Prosecutor's memo said Hispanics get tougher plea deals; state attorney calls it a mistake

State Attorney Jack Campbell moved quickly Wednesday night to counter allegations his office singles out Hispanic defendants in rural North Florida for stiffer penalties in plea bargain offers.

Campbell confirmed the authenticity of a document revealed by a former prosecutor that lists three tiers of misdemeanor plea offers used by the Second Judicial Circuit’s Jefferson County office in North Florida.

A photograph of the document that was said to be tacked on the wall says to exclude those with “Extensive Criminal History and/or Hispanic” from diversion programs, or to have adjudication withheld.

Campbell explained a junior prosecutor who was leaving the position in Jefferson County wrote procedural guidelines for their successor and had used the wrong words and misstated the policy.

"Undocumented immigrant," not "Hispanic," should have been coupled with extensive criminal history, said Campbell, after a photograph of the document was published on the Our Tallahassee website.

“I understand completely the public shock and concern. It’s concerning to me too. It’s not what we do. We’re not prosecuting people because of race. We’re prosecuting differently because of their legal status. Because as undocumented, I don’t know what their history is,” said Campbell, who told the Tallahassee Democrat he takes full responsibility for the mistake.

Prosecutor still employed but was reprimanded

Campbell said he reprimanded the prosecutor and has clarified the policy for the six-county Second Circuit, home to thousands of migrant agricultural workers.

“He wasn’t treating Hispanic people differently than anybody else. If he was then I would have fired him. He was treating undocumented people consistently based on the fact that we have concerns on not knowing their history,” said Campbell.

Campbell declined to identify the prosecutor and said he would not discuss HR matters related to this story.

Former prosecutor who blew whistle on document calls it a 'racism policy'

The document's existence was revealed by Mackenzie Hayes, who went to work in the Jefferson County office in January as a misdemeanor prosecutor and found the three-tier guidelines.

Campbell hired Hayes in December and she said she was content working in the Tallahassee office before transferring to Jefferson County.

She does not accept Campbell’s explanation that it was a mistaken use of language by a junior staffer when Hispanic was used instead of undocumented immigrant. She called it a "racism policy" and points out that undocumented immigrants have constitutional rights, too.

Hayes said the office of two attorneys, an investigator and two secretaries routinely talked about “Mexicans,” differently than other defendants.

She quit after six days working in the Jefferson County office.

“The document speaks for itself,” she told the Tallahassee Democrat.

“I thought it fit right in with what I had experienced. You know, the week that I was out there. There's a reason that he worded it the way he did, and it's not just because he's some dumb idiot who doesn't know the difference between someone who's undocumented and someone who is Hispanic,” said Hayes.

Public defender calls for 'independent investigation'

Jefferson County is 25 miles east of Tallahassee and is a patchwork of farms, plantations, and forests. There are no no traffic lights in the county. Agriculture makes up a quarter of the county’s economic output, according to economic development officials.  The annual watermelon festival is the highlight of the summer social calendar for the county’s 15,000 residents.

Nearly two-thirds of residents are White, 32% African American, and 4% Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The plea bargain memo emerged while racial tensions simmer in Florida and across the country. A proposal moving through the Florida Legislature has Chinese residents fearful of potential loss of property rights.

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Black residents have protested the loss of minority-access congressional districts, and new Florida law restricts how racial history is taught in public schools.

The Second Circuit’s Public Defender said she was deeply disturbed by the reports that Jefferson County prosecutors sought harsher sentences based on the accused’s race.

“These policies are illegal and discriminatory. There needs to be an independent investigation that holds people accountable,” said Jessica Yeary.

Origin of the leaked document

Hayes provided a copy of it to the Our Tallahassee website – a blog organized by progressive forces to upend the majority Tallahassee City Commission voting bloc in the 2022 elections. The site fell largely silent after the primary amid an ugly spat between the publisher Bob Lotane and Max Herrle, a local political operative who worked behind-the-scenes on Commissioner Jeremy Matlow's campaign.

Inside 'Our Tallahassee': Website with links to Porter, Matlow aims to upend 2022 election

Back story: Publisher of Our Tallahassee shuttering partisan media site for new venture

Opinion: Our Tallahassee: A loser or master class? | Bob Lotane

Campbell has been a vocal critic of Matlow, who tweeted "This is the same prosecutor that went on an unprovoked, personal attack against me, attacked my profession and labeled me an “evil man” when hosted by the @TalChamber."

Campbell said he takes responsibility for his employee's actions.

"I've disciplined him for it. He wasn't speaking for the office. Clearly that's not our office policy," Campbell said. "It's the misstatement by one prosecutor, one junior prosecutor in one county. Now that I know about, it's been corrected and clarified."

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida prosecutor's leaked memo: Hispanics should get tougher plea deal