State Attorney Monique Worrell has doubled down on her office’s decision not to prosecute a man who was masturbating while facing children at a public splash pad in Central Florida, declaring that parents of young children must tolerate such behaviour from pedophiles in public.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier publicly called out Worrell for failing to bring charges against the individual, describing the incident as “egregious.” According to Uthmeier, the man was “on a park bench masturbating while facing a bunch of kids playing at a public splash pad” when he exposed himself.
Worrell responded by defending her office’s handling of the case, stating that while the conduct was wrong, it was not illegal and parents have no right to expect predators to stop masturbating while looking at their children.
“All things that are wrong are not illegal, and I’m not standing before you today telling you that what happened in that park was wrong, but I am standing before you today telling you that I trust the word of the attorney who was assigned to this case,” Worrell said.
She explained that the prosecutor assigned to the case determined that charges could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. According to case notes shared by Worrell, the child present during the alleged incident did not actually witness the man masturbating, and the child’s father confirmed the child “didn’t see anything and was not aware of what was happening.”
“He said, although those actions were wrong, he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were illegal. And that is the only standard by which we go forward in prosecution,” Worrell stated.
Worrell also pushed back forcefully against Uthmeier’s criticism, saying: “I’ve been an attorney for 25 years and I have practiced criminal law for that entire time… And if he can’t do that, then he really should be quiet because his ignorance is loud.”
The state attorney, who was first elected in 2020 and oversees the Ninth Judicial Circuit covering Orange and Osceola counties, has a history of clashes with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Uthmeier. DeSantis suspended Worrell in 2023, accusing her of “neglect of duty and incompetence” regarding her approach to prosecuting certain cases. Voters reelected her in 2024 with nearly 60% of the vote.
Worrell recently claimed she received a tip that her removal from office was “imminent” and suggested it may be connected to her potential investigation into the Hope Florida scandal, in which a grand jury found the DeSantis administration misappropriated $10 million in taxpayer funds.
The state attorney defended her overall record, citing an 80% overall conviction rate and noting that shootings in Orlando were down 33% through the first half of this year.
As of late Tuesday, Governor DeSantis had not issued a new executive order to suspend Worrell.