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9 Investigates looks into why State Attorney is evicting prosecutors from Orange County offices

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — State Attorney Aramis Ayala is evicting a team of outside prosecutors from office space in Orange County.

That prosecuting team is at the office five days a week prosecuting 15 of her toughest cases for her.

The team has has been handling Ayala's death penalty cases since March 2017 when Ayala refused to seek the death penalty during her time in office before then-Governor Rick Scott stripped responsibility from her for more than two dozen capital cases.

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Several months after, Ayala sent State Attorney Brad King's team of prosecutors to offices at the Orange County Jail.

Former Chief Judge Belvin Perry pulled no punches when asked about the changes.

"Here we go again with something that should not be an issue," said Perry. "I would be curious to find out out how this space is going to be utilized now, or will it just sit empty?"

The new offices for the prosecutors will cost about $11,000 to use, which will come from Ayala's $1.3 million yearly budget.

Ayala's spokesperson argued that the space at the jail could be better utilized by her staff because she said they serve the citizens of Orange and Osceola counties.

The spokesperson, Eryka Washington, released a statement to Channel 9:

State Attorney Aramis Ayala remains committed to assisting the 5th Circuit in the successful prosecution of Executive Assignments.

For nearly two years, State Attorney Ayala has ensured that members of their prosecution team have had access to personal offices, cubicles and conference rooms. Moving forward, access to offices and conference rooms will be consistent with how we generally manage Executive Assignments. Offices and conference rooms will be available to the Fifth Circuit to use whenever there is a court proceeding or whenever it is a more convenient location for family members of the victims or witnesses to meet with prosecutors.

Since the number of cases assigned to the 5th circuit has diminished significantly (they converted numerous death sentences to life) and also because 9th Circuit office space is limited, State Attorney Ayala has requested that the 5th Circuit vacate the permanent office space so it can be more efficiently utilized for full-time personnel who serve the citizens of Orange and Osceola counties.

To put it in perspective, each of the 6 Ninth Circuit Homicide Attorneys handle caseloads more than double what the entire 5th Circuit is handling

Parry told Channel 9 the office space the prosecutors were removed from had been vacant for years.

Ayala did not tell Channel 9 how the office space will now be used.

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