ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell responded to the accusations from the governor's office that her office was "failing to properly administer justice" after a 19-year-old allegedly shot and killed three people, including a TV reporter, in late February in an Orlando suburb.
Worrell held a news conference Thursday where she addressed the claims made by the governor's office and shared by Sen. Rick Scott on Twitter that she said were "baseless" and a "danger" to the community.
The governor questioned Worrell's office about why Keith Moses, who authorities say gunned down a television news reporter, a 9-year-old girl and a 38-year-old woman, wasn't held accountable for his previous criminal history. Ryan Newman, the general counsel for the governor's office, sent the letter, claiming Worrell "refused to prosecute" a crime that let the 19-year-old suspected shooter "remain on the streets."
"In that letter, there were several baseless accusations that were made, in fact, there were many unfounded assertions and conclusions and I found them to be disappointing and irresponsible," Worrell said. "Making these types of claims are misleading and a danger to our community, which is being intentionally misled with political fearmongering."
She said her office responded to the governor's letter Thursday morning and she explained that Moses' only adult charge of possession of 4.6 grams of marijuana, which was dismissed because the quantity was so low, was partly due to DeSantis' 2019 senate bill 1020, which amended the legal definition of cannabis to require a minimum of 0.3 percent THC.
She explained that the new law made it "difficult, if not impossible" to differentiate legal hemp from illegal cannabis.
"This wasn't a policy of non-prosecution by my office, as has been claimed or asserted by the governor and the senator. This is a statewide challenge faced by prosecutors everywhere," Worrell said, in part. "However, the governor and the senator choose to specifically select my office for criticism regarding an issue that was raised because of legislation that the governor, himself, signed."
Worrell continued in her address about Moses' previous criminal history as a minor, which she said she was not able to fully talk about because of Florida law.
The state attorney said that Moses had four felonies as a juvenile and two of them were for vehicle burglaries; he and other people broke into a vehicle without a person inside and stole things. Another one of his previous charges was grand theft, where he was a passenger in a stolen vehicle. And lastly, a felony charge for robbery with a weapon, which she said has been widely spoken about.
"Although, Mr. Moses participated in this robbery. Mr. Moses was not the individual who held the firearm during the commission of the robbery," Worrell said, in part. "Given those four felonies in Mr. Moses' history, again all of those happened prior to my being elected state attorney. They happened in 2018 and 2019 when Mr. Moses was 14 and 15 years old."
Worrell said she stood behind the decision in those cases and said none of those offenses would have incarcerated Moses for life or even justified life in imprisonment.
"And it's important for the community to understand that as prosecutors we uphold the law and upholding the law doesn't mean that we just throw things against the wall to see what sticks," she said.
Worrell said her office would provide all of the information the governor is requesting in the first five bullet points of his letter. However, the very last request is "unrealistic for the information requested provided within the timeframe requested." She said she would have to pull every single case in her office and would be looking at over 350,000 cases, which could cost the taxpayers about $800,000.
She said it would be impossible to do an audit of the entire office to "satisfy the governor's political endeavors"
The state attorney said Moses now faces three second-degree murder charges and addressed why he was facing second-degree instead of first-degree.
"Florida law requires that we file first-degree murder charges or charges at all within 21 days. First-degree murder can only be filed by indictment in the state of Florida. So, first-degree murder charges will go before a grand jury at some point. But in order to continue to keep Mr. Moses detained, it is necessary for us to file these charges as holding charges at this time.
"This isn't unusual, this is actually something that is done quite normally in the case of prosecuting first-degree murder cases," Worrell said.
Moses also faces 13 other charges. Worrell said she anticipates that the charges will be filed by end of business day Friday.
Worrell did mention that it became apparent that her job could be at risk when former State Attorney Andrew Warren was suspended by the governor, who is a Republican.
She said her job was at risk "not because she had done anything wrong, not because I wasn't following the law, not because we weren't prosecuting cases as the governor said but because I am elected Democrat who is not in alignment with the governor's politics."
Worrell said she realized that the governor wants to go through all of her cases to build a base for suspension. She noted that she was also aware that the governor's office has been speaking with local law enforcement.
"This isn't about whether or not I've followed the law. This isn't about whether or not my policies are a danger to public safety," Worrell said. "This is about the governor wanting to control the politics across this state and quite frankly it's dangerous because this is a democracy, not a dictatorship."
In response to Worrell's news conference, the governor's office pointed to its letter indicating their "position on the matter."
Watch the full news conference below: