Gov. Ron DeSantis shocked Tampa Bay Thursday when he removed Andrew Warren from his office as Hillsborough County state’s attorney.
DeSantis said Warren, a Democrat and rising star in progressive law enforcement circles, has put himself “above the law” by pledging not to enforce laws restricting abortion or children’s ability to seek certain treatments for gender dysphoria. DeSantis used a suspension clause in the Florida constitution, meaning Warren was essentially fired.
Let’s take a closer look at Warren’s record, looking at where it came from and how we arrived at Thursday’s decision.
1. Warren had a major disappointment in 2016.
Andrew Warren was a relatively anonymous Democratic attorney until election night in 2016, when he unseated Mark Ober, the Republican incumbent, in the race for Hillsborough County district attorney. At the time, The Times called Warren’s victory “a stunning upset on election night.”
Warren, a former federal prosecutor, ran an aggressive campaign attacking her opponent for a perceived absence and lack of sensitivity to crime victims. (At the time, Ober said both characterizations were misleading.) Warren also promised to rehabilitate convicted felons and institute policies to stop criminals from becoming repeat offenders.
2. His office helped exonerate a wrongfully convicted man who had been in prison for nearly four decades.
In 2018, Warren established a conviction review unit at the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office. It wasn’t long before evidence provided to the department by the Innocence Project led a judge to overturn the conviction of Robert DuBois, a man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for 37 years. DuBoise was convicted in 1980 of murdering Barbara Grams.
The device was one of Warren’s many progressive initiatives. He rarely sought the death penalty in capital murder cases. And he had steered his office away from charging people for driving on a suspended license if the suspension was due to a financial obligation, such as an unpaid speeding ticket.
3. Warren is a thorn in the side of conservatives.
Perhaps the most famous moment of Warren’s tenure as prosecutor came during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020, the prosecutor supported the arrest of a megachurch pastor who personally conducted church services. DeSantis then signed an executive order allowing the personal services to continue.
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In response, Warren called DeSantis’ move “weak” and “spineless.” The charges against the pastor were later dropped.
Warren also criticized some of DeSantis’ legislative priorities. He said HB 1 of 2021, the so-called “anti-riot” bill, amounts to “criminalizing peaceful protest.”
The anti-protest bills (HB1/SB484) do not help prosecutors and directly undermine 1st Am free speech and assembly by criminalizing the peaceful protests of the many based on the illegal behavior of the few. I shared my thoughts with the Legislature this morning.https://t.co/ZYN6MCFItK
— Andrew Warren (@AndrewWarrenFL) March 10, 2021
He declined to prosecute 67 people arrested during the summer 2020 protests against police brutality, angering some conservatives.
And after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the abortion precedent set by Roe v. Wade, Warren said she would not prosecute abortion patients. In a tweet, he reasoned that Florida’s constitution has a clause protecting the right to privacy.
That proclamation was one of DeSantis’ justifications for removing the prosecutor.
4. Warren is accused of being funded by out-of-state liberal billionaires.
On Thursday, in response to a question about whether it was appropriate to remove an elected official, DeSantis alluded to Warren’s campaign support from wealthy progressives hoping to overhaul the criminal justice system.
“We can go back and look at some of these elections and all the money that’s coming from people who don’t live in Florida and are really trying to push an agenda to the people of Florida,” DeSantis said. (The governor has received tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions from out-of-state billionaires.)
Rumors of support for Warren from financiers such as George Soros date back to 2016.
According to a The Times profile of Warren published in 2020, Soros may have helped Warren’s campaign.
“We understand that he has given money to the state (Democratic) party,” Warren said at the time. “And the state party money … went to support various candidates. And I have very little idea of the amount of money he gave, who it went to, etc.
5. Tampa has seen more murders in recent years.
Tampa’s violent crime rate has risen sharply in recent years, with the city on track for the most homicides in 2021 since 1994, according to Tampa Police Department statistics compiled by the Times editorial board.
While such crimes occur statewide and nationwide, Tampa has seen slightly more homicides than most other Florida cities, the editorial board said in April.
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