Suspended city commissioner Regina Hill appeared briefly in court Friday for a hearing in her felony trial, less than two weeks before she hopes voters send her back to City Hall.<\/p>\n
While Hill had hoped to have her charges tried before Election Day, she said she was feeling optimistic about her chances at an eventual trial as well as at the ballot box next month \u2013 though no trial date has been set thus far, and another hearing is scheduled in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that I\u2019ll be vindicated; I\u2019ve harmed no one in this work. I\u2019ve done great work,\u201d she said outside of the courthouse on Friday. \u201cMy constituents are responding to the work that I\u2019ve done and they want me to continue it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill was indicted last year on seven felony charges that encompass mortgage fraud and elder abuse.<\/p>\n
![\"Suspended](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tos-l-regina-hill-0583.jpg\")
Suspended City Commissioner Regina Hill and defense attorney Fritz Scheller talk to the media after a status hearing in her felony trial, outside the Orange County Courthouse, on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
The charges center on Hill\u2019s relationship with an elderly constituent and allege that she took advantage of the woman with cognitive disabilities, draining her life savings on expenses to benefit Hill, such as hotel rooms, a facelift lift and vitamin infusions.<\/p>\n
Hill is also accused of obtaining a fraudulent power of attorney and purchasing a home with the backing of the woman\u2019s superior credit.\u00a0She pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
After the indictment, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended her from office and Shan Rose was elected in a special election as interim commissioner to finish out the term. Rose and Lawanna Gelzer are on the ballot along with Hill, with the winner receiving a four-year term representing the downtown and west Orlando district on the city council.<\/p>\n
Early voting begins next week. If no candidate receives 50%-plus-one vote, the race will go to a runoff in December.<\/p>\n
With the charges still pending, it\u2019s unclear what will happen if Hill wins the seat again. DeSantis could choose to suspend her again as suspensions only apply to a current term, so a new action would be necessary.<\/p>\n
DeSantis, who suspended Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell in 2023 for alleged \u201cneglect of duty and incompetence,\u201d did not remove her for a second time after she won re-election last year. That situation did not involve criminal charges, however.<\/p>\n
The governor\u2019s office didn\u2019t respond to questions about the situation this week from the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll deal with the governor, as I have in the past, when the time comes,\u201d said Fritz Scheller, Hill\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspended city commissioner Regina Hill appeared briefly in court Friday for a hearing in her felony trial, less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,114,266,115,1335,139,141,140,99,109],"class_list":["post-19157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}