Florida pays $40K to settle civil rights suit by former top Worrell staffer fired amid 2023 suspension
The Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office settled a lawsuit last month brought by Keisha Mulfort, State Attorney Monique Worrell's former chief of staff who was fired amid her boss's 2023 suspension.
In exchange for Mulfort abandoning the lawsuit, the agency, represented by the Florida Office of the Attorney General, will pay her $40,000. Of that amount, she will get $15,107.40 for compensatory damages and $6,474.60 in back pay. The rest will go toward attorney fees, according to the agreement.
Details of the April 21 settlement were first reported by WKMG, which published the full document online. A lawyer for Mulfort did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Mulfort was months into her maternity leave after the birth of her daughter when she was fired Aug. 10, 2023, by the State Attorney's Office a day after Andrew Bain was appointed top prosecutor by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis suspended Worrell Aug. 9, 2023, for what he said was neglect of duty.
The settlement ties one of the remaining loose ends of Worrell's previous administration. Her ouster and subsequent return became one of the most-watched dramas in Central Florida politics — in which a progressive prosecutor in a majority-Democratic judicial circuit was pit against DeSantis as he looked to remove anyone he deemed too soft on crime.
A spokesperson for Worrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mulfort was notified of her termination by Orange County deputies who came to her home demanding she return agency-issued devices, vehicles and access cards as well as relinquish access to the office's social media accounts. At the time, she was in contact with the office through her attorney, who sought to amicably resolve the matter of turning over access to the online profiles.
'I am on FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) and y'all are coming here like I'm a criminal,' Mulfort said at the time as shown on body-worn camera video. 'Regardless of what has happened at that office … regardless of what you have with Monique Worrell, I am on FMLA and y'all should have made arrangements. That would have been a respectful thing to do.'
In June she filed a federal lawsuit against Bain — someone she once called a friend who had attended her child's baby shower — claiming he had violated her employment protections under FMLA. At the time, a spokesperson for Bain's office said they rejected the claims, adding they took 'compliance with state and federal employment laws very seriously.'
'I did so much for the community and to have everything just uprooted for political posturing,' Mulfort said when the lawsuit was filed. 'It wasn't just insulting, it was infuriating, and it was a slap in the face to everyone that voted for Monique Worrell.'
According to the settlement agreement, the State Attorney's Office denied any wrongdoing. Mulfort, who managed Worrell's successful reelection campaign last year, now works for ACLU of Florida, but the agreement does not preclude her from returning to work for her former boss.
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But cheaper services, domestic work, construction and automotive labor are things many people often benefit from by way of undocumented immigrants. It's become a way of life for much of Los Angeles' upper economic classes. When I say "way of life," I am referring to something deeper then the mere economic. I am talking about the culture of communities, the norms and relationships we grow accustomed to. This is the second category of nuanced reality people need to understand when observing Los Angeles in this moment. It's the nuances of community. Illegal immigrants and their families, including their children who've inherited birthright citizenship, are part of our community. They are the abuela with the tamale stand by the park, the mechanic you joke around with at the auto shop or the gardener who feels like an uncle. 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I don't blame federal agents for doing their job or for believing in it. This doesn't change the fact that, in Los Angeles, ICE agents are the ones who look like aliens. Trump's deportation policy stands in the shadow of American history All of this highlights an irony in the Trump administration's approach to rectifying the immigration issue. As conservative as the principles of national sovereignty and rule of law are, conservatism also stands for the continuity of community, the respecting of norms, customs and relationships that give a place its character. These norms and relationships sometimes evolve in initially unlawful or tragic circumstances. American frontiersmen invaded Native American territory, even against the edicts of the U.S. government, at almost every turn in the early expansion of our nation. We can say that happened long ago, so it doesn't matter now. But would it be right to uproot families now because of the unlawful invasion of Native American territory generations ago? Many of those who are most incensed about the porousness of our border and the accommodations we make to the undocumented are also the most proud of our American founding and the frontier spirit of our heritage. There are differences of opinion with respect to the scope of deportations, even among those who advocate for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Some favor deporting only flagrant criminals; others want those who crossed the border recently to be returned to their home countries. Then there are some who favor deporting as many illegal immigrants as possible, regardless of their behavior and their contributions since arriving. For those who argue for mass deportation, how can we look at illegal immigrants as criminals without regarding in the same way our own ancestors who invaded Native Americans' territory and violently displaced the inhabitants? If the view is that our American ancestors, while worse than imperfect, laid by God's grace the foundation for communities that grew into a great nation, then isn't there a case to be made for charity and accommodation in dealing with most of our undocumented neighbors now? Of course, certain people make having empathy for the undocumented very hard. That includes not only those who wave Mexican flags in the face of legal authority while insisting on their "right" to remain in the nation illegally. It also includes their allies who take zero inventory of the damage done to communities and to the rule of law by policies that allow for mass illegal immigration. Still, when my best friend's first son was born, I remember his mother, an elderly woman who immigrated to the United States decades ago, approaching me at the celebration of her grandson's birth with a gift basket that held a Mexican flag and an American flag. She said to me: "Mi nieto es un Mexicano y un Americano tambien." ("My grandson is a Mexican and an American too.") Her point was that her family was proud of their heritage, but they were also proud to be a part of a nation and a community that she and I shared across the gulf of language and legal status. LA has a right to be angry. But we need a better answer. Personally, I might aggressively shut the border, and build a wall if it actually helped, because I believe that we blew past a reasonable volume of immigration a long time ago. It's a good thing that Trump has essentially frightened the world into no longer trying to cross our border illegally. That had to end. Democratic politicians like California Gov. Gavin Newsom have invited the pendulum swing on immigration by pushing it so far the other way. Now, Trump, never one to be concerned with proportionality, threatens to escalate tensions further in the name of rule of law. Yet, even if you think the crackdown on illegal immigration is necessary, it is not conservative to crash through neighborhoods to round up people who have become part of the community. America must understand that Los Angeles is not Omaha, not Savannah and not Des Moines. Los Angeles has a right to be angry. Los Angeles has a right to be LA. There should be a better way. Sadly, it seems like nobody is looking for one. John Wood Jr. is a columnist for USA TODAY Opinion. He is national ambassador for Braver Angels, a former nominee for Congress, former vice chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, musical artist, and a noted writer and speaker on subjects including racial and political reconciliation. Follow him on X: @JohnRWoodJr
