Florida Attorney General Calls to Impeach Judge Who Acquitted Murderous Mother
Florida Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier is working to impeach a judge who acquitted a woman who pleaded insanity after murdering her baby.
Miguel de la O, a Miami-Dade circuit judge, acquitted Precious Bland after she drowned her 15-month-old in 2021, as well as stabbed her husband and another child, per Fox News.
Bland yelled during the incident that “Jesus Christ is coming and COVID is going to kill us all,” her husband told the police.
A police report said “the defendant insisted that everyone needed to be baptized and that she was going to baptize everyone in the bathtub.”
Police found the baby “face down, unresponsive, inside the bathtub filled with bloody water.”
The husband and four children ran out of the residence and called the police.
De la O ultimately acquitted Bland on all three counts she was facing — including one count of manslaughter and two counts of attempted murder in the first degree.
Even worse, De la O allowed Bland to return home before a future hearing that would decide her treatment options.
Uthmeier said in an interview with Fox News that the decision from the judge was “unacceptable.”
“In a bench trial — where the judge made the decision, not a jury — he allowed a woman off on an insanity defense after she drowned her baby. He cited insanity related to COVID.”
“I believe we have impeachment provisions in our state constitutions for a reason. The federal government has similar authorities, but we don’t see judges getting impeached in modern times,” Uthmeier added.
“So, I believe this is wrong. We’re going to be pushing hard to work with our legislature to hold some of these judges accountable. I believe they’re violating their oath and endangering our citizens.”
De la O is not the only judge who may be impeached.
Uthmeier is actively pursuing options for removing other judicial officials from their positions, and is working with lawmakers to that end.
“I’ve already had some Florida legislators reach out, excited to work with me on articles of impeachment, and hopefully get some of these dangerous people off the bench,” Uthmeier said.
“We have taken a big interest in judges that we believe are exceeding their authority, abusing discretion, or acting in a way that jeopardizes public safety,” he continued.
“We’ve already called for impeachments in a couple of other judicial cases: a judge in Tallahassee who let a convicted child predator go free — a guy where a jury found him guilty of a child sex offense, and he then murdered his 5-year-old stepdaughter.”
In another instance, “There’s a case in Miami where a judge let the defendant out on bail after he shoved rocks in a girl’s mouth as she was being raped.”
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