ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Governor’s decision to suspend State Attorney Monique Worrell put the Orange County Courthouse on pause for most of Wednesday.
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Dozens of people walked out of the Courthouse confused, angry and annoyed after learning there would be no criminal hearings or trials because there were no sworn prosecutors.
People were turned away and asked to come back to the court Wednesday afternoon to have their hearing. Some were even asked to reschedule.
It’s because there were simply no sworn prosecutors.
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Chief Judge Lisa Munyon sent an email to all Orange County judges shortly before 8 a.m. saying all Assistant State Attorneys were not sworn to legally conduct business until the newly-appointed interim State Attorney Andrew Bain swore them in.
“For the first time in my legal career, there’s like no audience, there are no clients, there are no state attorneys,” said Alexander Smith-Johnson, an attorney who was leaving the courthouse Wednesday morning. “It’s definitely frantic here.”
“We were told somebody got fired this morning. They don’t fire people at the end of the day down here?,” said Gabriel Jones.
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Jones and her nephew Timothy Carthan drove all the way from Atlanta to be at Carthan’s hearing in the Orange County Court House. Jones says they drove over six hours to learn there would be no hearing Wednesday morning.
“There was no one in court. We were told to sign a paper and come back,” Jones said. “We got to drive back tomorrow because I got to go back to work.”
Courtroom upon courtroom was locked. Many halls were empty. Just a few people were waiting outside the halls until they heard word on when court would start back.
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Many courtrooms had signs stating they would reconvene at 1:30 p.m.
“I can’t afford to be there at 1.30. I have kids. School is starting back. But I can’t have a warrant on my record,” said Kimberly Abraham after learning of the news.
Several people told WFTV they couldn’t return to the courthouse for their postponed hearing. One man even wrote on a sign outside of the courtroom saying, “I already spent my Uber money.” He was at his scheduled 9 a.m. hearing before it was canceled.
Channel 9 asked Orange County Court Administration if judges are issuing warrants to those who didn’t show up to the hearing that were postponed today.
We’re told judges looked at the circumstances of each case to see if a warrant was appropriate.
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