‘No plans to begin looking for work’: Orlando’s chief assistant state attorney emails staff after Monique Worrell’s election win
Just hours after Monique Worrell reclaimed her position as Orlando's Ninth Judicial Circuit state attorney, her one-time political opponent and bitter rival, current Chief Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams, sent a defiant email to the office's staff.
Williams, who had risen to second-in-command under Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointee, Andrew Bain, declared that "the leaders of this office have no plans to begin looking for work elsewhere."
Bain lost to former State Attorney Monique Worrell in Tuesday's general election by an overwhelming 15-point margin. Worrell will reassume office in January, less than two years after DeSantis suspended her in August 2023 for neglect of duty and incompetence, stating her policies "allowed violent criminals to escape the full consequences of their criminal conduct."
Williams, who lost to Worrell in the 2020 Democratic primary before becoming second-in-command after DeSantis removed her, sent an all-staff email that lauded how "we have made amazing progress these last 14 months" ever since Worrell's removal, and said the office's staff still had "a long way to go and much more to do."
"We live in tumultuous times," he continued. "... While I have no special or particularized knowledge or information, my confidence in the Constitution will allow me to continue doing my job to the best of my ability up until the moment Florida law tells me I may no longer do so.
"The leaders of this office have no plans to begin looking for work elsewhere. Rather, we are all committed to following and enforcing the law in the same aggressive way we have been."
Neither Williams nor Bain would clarify the meaning of the vague email when The Tributary requested comment from the State Attorney's Office Wednesday.
Williams has been a thorn in Worrell's side for years.
Even before Worrell beat Williams in 2020, he had quit his job under Worrell's predecessor so he could prosecute death-penalty cases in a more conservative neighboring judicial circuit.
Later, after DeSantis removed Worrell, Williams and Bain accused her of wrongly filing charges against a police officer who shot an unarmed man in an unusual case where the two said the officer lied about intentionally shooting the man and Worrell should have known the shooting was unintentional, despite the officer's own statements to the contrary.
A judge ruled in June there was insufficient evidence to question the "honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness" of Worrell's case handling.
Williams also launched complaints in June 2024 against two of Worrell's deputies for prosecutorial misconduct. Both attorneys were cleared of wrongdoing by the Florida Bar in October and the case was closed.
Former Eighth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Bill Cervone, who reviewed the email, said he didn't interpret the message as nefarious and it could simply reflect Williams' intent to continue his duties until the formal end of Bain's term in January.
Cervone noted that under Florida law, assistant state attorneys serve at the pleasure of the elected state attorney, and the elected state attorney chooses who to reappoint or not reappoint at the beginning of each term. He anticipates that Worrell will want to bring in her own high-level staff members to replace Williams and others. "He can try to fight that all he wants, but I don't think he's got a leg to stand on," Cervone said.
Cervone said Bain's administration likely doesn't intend to prevent Worrell's lawful assumption of the office, but Bain could try to make her transition more difficult, he said.
Cervone recalled an example in 1992 when an outgoing state attorney in Gainesville refused to allow his successor to access the office during the transition, resulting in off-site staff meetings to coordinate. "They could attempt to stonewall in that fashion if they wanted to," Cervone said, though he believes Worrell is well-connected enough within the office to navigate such challenges.
Florida House Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, who represents part of Orange County, said she expects Bain and his employees to act as required by Florida law.
"Monique Worrell is the duly elected State Attorney and was overwhelmingly re-elected," Eskamani wrote to The Tributary. "State Attorney Bain and his administration should support a peaceful transition back to Worrell."
The Tributary reached out to Bain and Worrell on Wednesday, and neither person responded. Keisha Mulfort, a Worrell spokesperson and her former chief of staff, told WESH 2 News that people in Orange and Osceola counties had made their decision.
"Any questions regarding Ron DeSantis, the unelected state attorney, or the chief assistant whom voters rejected in 2020, should be directed to them, along with the over 400,000 voters who made their choice abundantly clear at the ballot box," Mulfort told WESH 2 News Thursday.
