and it could only be found in an internet cache.
As DeSantis said in his statement, “Worrels’s practices and policies have too often let violent criminals escape the full consequences of their criminal behavior, putting innocent civilians in danger.
” Attorney General Ashley Moody agreed and said, “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 says that Worrell’s past work as a prosecutor shows that she avoids giving minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes.
Stops her assistant state attorneys from getting minimum mandatory sentences for drug traffickers, doesn’t properly prosecute “serious crimes committed by juvenile offenders,” limits the number of charges someone can face for having child pornography, and more.
To make this case, DeSantis used “Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution” to name Andrew Bain to replace Worrell.
Assisting State Attorney in the 9th Circuit under State Attorney Jeffrey L. Ashton is what Bain used to do before he became a judge in the 9th Judicial Circuit in Orange County.
The executive order said that Worrell could not work again until “a further executive order is issued” or until further notice. Because she was suspended, Worrell went to court with DeSantis.
For example, the Supreme Court of Florida still has its say on the court case that started when Worrell asked for her job on June 4, 2024. This is different from what DeSantis said and the executive order.
Worrell asked the court for a “writ of quo warranto and a writ of mandamus,” which means she wanted the court to say that she was allowed to be a public figure and go back to her job as State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit.
In the end, the Supreme Court of Florida turned down her plea and agreed with the suspension.
Even though the Supreme Court of Florida said no, Worrell still ran for the job she was kicked out of in the November 5 General Election. She ran against Bain, who had already been in office since he was added.
Now that the election is over, Worrell won with more than 56% of the votes in Osceola and Orange County, Florida. He will be the State Attorney of the 9th Judicial Circuit again.
