Marcos Lopez Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez (Nick Papantonis)

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On Monday, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier held a news conference to address the backlog of non-arrest cases in Orange and Osceola county.

“Just last week alone, she turned down 90 cases from the sheriff’s office here,” Uthmeier said. ”That’s not acceptable, and we’re gonna be watching."

READ: Florida AG offers 6 state prosecutors to help State Attorney Worrell with backlog

Uthmeier said that he’ll provide six prosecutors to State Attorney Monique Worrell, to assist with the 13,000 cases.

Worrell is the current state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, covering the two counties.

There was some controversy when Worrell decided to implement a policy that would limit the cases her office reviews when law enforcement did not make arrests.

Worrell claims although this will help, it only scratches the surface of a longstanding issue.

Osceola County Sheriff Marcos Lopez said that this assistance is crucial to getting things moving.

“If they have a case log like that, you know they definitely need to get some help, and the state stepping up to assign new attorneys to help get that moving is important because we don’t want people to feel like victims of crimes and not get any results because we cannot provide the service because of the shortage,” Lopez said.

Worrell initially requested for 13 prosecutors to go through the files with her.

She argues that backlog is the reason she implemented a policy to limit number of cases going her office, targeting cases where no parties are arrested.

She that the majority of the non-arrest cases are stem from orange county.

READ: ‘Removal from office’ possible, state tells Mayor Buddy Dyer in letter regarding immigration policy

Today, I sent a letter to @orlandomayor reminding him that the sanctuary policy adopted by the city in 2018, the ‘Trust Act,’ is void under a 2019 law signed by @GovRonDeSantis.

If the city enforces the policy as Mayor Dyer suggested, especially with @OrlandoPolice signing a… pic.twitter.com/InLAJRIDeQ
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) April 14, 2025

In a letter sent the same day, Uthmeier also threatened to remove Mayor Buddy Dyer from office if he adheres to the “Trust Act Policy” and decides that the city does not have to be proactive in immigration enforcement.

Uthmeier took to X to say that the “Trust Act Policy” is void under a 2019 law signed by Gov. DeSantis.

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