By Jeff Weiner, Desiree Stennett
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell is defending against accusations from police union officials who say her office should have done more to keep Daton Viel, the man accused of shooting two Orlando police officers on Friday, behind bars when he was arrested earlier this year.
After a manhunt, the 28-year-old with a lengthy criminal history was killed by an Orlando SWAT team Saturday morning while barricaded inside a local hotel, OPD Chief Eric Smith said.
“Daton Viel was a violent criminal that the Orange/Osceola County State Attorney let walk the streets after Orlando Police arrested him in March of this year for sexually assaulting a child,” a statement posted to the Fraternal Order of Police Orlando Facebook page said. “He was on probation at the time of his arrest, yet Monique Worrell let him out. Now 2 Orlando Police Officers’ lives have changed forever. Monique Worrell’s soft-on-crime stance has yet again let the citizens of Orlando down.”
At a press conference Monday, Worrell said the FOP is spreading “misinformation” for political gain and that the court, not her office, is responsible for setting bail.
“There are officers that are currently fighting for their lives and I think it’s a terrible thing that the FOP would use this as an opportunity to exploit a political narrative about me being soft on crime,” Worrell said. “Bond is something that individuals are entitled to as a matter of law. In this case, the court determined that this individual was entitled to a bond. … I don’t determine who gets out of jail. All I do is uphold the law.”
The FOP’s criticism of Worrell comes as she has faced repeated scrutiny of overcharging and bail decisions from critics including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and Gov. Ron DeSantis, as well as the heads of the largest law enforcement agencies in the Ninth Circuit.
Tension between Worrell and Orange County Sheriff John Mina, who in a July 2022 meeting questioned Worrell’s handling of cases involving repeat offenders, spilled into the open in February, when three people were killed and two were injured in a shooting spree in Pine Hills.
Worrell has defended her office’s handling of cases and cast the criticism of her as part of an effort by DeSantis, Mina and Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López to justify suspending her from office, something both sheriffs deny.
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Viel, who was wanted in a fatal shooting in Miami at the time he wounded the officers, has been arrested in Orange County on over a half-dozen felony charges since 2016, including trespassing, robbery and burglary.
In March, Viel was arrested by Orlando police in connection with the sexual battery of a girl between 12 and 16 years old, court records show.
According to an affidavit, Viel on Dec. 1 drove his red Ford Fusion up to a girl who was walking to a local high school she attended and offered to drive her the rest of the way. He drove her to Trotters Park, where he forced her to participate in sexual activity, the affidavit said.
He was taken into custody after his DNA matched a sample tested by FDLE in March; the girl also identified Viel in a photo lineup, according to an arrest affidavit. Viel pleaded not guilty and was released on $125,250 bond in June, according to court records.
“Now, $125,000 is not a small amount of bond,” Worrell said. “A bond that high takes into consideration the fact that the court was considering Mr. Viel’s dangerousness or potential dangerousness to the community at that point.”
Worrell went on to emphasize that state law entitles people accused of most crimes, including the charges Viel faced, to bail.
“It’s really important to understand that when incidents like this happen, the community wants answers and it is natural to want to find out who’s at fault for why this incident took place,” Worrell said. “But it is important to understand that the only individual who can be blamed for incidents like these is the individual who took those actions. The perpetrator of these horrific events, that’s the person who’s to blame.”
A month before his March arrest, Viel was placed on probation after taking a plea deal in an Orange County trespassing case from 2019, as well as on several out-of-state charges including arson, aggravated assault and battery, records show.
Though the new arrest initially triggered a probation violation, Viel’s public defender argued for its dismissal because the sexual battery was alleged to have occurred before Viel was placed on probation. Prosecutors did not object and a judge granted the dismissal.
In mid-June, Viel was again accused of violating his probation, this time by cutting off his court-ordered ankle monitor. At the time, relatives at his listed address said they didn’t know where he had gone. Authorities were unable to find him.
Then, on June 30, he had a run-in with University of Central Florida police, after a license plate reader identified the plate on Viel’s Ford Fusion as stolen.
According to an affidavit, Viel claimed he was visiting his girlfriend on campus. Then a dispatcher alerted officers that he was wanted on an active warrant in the tresspassing case. When officers tried to arrest him, Viel ignored their orders and took off running, the affidavit said.
An officer tried to use a Taser on Viel but lost his balance, the affidavit said. Viel got away and remained at large until he encountered Orlando police late Friday.
According to Smith, officers around 11 p.m. were investigating a vehicle near Garland Avenue and Washington Street that was linked to a homicide in Miami when Viel opened fire. Two officers were critically wounded.
They were rushed to Orlando Regional Medical Center and are expected to recover, Michael Cheatham, the chief surgical officer at the hospital, said at a Saturday press conference.
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OPD is not releasing the officers’ names, citing Marsy’s Law, a state constitutional amendment that protects the privacy rights of crime victims.
After wounding the officers, Viel carjacked another vehicle, Smith said, leading to a chase that took officers into Apopka. It’s unclear what happened next, but investigators eventually caught up with Viel at the Holiday Inn & Suites on Caravan Court, near Universal Orlando.
The SWAT team arrived around 6 a.m. Saturday. Just before 9 a.m., Viel “shot several times” at SWAT team officers, Smith said. They returned fire, striking Viel, who was pronounced dead.
At the time of the Orlando shooting, Viel was wanted in connection with a shooting that killed a man July 10 in the West Little River neighborhood north of downtown Miami, the Miami-Dade Police Department said Saturday.
The shooter, who wore a ski mask, fled the area in the same red Ford Fusion that was spotted in Orlando Friday night, officials said.
Christopher Cann and Natalia Jaramillo of the Sentinel staff contributed.
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