Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Gov. DeSantis’ Administration Over Illegal Immigrant Flights

TALLAHASSEE — A Leon County circuit judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that the Florida Department of Transportation and a contractor did not fully comply with public-records requests about controversial state-funded flights of illegal migrants to Martha’s Vinyard in Massachusetts.

Judge Angela Dempsey issued two similar rulings last week, rejecting the lawsuit filed by the Florida Center for Government Accountability in October against Verl Systems Company, Inc. and the Department of Transportation.

The center contended that the department and the contractor violated the state’s public-records law by not fully providing requested documents about the September flights of about 50 migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard. The governor arranged the flights. Ron DeSantis’ administration, have drawn national scrutiny.

Dempsey concluded, however, that Vertol and the department were not proved by the center.

“The burden is on the plaintiff to prove they made a specific request for public records, that Vertol received the request, the requested public records exist and Vertol refused to provide them in a timely manner,” Dempsey contributed to one of the decisions. “While plaintiff meets the first and second prongs of the test, there is no evidence that the public records exist or that Vertol refused to produce public records in a timely manner.”

The decisions were a contrast to an October ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in a separate lawsuit that the center filed against DeSantis’ office. Marsh ruled against DeSantis’ office for not following the public-records legislation. Marsh ruled that the administration had not complied with the public-records law. The administration appealed to this court.

The disputes stem from the Sept. 14 flights, which started in San Antonio, stopped at an airport in the Northwest Florida community of Crestview and ended up in Martha’s Vineyard. The Legislature gave $12 million to the DeSantis Administration to transport undocumented immigrant from Florida.

After having submitted public-records requests for information on Sept. 21 and 22 respectively, the center filed a lawsuit against Vertol and Department of Transportation. Although Vertol and department have provided documents, Vertol has not responded fully to the center’s requests.

As an example, in a Nov. 14 court document, the center said information had not been provided about Vertol’s agreement with a subcontractor, Ultimate JetCharters, LLC. The state spent $615,000 for the September flights. Three additional Vertol purchase orders totaling $950,000 are listed on a state-contracting website. “relocation services.”

“Although it is undisputed that Vertol used subcontractors for the services it performed, including a transport company known as Ultimate JetCharters, LLC, not a single document in the production from FDOT or Vertol has any documentation of FDOT’s project manager approving this subcontract, nor is there any record of the costs Vertol paid to Ultimate JetCharters,” According to the Nov. 14 court documents.

Dempsey, however, concluded last week that “there was no unlawful refusal to provide public records by the FDOT.”

Dempsey cleared Vertol by pointing out arguments that text messages relating to the contract were public records.

“(Under) Florida caselaw, there are classes of documents that may be in the possession and control of Vertol that do not fall within the category of a ‘public record,’” She wrote. “The mere fact that a document, such as an email or test message, is part of Vertol’s files does not make it a ‘public record.’ Even if the text or email is downloaded to the agency’s computer, it does not convert it to a ‘public record.’”

A few Florida Democrats and Florida Governor’s detractors. Ron DeSantis’s move to fly illegal immigrants to Massachusetts, when as far as to accuse the Governor of kidnapping migrants who crossed over the U.S. southern border illegally.

A Texas sheriff, where the flights to Massachusetts originated,  also announced that his agency was investigating the DeSantis administration over the 48 illegal immigrants that were flown from the border region to the Northeast U.S.

Publisher Javier Manjarres contributed to the News Service of Florida story.

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