If you don’t follow the developing stories about Florida’s new unelected attorney general who is about to target Orange Male Seora Prosecutor Monique Worrell, then you should. Two reasons:
1) This is kind third world, anti-democratic, anti-American trash you should take on the streets. Tallahassee politicians are once again trying to negate local elections just because they don’t like the outcome.
2) Attorney General James Usmeyer is clearly against Worrell, but he is incredibly bad. Manga – Bad like Brain. It’s like watching Wile E. Coyote load itself into a giant pansou pointed directly to a rock wall.
Essentially the same thing happened twice in a row:
Uthmeier made wild accusations against Worrell in an obvious attempt to lay the foundations for taking her out of the office, as did former boss Governor Ron Desantis two years ago.
Later, when Uthmeier was asked for an explanation, or if he could even prove that he said he was true, Uthmeier refused to answer the question.
In the first round of the charges, Uthmeier, recently appointed to the post by Desantis, took her to social media and accused her of trying to reduce her caseload by enacting a “blanket” policy of “putting Floridians at risk,” preventing her from “using all the tools available.”
What Uthmeier clearly didn’t know was that what Floridians wanted them to find was that the policy Uthmeier cited was adopted by a nearby state attorney, a GOP ally of Desantis, who enacted it a few years ago.
While Uthmeier posted an obscure tweet, Sentinel Reporter Cristóbal Reyes decided to actually see the facts. And when he did it, he discovered that four years ago, Republican State Attorney Bill Gladson had simply recreated a policy that he would not file a lawsuit if officers had not arrested them.
In other words, in a state where Gladson doesn’t pay nearly enough prosecutors or public defenders, his office decided to focus on when officers conclude that the crime has been committed and pursued. That sounds wise.
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So Worrell tried to replicate that policy. It’s after the first confirmation that Gladson had been doing that for years. To confirm all this, the Sentinel got both emails sent to Worrell in February. He confirmed his policy, and published Grarell’s notes and policies several years ago in his district covering Lake, Marion, Sumter, Citrus and Hernando counties.
Incidentally, both prosecutors said they would continue to work with officers on most cases that they would like to discuss and review the most serious “non-arrest” cases, including murder, child abuse and human trafficking crimes, but not at a lower level crime that officers felt lacked sufficient evidence to arrest them.
So, when the GOP prosecutors and governor allies make a streamlined decision, that is fine. But when Democrats do the same, AG says he needs to intervene.
I was asked to explain the obvious contradiction – or say something truly beyond his tweet – Usmeyer’s office does not answer questions. That was on Monday.
Then, on Tuesday, Usmeyer once again led his inner coyote, accusing Worrell of “criminal soft” for not prosecuting the man with child porn accusations.
Again, when asked about obvious contradictions, Uthmeier’s office does not answer the question.
After Orange and Osceola voters overwhelmingly voted to get her back, all this appears to be trying to get rid of Worrel again to lay the foundations for Usmeyer and DeSantis.
However, Uthmeier seems very bad and telegraphs his movements in such a common and false way that he makes it very easy for everyone to prove that he is not acting in sincerity.
Plus, he appears to be dragging others along with him now.
After Sentinel reported that Worrell had copied Gladson’s policy, Gladson was documented in an email from his office to her – Gladson sent out what appeared to be a press release from Cover-uthmeier claiming that the two policies were not similar.
Except for them. There are both.
In fact, if anything, Worrell is “harder of crime” than Gladson’s (if you want to see things in that simple, catchphrase way anyway). Gladson’s policy says his office will not accept non-arrest cases except for those who fall into five categories (murder, sex offenses, child abuse, violent felony and human trafficking crimes), but Worrell said her office will pursue 10 different categories of non-arrest cases, including economic crimes and animal cruelty left behind by Gladson.
The only category of non-arrest cases where Gladson said, of course, Worrell said she was not a violent felony. Worrell said Wednesday that her reasoning about it was simple — if violent crimes were actually committed, these are when officers should be the most aggressive about arrests. “Don’t simply leave that person,” she said.
In my opinion, there are still questions about why officers are handing over so many cases that they haven’t been arrested in the first place. “If law enforcement cannot gather enough evidence to establish a possible cause, it is likely that there is insufficient evidence for prosecution,” Worrell wrote in her policy, saying many of these cases had witnesses, acceptable evidence, or other issues.
That seems to make sense – and again, reflecting Gladson’s thoughts. Both prosecutors emphasized that in most cases, if officers need to help with that, they can come to them. That seems important.
If the root problem wasn’t that serious, this Weil E. Coyote Meat Keystone cop might laugh at nonsense.
It’s about state underfunded prosecutors who are worried about crime. And that means politicians are trying to overturn the outcome of officially held local elections. This is something that is usually seen in the authoritarian regime of the third world.
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