He almost called for Mr. DeSantis to reinstate Mr. Warren himself, giving his reasons to justify it “falseand the efforts of his administration to properly support they are meager.
“If the facts matter, the governor can simply lift the suspension,” he wrote. “If he doesn’t, it will be doubly clear that the alleged policy of non-prosecution was not real motivation for suspension”.
Mr. DeSantis replaced Mr. Warren with Judge Susan Lopez of Hillsborough County, which the governor appointed to bench in 2021.
During the trial in November, Judge Hinkle complained with how Mr Warren was treated and how the DeSantis administration acted. However, at the same time, he doubts that all the reasons given by Mr. DeSantis are for the suspension reached the violation of Mr. Warren’s First Amendment Rights.
One of Mr. Warren’s attorneys, David Andrew O’Neill, argued in court that the governor’s staff should at least asked the prosecutor to clarify his position before deciding to remove him.
Under Florida law, the governor can remove government officials from office. for offense involving neglect of duty incompetence, malfeasance, drunkenness, or committing of the crime. Lawyers for Mr. DeSantis argued that the governor acted within his power in removal of Mr Warren, who was in his second term as public prosecutor for 13th Judicial District because Mr. Warren issued a policy ‘quilt’ against prosecution of petty crimes. Mr Warren, who testified in trial on November 29, said his policy was not a complete rejection, but rather meant to give prosecutors prudence over what business to do.
Judge Hinkle found that Mr. Warren did not impose a general policy: “Mr. Warren’s well-established policy followed in every case by every prosecutor in in office had to exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of every case. Any reasonable investigation would confirm this.”
Mr Warren also argued in the case that his suspension without pay was politically motivated. The prosecutor publicly disagreed with Mr. DeSantis in in the past and previously signed a pledge not to criminalize transgender people people and gender-responsive health care.
