A Florida judge ordered the DeSantis administration to pay the legal fees of news outlets seeking public records about the death of an abused child.
Child welfare authorities’ refusal, for well over a year, to hand over documents detailing the state’s failed efforts to protect a Miami toddler will cost Florida taxpayers $376,665 — money that otherwise could have been spent on services for at-risk children.
It is one of several public records battles that have played out during the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Barbara Areces, who earlier this year censured the Department of Children & Families for defying the state’s open government laws, awarded attorneys for the Miami Herald and other news organizations the money in an order that closes out a nearly two-year litigation.
In her five-page order, Areces said the legal fees generated by the news outlets seeking to enforce the state’s public records law were “appropriate and reasonable.”
The dispute concerned Rashid Bryant, a 22-month-old boy who died on Nov. 6, 2020 from complications of acute and chronic blunt force injuries. Rashid’s death, the Medical Examiner’s Office wrote, was partly the result of “parental neglect.” Rashid and his nine siblings had been the subject of about 25 reports to Florida’s child abuse hotline, and the children had been in and out of foster care.
The boy’s family had been facing eviction at the time his mother called 911 to report he was in distress; in fact, Rashid had already perished.
Under Florida’s public records law — originally approved by voters in 1909, but later enshrined in the state Constitution following a voter referendum – all documents detailing Rashid’s involvement with the state’s child welfare system should have been open to public inspection upon a finding that his death resulted from abuse or neglect.
But DCF insisted for more than a year that the agency was still investigating the cause of his death, and, therefore, agency records were exempt from public disclosure.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/article269499212.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Democratic Party’s leadership better be keeping a list of Deranged DeSanctimonious’s history of theofascist autocratic leadership as governor of the autocratic RED state of Florida.
MAGA RINO voters don’t care, but the majority of voters will, if they are reminded repeatedly so they can’t forget what’s at stake if toxic DDS ends up running for president in 2024.
Ron DeSantis, once a MAGA acolyte, is attempting to put distance between him and the orange menace. He knows Trump remains popular among the most deranged so DeSantis said nothing about Trump’s recent dinner with an Anti-Semite and bipolar rapper “Ye.” The ultimate opportunist, he sees opportunity in not offending the MAGAverse. Also, it is likely DeSantis agrees with racial and religious bigotry.
DeSantis prefers to pull strings away from the prying eyes of the media while ignoring Florida’s so-called sunshine laws. He meets with his cronies in the legislature to dream up anti-democratic policies all in the name of his own version of so-called freedom. Even though the public voted to restore voting rights to felons, he and his cronies attached a bunch of fees to subvert the intent of the vote. Before the midterms felons received voting information anyway. However, when they showed up to vote, some were arrested. I think this stunt was designed to give credence to DeSantis’ unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, which is red meat to his paranoid base.
DeSantis like Trump is a threat to democracy, and Democrats need to be prepared for his lies and misinformation. He would be bad news for labor and human rights in this country. He despises the federal government and would work to dismantle the democratic scaffold of this country. With the Sharia Court in his pocket, he could do substantial damage that would inhibit any opposition to his power. What he is doing in Florida would be a road map for what he would do to this country. We must not unleash this snake on our fragile democratic nation.
DeSantis strategy is to say as little as possible about Trump because he knows the Republican party would like nothing better than to dump Trump, but party officials and DeSantis do not want to do anything to alienate Trump’s base.
So mum’s the word until the time comes when they cut bait and throw Trump to the wolves.
DeSantis has privatized the foster care system in order to save money. One outcome is the death of this 16 year old girl, on the bathroom floor of a motel, after she was trafficked for sex.
The Sun Sentinel found:
When Florida’s child welfare system takes in a girl, the odds she will be trafficked for sex increase.
Florida exploited a loophole so it could keep sending vulnerable girls to group homes, despite a federal law that discourages their use. Teen girls at those homes have been preyed on by traffickers who sometimes “shark” the block, waiting for a girl to walk to the corner store.
Young people with a history of commercial sexual exploitation run away from group homes at an alarming rate, and those runaways are even more susceptible to sex trafficking. Yet, once they’re gone, no one tries very hard to find them, and nothing in Florida law requires them to.
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/trafficking-investigation/fl-ne-sex-trafficking-investigation-dcf-group-foster-homes-20221127-aej4qtliafeubelqxr2u7hsdya-story.html
De Santis should pay for the fine himself. The money certainly should NOT come out of the funds used to help children in the foster care system
“No one is above the law”
Ron, like Trump’s
Above the law
And we, like chumps
Believe the saw
This article got me curious about the details of the DeSantis migrant flights from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. I was stunned at how crazy the story is. The stunt cost around $34,000 per immigrant.