ORLANDO, Fla. — A new report from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund claims a consultant group has influence over around 40 prosecutors in 22 states, including Central Florida.
The report, titled “Outsourcing Justice,” alleges that the Wren Collective is involved in making decisions related to bail, plea bargaining, and charging within these prosecutors’ offices.
According to its website, the Wren Collective is a strategic advising group focused on criminal justice reform, founded by former public defenders.
Sean Kennedy from the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund stated, “The public absolutely deserves to know because we need to have faith in our criminal justice system that when decisions are made, they’re being made on a free and impartial basis.”
The report raises concerns about the extent of the Wren Collective’s involvement in prosecution decisions, suggesting that their employees may be directly influencing these processes.
State Attorney Monique Worrell’s office released the following statement to Channel 9:
“The Wren Collective is an experienced team of outstanding criminal justice practitioners who specialize in crisis communications, public safety messaging, and community engagement. They never influenced prosecutorial decisions. Those decisions have always rested solely with me, as the elected State Attorney. Wren worked with my team from time-to-time during my first term to help ensure that our community received accurate, clear, and trustworthy information about the work being done.
Wren was also instrumental in bringing national experts to the Ninth Circuit to lead community conversations on violent crime and gun safety at a time when our circuit needed it most. The community packed out venues not just to listen, but to take what they learned back to their neighborhoods and organizations serving some of our most vulnerable populations. That is what real community engagement looks like, and Wren helped make it possible.
Wren’s expertise lies in understanding how the criminal legal system responds to crime, rehabilitation, and community safety, and in helping offices like ours translate that work in ways that build public confidence. Calling them ‘unelected’ suggests something to be feared, when in reality prosecutors’ offices across the country regularly engage consultants to strengthen how they meet the needs of their communities.
The suggestion that their past involvement influenced prosecutorial decisions is nothing more than a political attack on ‘progressive prosecutors.’ It’s important to remember that the rules cannot change based on who the State Attorney is. Engaging consultants is not unusual for a public office, and it should not be treated as a problem here when it would not be elsewhere.
Wren assisted our office for free, and their work never touched prosecutorial decision making. By contrast, appointed and unelected State Attorney Andrew Bain hired Taryn Fenske of TMF Communications at $6,500 per month; she served as Gov. DeSantis’s communications director. He also hired the Levitt Group at $6,000 per month, whose principal had served as Bain’s senior criminal justice advisor. Unlike Wren, these consultants were brought in specifically to shape policy and to influence decisions under the unelected state attorney’s administration.
Any information put forward by the unelected administration or otherwise is a misuse and diversion of public resources. While knowing these falsities do not serve the people of our circuit, they continue to launch defamatory attacks against me, fully aware that our office will have to divert critical resources to respond to accusations driven purely by political motives.”
The Wren Collective sent this statement:
“Wren has spent five years proudly working with prosecutors and law enforcement on policies that reduce crime and improve community safety. It’s no secret- we are regularly quoted in the media as experts who work with elected officials, including the State Attorney in Orlando. Such assistance is common in progressive and conservative circles. However, any allegation that we make prosecutorial decisions on cases, rather than helping with communications when needed, is false and defamatory, and also disrespectful towards the dedicated prosecutors who have worked with State Attorney Worrell. These false allegations are made by an individual who has spent significant time trying to remove progressive prosecutors, a fact not disclosed in this report.”
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