New leadership terminates staff member on maternity leave following Worrell’s suspension – Orlando Sentinel – Top

A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of Monique Worrell, an executive staff member at the State Attorney’s Office who was on maternity leave was notified of her termination when investigators with the office accompanied by law enforcement made an unexpected visit to her home.

Keisha Mulfort, the former chief of staff for the State Attorney’s Office and Worrell, went on leave on May 30, the day her daughter was born. She has spent time in the hospital due to birth-related complications, she told the Sentinel.

Her leave, according to her lawyer Fritz Scheller, is pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), a federal law providing certain workers job-protected leave when taking time off for medical reasons including pregnancy or birth. Scheller contends that her firing as well as the demands made to her after Worrell’s suspension may violate federal law protecting workers.

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On Wednesday morning, Mulfort’s boss, Worrell, was suspended from office by DeSantis and replaced with Orange County judge Andrew Bain. That same morning, Bain’s newly hired chief assistant, Ryan Williams — who unsuccessfully ran against Worrell in 2020 — called Mulfort “from another employee’s private cellphone,” according to a letter of legal representation from Scheller to the State Attorney’s Office.

Williams asked Mulfort “to provide access” and “to change administrative profiles on the office’s social media pages,” according to the letter.

“The demand was perplexing,” the letter said. “As Ms. Mulfort informed [Williams], your office already had the passwords, which had been changed during her leave.”

Another employee from the State Attorney’s Office then “demanded that [Mulfort] respond to Williams” by 9 a.m. on Thursday, wrote Scheller.

Mulfort contacted Scheller Wednesday night and asked if he would act as a mediator between her and the State Attorney’s Office. He agreed to take her on pro bono.

The next morning, Scheller said he sent the State Attorney’s Office the letter, notifying them that he was representing Mulfort and alleging that the demands seem to violate Mulfort’s rights protected under federal law.

“Ms. Mulfort is willing to assist your office with any requests that do not violate her rights under the FMLA,” the attorney’s letter said, later adding, “While I expect that we can easily resolve this matter, I caution you that notwithstanding the recent changes in leadership in your office, your office’s FMLA obligations remain the same.”

In addition to sending the letter, Scheller said he also called the office’s general counsel and Williams but received no reply. Scheller said he wanted to set up a time to meet and work out the matter with the State Attorney’s Office.

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On Thursday afternoon, however, multiple personnel from the State Attorney’s Office including sworn investigators and two Orange County deputies went to Mulfort’s house. She was upstairs nursing her daughter when they knocked on her front door, she told the Sentinel.

Body worn camera footage released by the Sheriff’s Office on Friday shows Mulfort came to the door with her baby and quickly told the SAO employees to contact Scheller, who had reached out to the office hours earlier. The employees again requested access to change administrative profiles on the public office’s social media pages.

“I’m literally with my daughter right now,” Mulfort said.

A deputy standing on her porch replied, “Ma’am I don’t believe that changes any facts of returning property.”

Mulfort told the SAO employees she was blindsided and said she would be willing to make arrangements for a later time, calling their unannounced visit “unacceptable” and “ridiculous.”

“I am on FMLA and y’all are coming here like I’m a criminal,” Mulfort said. “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.”

One of the employees handed Mulfort a packet, which included a letter saying her employment with the State Attorney’s Office was terminated effective Wednesday, Aug. 9, the day Worrell was suspended. Mulfort said that’s how she found out she was fired.

The letter also asked that she return a cellphone, iPad, building and parking lot access cards and a Toyota Camry, and further requested that she “[r]elinquish ‘administrator’ rights of the office’s social media accounts.”

“There are no reasons for what they did. … I’m being treated like a criminal, even though I’m someone who has served this community,” Mulfort told the Sentinel, adding that Bain in April was a guest at her baby shower. “How am I supposed to feel … and what message is that sending?”

After this story was published online, Jason Gunn, a spokesperson for the State Attorney’s Office, said in an emailed statement to the Sentinel that “Mulfort’s FMLA status” was not a “legal bar to the termination process.”

Gunn said attempts to notify Mulfort of her firing were “unsuccessful” and that it’s “standard procedure for at least two investigators and a member of law enforcement to make in-person visits to employee’s homes.”

“The State Attorney’s Office followed its standard operating procedures to effectuate the separation process,” the statement said. “The State Attorney thanks Ms. Mulfort for her public service.”

In a statement, Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Michelle Guido confirmed deputies accompanied “two sworn law enforcement officers who are investigators at the State Attorney’s Office.”

“The deputies were requested to stand by solely to record the interaction on body worn camera,” Guido said. “While it is not uncommon for deputies to provide standby services, this should have been handled exclusively by the sworn investigators at the State Attorney’s Office.”

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“The Sheriff was not aware and did not approve of the standby request,” the statement continued. “Had it been brought to him, he would have rejected this request and left it in the hands of the State Attorney’s Office.”

Scheller, Mulfort’s lawyer, called the situation “highly disturbing” and said he is committed to pursuing all legal remedies.

“To paraphrase the philosopher Hannah Arendt, the cruel actions by DeSantis’ minions in the State Attorney’s office proves that the greatest evil is not necessarily perpetuated by leaders who carry the stench of autocracy but rather is found in the evil committed by nobodies, that is, by human beings who abandon their humanity at the altar of ambition,” Scheller wrote in an email.

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