Hillsborough State Attorney Candidate Andrew Warren Violated a Federal Florida Middle District Local Court Rule

Andrew Warren

On June 29, 2015, Andrew Warren, who is running to be State Attorney in Hillsborough County, mailed a letter (read Warren’s Letter) to Federal Judge Steven Merryday.  Warren had been prosecuting three individuals for fraud against the government/taxpayers.  The charges against these individuals was set for trial in August of 2015 at the time that Warren wrote the letter to Judge Merryday asking for a continuance so he could participate in “Leadership Tampa” sponsored by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.  Presumably, Warren had his sights on running for State Attorney and was going to benefit politically by being involved with this organization.  Was Warren’s involvement and participation more important than prosecuting individuals who were “defrauding” taxpayers?  Read Judge Merryday’s order, Judge Merryday Order , striking Warren’s request.  Judge Merryday states:

” A moment’s thought about the imperatives of managing a federal court docket that includes about four  hundred cases and a multiple of that number of lawyers and litigants should enable the applicant in this instance to reliably predict the disposition of his application and to assess the propriety of advancing the application in the first instance.”

Judge Merryday then goes on to say, “the merits of the requested relief aside, the letter, a violation of the Local Rules, is STRIKEN.

Warren, who does not appear to have any state court experience, may not have even been up to speed on the local federal rules of court in the jurisdiction he was practicing in.  Voters should be concerned about Warren’s apparent interest in focusing on participation in an organization that would presumably advance his political aspirations instead of focusing on the job he was hired to do, prosecute individuals who commit fraud on the government/taxpayers.

What happened to these cases?  Did they fizzle after Warren dropped them to run for office or because he did not thoroughly go over the evidence to maintain a valid prosecution while he was on the case? Or should the defendants not have been charged to begin with as it may be the case that no laws may have been broken.  Most of the charges, Warren prosecuted, were dismissed.  Read Motion to Dismiss (Government’s Motion to Dismiss 1-12 Counts).  Why didn’t Warren interview the witness (former director of the low income federal program) that his former colleagues, who took over case, spoke to which resulted in their decision to dismiss the counts prior to trial?  Why didn’t Warren go over the 1.4 million audio files during the significant period he was lead prosecutor on the case which could have possibly avoided the prosecution of innocent people or confirmed their guilt prior to trial?

The final count against a third defendant, resulted in acquittal.  See federal case articles below.  Florida You Judge has made repeated requests to question Andrew Warren about this case with no success.

Related Articles:

“Challenger to Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober not happy about collapse of federal Lifeline case he once prosecuted” 

“Federal case fizzled as prosecutor left to seek Hillsborough office”

“Brevard businessman Tom Biddix, acquitted, goes free”

“Florida Today: Thumbs Down for Candidate Andrew Warren who seeks to be Hillsborough County State Attorney in 2016“