ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Seven months after she was seen walking into the Polk County courthouse to face a Grand Jury investigation, Monique Worrell walked into a press conference to blast her political opponents.
“Those actively engaged in the investigation have repeatedly shown themselves to be just plain bitter and disgruntled about this community’s decision to re-elect me as their state attorney,” Worrell said.
Worrell was responding to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a former member of her executive team, Eric Edwards, who also oversaw administrative complaints during Worrell’s first term.
Edwards said he investigated Worrell’s chief of staff, Keisha Mulfort, for storing documents on a Gmail account. He said Worrell, Mulfort and others would systemically destroy records, including after Gov. DeSantis suspended Worrell in 2023, which led to his investigations being presented to the Grand Jury.
Members of the Grand Jury wrapped up their work in April without indicting anyone, his lawsuit said.
“The lawsuit falsely states that records were destroyed at my direction,” Worrell responded Thursday, calling the effort a witch hunt. “First, let me be very clear, there was no such direction that was ever given from me to anyone on my team during my time in office.”
Worrell said the investigations ramped up in the days following her election win and claimed it was an ill-disguised effort to keep her out of power.
She said she would ask the court to allow her to release the documents collected during the investigation because Grand Jury proceedings are supposed to be secret. Both she and the team of prosecutors investigating her declined to comment on the proceedings, citing Florida law.
Worrell said she is implementing new rules in her office to prevent additional investigations from being tainted by politics. When asked if there were other investigations besides the two targeting her and Mulfort, she said she was not aware of any.
“I will continue to focus on the matters that the voters of this circuit sent me back to this seat to focus on,” she said. “I will focus on solutions to real problems, instead of to problems that don’t exist.”
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
