A trio of Democrat congressmen, with Orlando freshman congressman Maxwell Frost on the point (joined by Maryland’s Jamie Raskin and New York’s Dan Goldman), wrote House Committee on Oversight and Accountability chairman James Comer urging a hearing to “examine ongoing efforts to subvert democracy in the State of Florida.”

Andrew Warren, the Hillsborough County prosecutor suspended in August 2022 by DeSantis after he declared plans to void certain Florida statutes in his circuit, also weighed in.

“Another illegal and unconstitutional attack on democracy by a small, scared man who is desperate to save his political career,” Warren said. “He wants to be a bully, but he’s actually a coward who has repeatedly violated the rule of law and the will of the voters to cover up his own weakness.”

These high-falutin’ claims are utter abstractions, smokescreens designed to obfuscate what Warren already learned in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle: The feds have no juice here.

The Florida constitution, drafted with the Bill of Rights’ Ninth and Tenth amendments very much in mind, blesses the governor with broad authority over the state’s elected officials.

Florida law allows a governor to suspend elected and appointed officials for wrongdoing that includes the commission of a felony, neglect of duty, malfeasance, incompetence and habitual drunkenness. The governor also has the constitutional right to replace the official with someone more closely aligned with his political views. The suspended official can challenge the suspension with a court motion, but only the Florida Senate has the power to reinstate the officer.

Even as he pursues a promotion to President of the United States in early primary and caucus states, DeSantis has scant patience for so-called “reformist” prosecutors back home — especially those who seem to be more interested in ridding society of the tools of crime than the craftsmen who employ them.

“The state of Florida is a law-and-order state,” the governor said. “Refusing to faithfully enforce the laws of Florida puts our communities in danger and victimizes innocent Floridians.” How did Worrell neglect her constituents? DeSantis enumerates the ways:

• Pattern or practice to avoid minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes.
• Pattern or practice to avoid minimum mandatory sentences for drug trafficking offenses.
• Pattern or practice allowing juvenile offenders to avoid serious charges and incarceration.
• Pattern or practice to avoid minimum mandatory to avoid valid applicable sentencing enhancements.
• Pattern or practice limiting charges for child pornography offenses.
• Pattern or practice for seeking withholding of adjudication in situations not permitted under Florida law.

DeSantis cited two prior instances when Worrell’s apparent neglect resulted in known criminals being free to wreak havoc on innocents, but the camel-crusher dropped over the weekend.

This signature real world go-to failure of Worrell’s soft-peddling unpleasant facts involves Daton Viel, a 28-year-old career criminal who, despite his lengthy, colorful and increasingly violent record, was able to post bond despite an Everest of evidence tying him to the sexual battery and molestation of a Orlando-area 14-year-old girl.

Last week, four harrowing months after he was released from jail, Viel — who, can you believe it, had sliced off his ankle monitor — shot and critically wounded two Orlando police officers (both of whom survived and are recovering, no thanks to a certain suspended prosecutor). The incident concluded early Saturday at a Holiday Inn near Universal Studios Florida when Viel found himself on the deadly end of a shootout with Orlando SWAT members.  

All’s well that ends well, we suppose. But, hang on. How could anyone with a similarly worrisome record, already on probation and facing damning evidence of unconscionable crime, be free to wander among us? Maybe Monique Worrell can enlighten us. (Brace yourself for a world-class dodge.)

During her press conference, Worrell essentially said it was up to police to arrest suspects with active warrants, and it’s up to the judges and court system to determine bond – both of which are outside of her office, she said. She defended the court’s $125,000 bond describing it as a high bond that possibly took into consideration his other interactions with the court.

“I’ve said many times before, it’s really important to understand that when incidents like this happen, community wants answers, and it is natural to want to find out who’s at fault for why this incident took place. But it is important to understand that the only individual who can be blamed for incidents like these is the individual who took those actions,” she said.

Translation: Never mind a known threat to the public was facing a slam-dunk conviction for child rape and up to life in prison; my office didn’t argue for holding him without bond because (shrug) that’s not my job.

Well, it certainly isn’t her job anymore. Rightly so.

The Orlando chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police had not been amused.

“Daton Viel was a violent criminal that the Orange/Osceola County State Attorney let walk the streets after Orlando Police arrested him in March of this year for sexually assaulting a child,” a statement posted to the Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Facebook page said. “He was on probation at the time of his arrest, yet Monique Worrell let him out. Now 2 Orlando Police Officers’ lives have changed forever. Monique Worrell’s soft on crime stance has yet again let the citizens of Orlando down.”

Somehow, we doubt congressmen Frost, Raskin and Goldman would delight in recounting the suspended state attorney’s failure to even argue that Viel should have remained locked up. Or her reducing charges for those charged with violent acts. Or underplaying the misbehavior of repeat offenders.

In all of this, the governor’s decision was not taken lightly, or prepared hastily.

DeSantis’s executive order suspending Worrell runs 15 pages, not including supporting exhibits. In it, DeSantis cites “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” as the basis for Worrell’s suspension. He then goes on to list a range of incidents that support the suspension, including allegations that she “systematically permitted violent offenders, drug traffickers, serious-juvenile offenders, and pedophiles to evade incarceration, when otherwise warranted under Florida law.”

The order also noted that Worrell had established a pattern or practice to avoid minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes, drug trafficking offenses, allowing juvenile offenders to avoid serious charges and incarceration altogether, avoiding valid or applicable sentencing enhancements, and limiting charges for child pornography.

Yes, the swamp continues to stir, quiver, and tremble with the ominous activities of those who thrive among the political cypress knees. But every now and then someone chucks in a boulder — usually, it’s Ron DeSantis — and we see whose side the residents are on.