Given the option of choosing between the bereaved family of a 22-year-old crash victim and the Tesla that killed her, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sided with the car.
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Along with state attorneys general in Alabama and Georgia, Uthmeier leapt headfirst into Tesla’s appeal of a $243 million verdict in a Miami courtroom. Uthmeier is asking that the verdict be set aside or the damages slashed.
Naibel Benavides Leon died and Dillon Angulo was seriously injured in 2019 when a driver using Tesla’s automated driving system drove 62 miles per hour through a Key Largo intersection. Their families sued. A jury found Tesla was 33% responsible for the crash, and that its Autopilot system was both defective and gave drivers a false sense of security.
U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom rebuffed Tesla’s request to toss the verdict, writing that trial evidence “more than supports” it.
The $243 million penalty is substantial, but not crippling, for Tesla, a $1.4 trillion company. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had enough money to spend $259 million to reelect Trump and other Republicans. That includes $10 million steered to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign in 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported. Uthmeier was DeSantis’ chief of staff and deeply involved in fundraising for the race. He could hardly have missed it.
There’s no evidence that the campaign contribution moved Uthmeier to aid Tesla in its Miami appeal, but his involvement comes on the heels of questions about other cases.
Jason Garcia, who runs the government accountibility site Seeking Rents (jasongarcia.substack.com/) first reported Uthmeier’s reelection campaign accepted $25,000 from Miami car dealership mogul Norman Braman and his wife, then promptly inserted his office into a lawsuit Braman Automotive was fighting. The attorney general’s letter even insinuated that Braman’s courtroom opponent might be breaking the law.
This month, The Tampa Bay Times reported Uthmeier’s campaign accepted $25,000 each from South Florida developer Mathew Lazenby’s trust and Two Roads Development, both involved in legal disputes. Uthmeier’s office intervened in their cases, too.
In the Tesla case, Uthmeier argues he is defending Florida’s business-friendly tort laws. It’s political cherry-picking: This is the same attorney general who refused to defend Florida’s gun laws.
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It’s not the only selective lawyering.
Florida’s state pension fund has held stock in both Target and Tesla. Backlash to Musk’s reckless DOGE and extreme politics helped tank Tesla shares, which are down more than 18% this year alone as of July 21.This is costing the state money it needs to keep its promises to thousands of retired state employees and support the budget overall.
Shareholders trying to recoup stock losses have sued companies over less. That’s what Uthmeier did when Target stock nosedived. Blaming its Pride Month promotion for losses that impacted the state’s pension fund, he filed a class action lawsuit. There’s been no similar press conference, no high-profile state shareholder suit against Tesla, though.
Instead, Uthmeier echoes Tesla’s talking points in his appellate brief, wringing his hands over how massive settlements raise the cost of “socially beneficial products” and “inhibit improvements in auto safety technology.”
He has it backward. Society benefits when concern over consequences — including stiff monetary consequences — prompts manufacturers to pursue better safety technology. After all, Tesla did not voluntarily recall two million cars in 2023 to update Autopilot because of innovative safety research. It recalled them after a two-year long National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation into crashes.
If Uthmeier’s appeal in the Tesla case smacks of political grandstanding, the attorney general has no one but himself to blame.
His office is investigating the NFL on behalf of white people and going after Pillsbury over bread ingredients. A spokeswoman labeled the use of gestational surrogates modern-day slavery. Uthmeier was behind the disastrous Made-for-Fox News Everglades immigrant detention camp. He’s up to his neck in the Hope Florida scandal that funneled Medicaid money for child welfare and medical care into the governor’s crusade against a referendum that would have legalized marijuana.
If Uthmeier wants to be taken seriously, he will have work much harder for all Floridians and much less on clickbait, special interests and the well-connected. He should have started by not protecting a trillion-dollar business and its billionaire-donor executive from their own bad business decisions.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to [email protected].
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