Lopez: Prosecution rates are “sad”
Saying she will continue to push back against “false narratives and misleading information,” Ninth District State Attorney Monique Worrell fired back Monday at Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez, who accused her office of not prosecuting drug trafficking charges.’
Worrell presented legal facts of why some of those cases — of 73 people arrested in 2022 on drug trafficking charges, 29 cases were closed, and Lopez claims all have either been dropped or pled to something other than trafficking — were not prosecuted as trafficking cases, or in that year.
Worrell called his comments from last Thursday a “seemingly coordinated attack” following the Governor’s office’s inquiry after a recent deadly Orlando shooting by a habitual juvenile felon who only had an adult drug charge.
“Although I’m not sure where (Lopez) got his data from, I will provide accurate and factual information to clear up any confusion,” Worrell said Monday. “Facts matter when you’re dealing with a prosecutor’s office, they can only go (to court) armed with facts and evidence necessary to prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Among her points, Worrell said it’s unlikely for drug cases to be resolved in the year they occur, but 13 Osceola trafficking case resulted in a minimum mandatory sentence or higher from 2022. Of those 73 cases presented for drug trafficking in 2022, she said 36 are pending, 12 were downgraded (likely to possession, an appropriate charge when there isn’t the amount or weight of drugs as evidence for a bona fide trafficking case), 12 were dropped for evidence issues, two were dropped because of a lack of a controlled substance present, and five were prosecuted by other agencies.
“Thirty-six are pending, so to say none have been prosecuted is disingenuous. You should demand more from your elected officials,” Worrell said.
Last week, while touting Worrell’s office was 0-for-73 in trafficking jail sentences, Lopez — calling those stats “sad” — gave examples of multiple-time offenders, charged over and over with felony drug charges, whose crimes were lowered and plead at that level by the State Attorney's Office. Worrell responded with why some of those cases did not have the evidence to prosecute the charges, and that she doesn’t want to see cases go to juries who acquit suspects based on a lack of evidence.
"I know our community wants these traffickers in prison,” Lopez said. “But slapping them on the hand and dropping charges sends the wrong message for killing our neighbors. We need to take a stand and put an end to this."
Lopez said the most alarming part of his agency's review of it is the amount of illegal narcotics being distributed in the community. He noted fentanyl, heroin and cocaine by name, and that in 2022 this deputies administered 94 doses of Narcan, the “antidote” drug that can reverse the effects of a narcotic like fentanyl – and save a life.
"We need to get this crap off our streets. It's killing people,” he said. “We go after the high-level people who are pushing this junk into our community. These are people who defend their trades with guns and contribute other violent crimes to the county.”
“I agree drugs are negatively impacting our community, and fentanyl is a deadly drug that is a problem, we are seeing overdose deaths at an alarming rate,” Worrell said. “I don’t believe the way to (collaborate) is to be pointing fingers. The way is to work together collaboratively.
“The first time I heard concerns from the (Osceola) Sheriff’s Office was from the media. His office has not reached out to my office, to raise questions how the evidence it is presenting is insufficient to prove cases beyond a reasonable doubt … when we choose politics over public safety, the community suffers from that.”
Lopez did say last week he had not spoken to Worrell on this subject.
Worrell has been under other fire from area law enforcement. She and Orange County Sheriff John Mina discussed youth violence and solutions at a luncheon Monday prior to her press conference about Lopez. Worrell and Mina have been involved in a feud regarding Worrell’s criminal case drop rate.
