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Credit: Photo via Monique Worrell\/Twitter<\/p>\nCredit: Photo via Monique Worrell\/Twitter<\/p>\n
Monique Worrell, the twice-elected state attorney for Florida\u2019s 9th Judicial Circuit in Central Florida,\u00a0responded forcefully<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday to what she described as a credible rumor she is again about to be suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n \u201cLast night I received a phone call from someone telling me that my removal was imminent and that I was going to be replaced with an assistant statewide officer who used to work in this office,\u201d Worrell said during a press conference in Orlando.<\/p>\n The Phoenix reached out to the governor\u2019s office, but did not receive a response.<\/p>\n Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier \u2014 who has been critical of Worrell\u2019s work \u2014 was asked about the rumored suspension earlier in Kissimmee and said he knew nothing about it.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want people to do their job,\u201d he said. \u201cI want people to put bad guys away. When somebody kills another person, or tries to kill another person, I don\u2019t want them to get a slap on the wrist. I want them to go away forever. I want to make sure that they don\u2019t hurt another individual, and any state attorney who disagrees with me on that, in my opinion, is not doing his or her job effectively. That is negligence. That is gross incompetence. That is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are doing our job, sir. And we\u2019re doing our job very well,\u201d Worrell fired back.<\/p>\n She went on to cite crime statistics that she said made her point, saying shootings in Orlando were down 33% and overall violent crime, burglaries, and car thefts were down, as well. In Orange County, she said, crime has dropped by 28%.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not my statistics. Check with law enforcement,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n She went on offense against Uthmeier, referring to the leaked grand jury report concerning the Hope Florida Foundation scandal that surfaced last week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was\u00a0last week that I said to my staff, I have received information that some of the funds misappropriated were spent in the media market here in Central Florida, and said that we should look into it,\u201d Worrell said.<\/p>\n \u201cLet me be very clear: In the event that I was removed, it won\u2019t be because we aren\u2019t doing our job, it will be because of concerns about what doing our job could look like for the people on the other end of that report.\u201d<\/p>\n That grand jury report \u2014 obtained by\u00a0CBS Miami and posted on its website<\/a>\u00a0Wednesday \u2014 did not result in any criminal charges but included multiple mentions of Uthmeier. It concluded that Uthmeier, who was Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff at the time, \u201cwas in a position of authority over those involved\u201d in allegedly diverting $10 million from a Medicaid settlement intended to help poor children get health insurance, and that his Keep Florida Clean PAC was the prime recipient of those funds.<\/p>\n Uthmeier has called the investigation a \u201cpolitically motivated witch hunt driven by Democrats and a far-left Democrat state attorney in Tallahassee.\u201d However Florida U.S. Republican Sen. Rick Scott told the\u00a0Tampa Bay Times<\/a>\u00a0in a written statement that the report was \u201cdeeply concerning,\u201d adding that \u201cFlorida families deserve accountability, not more finger pointing in Tallahassee.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis suspended Worrell<\/a>\u00a0and removed her from office\u00a0on Aug. 9, 2023, for \u201cneglecting her duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction,\u201d and replaced her with former Orange County Circuit Judge Andrew Bain. She legally challenged the decision, which the Florida Supreme Court upheld in June 2024.<\/p>\n She ran again for the seat that fall and\u00a0defeated Bain by 14 percentage points<\/a>.<\/p>\n Uthmeier has sniped at her performance in office since she was re-elected. Last fall he accused her of refusing to\u00a0prosecute pedophiles.<\/a><\/p>\n He later threatened her with removal because of a disagreement about whether to charge a woman who shot and killed a man who attacked her in her car during a road rage incident,\u00a0writing<\/a>, \u201cYour actions likely constitute a breach of your ethical obligations. And they may also constitute misfeasance, malfeasance, neglect of duty, and incompetence.\u201d<\/p>\n Worrell later\u00a0dropped<\/a>\u00a0the murder charge.<\/p>\n She said Tuesday that her 2023 removal wasn\u2019t because she wasn\u2019t doing her job, \u201cbut\u00a0because of\u00a0 politically motivated decisions that were not based in fact \u201c<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I will not allow politics to work to distract me from the responsibility that the voters have entrusted me with,\u201d she said. \u201cMy focus is not on political attacks, my focus is on victims, on public safety, on accountability, and on justice. And until the people in the 9th Judicial Circuit tell me otherwise, I will continue to do the job they elected me to do. That\u2019s where my attention belongs, not on politics, but on the work.\u201d<\/p>\n Since being appointed attorney general by DeSantis early last year, Uthmeier has threatened to remove\u00a0multiple locally elected officials<\/a>\u00a0for their stances on working with the federal government on immigration enforcement, but has not actually done so.<\/p>\n Florida Phoenix<\/a>\u00a0is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Contact Michael Moline for questions:\u00a0info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>. Follow Florida Phoenix on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t![\"Stay](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788348146_538_OW_JoinNewsletter_970x250_1.jpg\")
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