A government watchdog group wants the First District Court of Appeal to reverse its decision to delete the Hope Florida grand jury report from public records, arguing it was denied its rightful opportunity to intervene in the case.
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The Florida Center for Government accountability filed a 67-page motion late Thursday asking for a rehearing on the court’s decision to expunge the report.
The group had been pushing for months to get a lower court to release the grand jury report. The court approved releasing a partially redacted report, as requested by Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell, and ordered that he notify the organization should that ruling be appealed.
But then the unredacted report was leaked to CBS News Miami, and Republican state leaders, who’d been trying for months to keep the report sealed, went in secret to the appeals court, which on Oct. 7 ruled it should be expunged.
Those pushing for the report to be kept under wraps included Attorney General James Uthmeier and other high-ranking GOP officials named as participants in what the grand jury called a “scheme” to divert public money through the Hope Florida Foundation to political purposes.
Uthmeier, appointed to the post by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is running for election and faces a Democratic challenger on Nov. 3.
The watchdog group said it should have been notified of the appeal hearing at the First DCA and been allowed to make its case. Instead, it learned of the appeal only after the court issued its ruling.
Now it is asking that court to reconsider its decision.
“Florida’s grand juries have reported on the misuse of public money for generations. That is the citizens’ check on their own government, and we are asking the court to restore it,” said Barbara Petersen, counsel for center.
If the DCA won’t hear its motion, the group wants it to refer the matter to the Florida Supreme Court as a case of great importance. In its view, the First DCA decision is in conflict with previous court decisions and a 1977 Florida Supreme Court opinion that a court doesn’t need an indictment to publicly report on the misappropriation of tax dollars.
The group’s motion is the latest in a series of legal maneuvers that have kept grand jury report in the public eye despite the efforts of state Republicans leaders.
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Lawyers for the Republican Party of Florida used the expungement order — which isn’t final until the court rules on the watchdog group’s new motion — as the basis of a lawsuit filed this week against the sponsors, the Florida Democratic Party, several statewide Democratic candidates- and TV stations that aired a TV-spot quoting the report. A letter sent to several TV stations said broadcasting the content or gist of the grand jury report could lead to criminal charges.
The ad targets Uthmeier, saying the Hope Florida scandal makes him unfit to be attorney general. His opponent, Jose Javier Rodriguez, is listed as one of the ad’s sponsors.
Days later, the GOP withdrew the lawsuit. That came after a circuit judge refused to grant the Republican party an immediate temporary restraining order and the ad ended its scheduled run. The Democrats, however, are running a similar ad on social media sites.
The grand jury report places Uthmeier at the heart of a “sophisticated scheme” to divert $10 million from a $67 milion Medicaid settlement to a political committee that fought a 2024 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana. The grand jury said that was a misuse of public money.
Uthmeier claims he did nothing illegal or improper.
First DCA Judge Lance Neff, an appointee of DeSantis, delivered a blistering takedown of Leon County grand jury and Campbell in his order expunging the report. He also ordered Campbell not to notify the center of the appeal.
Neff said the grand jury report exceeded its authority by naming the state officials involved in the transfer of the $10 million but then not indicting them or charging them with a crime.
Neff’s opinion also rests on his claim that the $10 million was never public money, which the center disputes.
Other records, including those in the court file and reported on last year by the Orlando Sentinel, show the money was meant to go to the state’s coffers to pay for health insurance for poor Floridians.
“Whether the $10 million was public money is a disputed question, and the record answers it,” said Michael Barfield, executive director of the center.
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