James Uthmeier says he wants to help Monique Worrell’s office prosecute more cases

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier offered Monday to provide six prosecutors from his office to assist in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, where State Attorney Monique Worrell recently announced new policies to manage a backlog of more than 13,000 cases.

Saying Worrell had refused to prosecute at least 90 cases in the past week, Uthmeier said, “We’re going to tell her the words that no George Soros prosecutor wants to hear: We’re from the Attorney General’s office, and we’re here to help you.”

“So, the calvary’s here,” he added. “We’ve got the entire team of prosecutors that we’re going to be sending to help out. We hope that she will take that help. We want to get rid of that backlog and those thousands of cases that we want to make sure that dangerous people are put behind bars. We want to see bad guys go away.”

Worrell did ask Uthmeier last week for funding to bring in 13 more prosecutors to address the backlog of non-arrest cases that is now up to 13,675, according to WFTV in Orlando.

That request followed her announcement of a new policy that requires local law enforcement to make an arrest or issue a notice to appear in court before they submit a case to her office for prosecution — comments Uthmeier criticized as “blanket policies” that “are contrary to the essential duties of a prosecutor.”

Worrell, a Democrat, campaigned and won office for the first time in 2020 in part by promising criminal justice reform in her circuit, which encompasses Orange and Osceola Counties. Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended her in August 2023, alleging she had neglected “her duty to faithfully prosecute crime in her jurisdiction.”

The move outraged Democrats, and Worrell took her case to the Florida Supreme Court, which voted 6-1 to uphold her suspension. However, running in liberal Orange and Osceola, she won a second term in November, beating NPA candidate Andrew Bain (appointed by DeSantis to replace her) by 15 percentage points.

Nick Cox, who serves as statewide prosecutor in the attorney general’s office, said during Monday’s press conference that if Worrell takes in the state prosecutors, they would act under her authority.

“We will try to determine how these cases would typically be handled in the Ninth Circuit but, at the same time, we’re going to bring to bear our opinions and our judgements on the cases, working with the state attorney’s office,” he said.

Despite his comment referring to Worrell as being funded by Soros, Uthmeier insisted his actions were not politically motivated.

“We’re not running around the state looking for people to remove from office,” he said. “We’re looking for people who aren’t doing their job. And, as a prosecutor, your job is simple: Put the bad people away and keep Floridians safe. It’s that simple.

“If you’re willing to do that, I’ve got no beef with you. I want to help you. I want to help everybody. Democrat, Republican, if you are a prosecutor your job is to put bad people away.”

‘Inaccurate and uninformed’

Worrell and Uthmeier have sparred in just the last week.

Speaking at a news conference in Tampa last Monday to announce arrests in a child pornography ring, Uthmeier said that one of the people arrested “was on a lighter probation sentence by the state attorney over in Orlando,” citing it as an example of a prosecutor who “go soft on crime.”

However, the individual to whom he referred, Frankie Pineiro, was prosecuted in a different jurisdiction and before Worrell was elected in 2020.

“The Attorney General is once again inaccurate and uninformed,” Worrell said in a statement issued last week.

“A simple review of public records established that not only was this individual sentenced prior to my election in 2020, but also that this case did not come out of the 9th Judicial Circuit. Since the Attorney General has stated that he will be looking at my conduct going forward to make sure we are enforcing the rule of law, I hope that he will prioritize public safety and also look at my request for additional prosecutors to support our enforcement of the rule of law.”

Throughout last year, DeSantis refused to comment about the possibility of suspending Worrell a second time if she won re-election. Speaking Monday in Kissimmee, which is part of Worrell’s jurisdiction, the governor said he would do so if there was proof that she was neglecting her duties.

“You do not have the ability to pick and choose which laws you’re going to enforce,” he said. “You don’t have the ability or the authority to let the inmates run the asylum. So I know the attorney general is keeping a close eye on what she’s doing. That could end up on my desk if there’s proof that somebody is neglecting their duties or satisfying one or the other provisions of the Florida Constitution, then obviously I could act again.”

As of early Monday afternoon, Worrell’s office had not responded to Uthmeier’s offer. We will update this story when and if she does.