State attorney candidate was fired from agency he now wants to lead, records show
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A Republican candidate for Orange-Osceola state attorney is running to lead an office that fired him after concluding he made “poor judgment decisions” as a prosecutor by withholding evidence that could potentially clear criminal defendants.
Seth Hyman’s three-year tenure as an assistant state attorney ended in October 2017 with him being marked ineligible for rehire, according to records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
Now a criminal defense lawyer, Hyman is one of two Republican candidates vying to become Central Florida’s top prosecutor.
In 2017, a review of Hyman’s recent cases found “a pattern of behavior that is in conflict with the mission and ethical standards” of the Orange-Osceola state attorney’s office, then-chief assistant state attorney Deborah Barra wrote in a memo.
Hyman sought to suppress witness testimony, a breathalyzer test and body camera footage that were favorable to defendants, according to the memo. Prosecutors are ethically bound to turn over “exculpatory evidence” that exonerates or tends to exonerate defendants.
Asked about the termination, Hyman denied any unethical behavior and said his firing stemmed from philosophical differences with Aramis Ayala, the former Democratic state attorney who headed the office then. Ayala had an “agenda of lenient prosecution,” he said.
“I was a tough prosecutor,” Hyman added. “She, as the leader of that office, decided who she wanted to work there. It was a political decision.”
Hyman said he supported former State Attorney Jeff Ashton, who Ayala ousted in an upset in the 2016 Democratic primary.
He said he handled thousands of cases as a prosecutor, and Barra’s memo contained “untruths and misrepresentations.” He pointed to his Florida Bar profile, where he is listed as a lawyer in “good standing” with no disciplinary actions in the past 10 years.
Hyman will face off against Thomas Feiter, founder of The Fighter Law Firm, in the Aug. 20 GOP primary. Barra, who wrote the memo, is endorsing Feiter for state attorney, saying in a campaign video that she is a “lifelong Democrat” but is supporting Feiter, a Republican.
In another campaign video, Feiter raised Hyman’s termination as something voters should consider, saying the community deserves a state attorney who “upholds the highest standards of integrity and transparency.”
The Orange County Republican Party, however, endorsed Hyman and wasn’t swayed by the termination, chairwoman Erin Huntley said.
“State attorney offices are very political,” Huntley said. “Mr. Hyman was not aligned with the administration there. It seemed like they had it in for him. It was a difference of opinion. He has gone on and built a successful practice.”
Others, though, say the allegations were serious and went far beyond a philosophical disagreement.
Keith Robertson, an Orlando lawyer involved in one of Hyman’s disputed cases, said withholding evidence is one of the most egregious ethical violations a prosecutor can make because it can result in innocent people being sent to prison.
“I think Seth’s motivation was winning — not justice,” Robertson said. “Nobody should be in charge of the state attorney’s office when there are allegations … that they set aside the Constitution to convict a possibly innocent person.”
Robertson filed a motion in 2017 accusing Hyman of withholding a witness’ testimony for almost two months that would have been favorable to his client in a stolen car case. In the wake of that motion, the state attorney’s office dropped those charges and conducted a review of Hyman’s recent cases.
In one 2016 driving-under-the-influence case, Hyman moved to exclude any mention of a breathalyzer test, even though the defendant’s blood-alcohol content registered below the legal limit of 0.08%, Barra wrote. The motion was granted, and the defendant was found guilty, according to the memo.
In that case, Hyman said the defendant’s blood-alcohol content level registered as 0.05%, but he thought dash cam footage and other evidence showed the driver was impaired. The defense could have introduced the breathalyzer test but didn’t, he said.
A year later, Hyman made another “potentially unethical motion,” despite being counseled that he was seeking justice and wasn’t someone “trying to win a game,” Barra wrote. He wanted body camera footage excluded that did not show the defendant kicking or striking the victim, who was a police officer, according to the memo.
Hyman defended his actions in that case, saying the body camera didn’t provide clear footage of what happened but recorded the defendant yelling “I can’t breathe,” which he thought was prejudicial.
Barra, though, wrote in her findings that Hyman had made “poor judgment decisions” and should not continue as an assistant state attorney.
“Mr. Hyman has compromised or attempted to compromise justice in order to gain an advantage in a case,” Barra wrote in the Oct. 30, 2017, memo.
The memo noted that Judge Dan Traver, who now sits on Florida’s 6th District Court of Appeal, and the public defender’s office referred the matter to the 9th Judicial Circuit Court Local Professionalism Panel.
In a written response to the panel, Hyman’s attorney, Warren W. Lindsey, disagreed that Hyman violated any disclosure requirements in the stolen-car case that sparked the review.
The panel’s work is confidential, so any findings are not available for review, said Karen Connolly Levey, a court spokeswoman.
The GOP nominee will face an uphill battle against two others in the race — State Attorney Andrew Bain and former Democratic State Attorney Monique Worrell.
Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Worrell in August, accusing her of neglect of duty, and replaced her with Bain, who will be on the ballot in the Nov. 5 general election as a no-party candidate.
Both Bain and the winner of the GOP primary will have to win over voters in blue-friendly Orange and Osceola counties.
Worrell won election in 2020 with nearly 66% of the vote.
