TALLAHASSEE — A state appeals court Wednesday expunged a confidential Hope Florida grand jury presentment leaked two months ago that described a “sophisticated scheme” to misappropriate $10 million in taxpayer dollars from a Medicaid settlement for political purposes.
The First District Court of Appeal ruled that the presentment produced by the Leon County grand jury convened by State Attorney Jack Campbell last year exceeded its authority. It also said state law was violated when the presentment was disclosed.
The jury criticized members of the DeSantis administration by name but declined to bring charges, saying no one would take responsibility for diverting the Medicaid settlement to help pay for a campaign against a statewide measure legalizing marijuana.
” A grand jury may investigate and report, but it may not declare conduct unlawful and then decline to charge it, and it may not condemn people by name without indicting them,” Appellate Judge Lance E. Neff wrote in the court’s opinion. “Nor may the State release a confidential presentment before those it impugns have had the opportunity Florida law guarantees to seek its repression or expungement.”
The opinion said it was also wrong to have named those involved in the scheme, “yet returned no indictment, conceding it lacked sufficient evidence to charge anyone.”
The court said the presentment was then distributed beyond those entitled to receive it. It has not been revealed who actually leaked the presentment to CBS News Miami.
The court’s ruling reversed a Leon County Circuit Court ruling in July by Judge J. Lee Marsh denying full expungement.
This is a developing story.