A Florida judge made national headlines earlier today as she dismissed a lawsuit filed against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Transportation and a company involved with the relocation of undocumented immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, with a layover in Florida.
According to sources including the Florida News Service, the Tampa Bay Times and The Floridian Press’ editor Javier Manjarres, Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey dismissed a lawsuit alleging that DeSantis and FDOT didn’t comply with public-records requests.
“The burden is on the plaintiff to prove they made a specific request for public records, that Vertol received the request, the requested public records exist and Vertol refused to provide them in a timely manner,” Dempsey wrote in one of the decisions. “While plaintiff meets the first and second prongs of the test, there is no evidence that the public records exist or that Vertol refused to produce public records in a timely manner.”
DISMISSAL FOLLOWS ANOTHER RECENT LEGAL VICTORY FOR DESANTIS
DeSantis’ enjoyed another legal victory just ten days prior to the dismissal of the migrant relocation public records lawsuit, when a federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by an elected Florida state attorney who was ousted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the attorney’s commitment to not prosecute people seeking or providing abortions. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that DeSantis does not have to reinstate Andrew Warren (D), who the governor suspended for neglect of duty and incompetence in August after Warren pledged to not enforce bans on abortion and transgender surgery on minors.
Since 2004, O’Hern has worked with political campaigns in roles ranging from major projects involving nationwide digital marketing for U.S. Presidential candidates, U.S. Congressmen, state governors, and state representatives. O’Hern’s journalism background includes news reporting and editing for various organizations and news publications in Alabama and Florida since 2002. O’Hern graduated from Samford University in Birmingham, Ala with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science.