ORLANDO, Fla. – Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell held a news conference on Thursday to address “an oversight by the prosecutor” in a plea deal for a man accused of attacking a jogger near College Park.
The state attorney’s office said it’s reviewing the prosecutor’s decision to withhold adjudication against Tyler Feight, 26, who was arrested in April after a woman reported being attacked near College Park in Orlando.
A decision to withhold adjudication means there is no formal conviction in a case. Worrell told reporters that the prosecutor assigned to this particular case checked the box to “withhold adjudication,” a box she said the prosecutor did not mean to check.
“Rather than checking ‘adjudication,’ he checked ‘withhold of adjudication,’” Worrell said. “And he shouldn’t have. He should’ve checked ‘adjudication.’”
News 6’s Mike Valente followed up on Worrell’s answer by asking whether that decision was reviewed in court before a judge signed off on Feight’s plea deal.
“I can’t answer that because I haven’t reviewed any video of what happened in court,” Worrell said. “But I can tell you that typically plea offers are read to the court and the court accepts or rejects the plea based on the agreement reached between the parties.”
The victim said Feight struck her to the ground and tried to overpower her before she fought back and he fled. Feight was initially charged with battery and attempted sexual battery.
[PAST COVERAGE: Suspect arrested in attack on jogger near Orlando’s College Park]
The state attorney’s office later dropped the attempted sexual battery charge after review by the sex crimes division, which found insufficient evidence to prove Feight’s intent beyond a reasonable doubt. The case was transferred to the general prosecution division, which filed felony battery charges.
On Nov. 20, Feight pleaded no contest to felony battery and was sentenced to 225 days in jail, credited for time served, followed by three years of probation. His probation includes a psychosexual evaluation and treatment, no contact with the victim, and a restriction from returning within three blocks of the incident location.
The victim also approved the plea deal, according to a news release.
Worrell acknowledged the decision to withhold adjudication in the case was legal, but an oversight and violated the office’s normal practice. She emphasized that this did not affect Feight’s sentence or his status as a convicted felon due to a prior case.
“This sentence was a legal sentence. It was within the confines of the criminal punishment code of the state of Florida, within the laws designed by the legislature for an offense of this nature,” Worrell said. “And while the prosecutor in this case made an error with the withhold of adjudication that I seem that I think seems to be a point of concern for most people, it’s important to understand that that error in no way impacted the sentence.”
The state attorney’s office said the prosecutor who handled the case, Assistant State Attorney Zachary Cole, is not under investigation but his performance is being reviewed by his supervisor for appropriate personnel action.
“It’s also important, though, to understand that this individual has a case load of over 400 cases,” Worrell said. “So it is not unexpected that there would be administrative errors.”
Worrell described the pending review of the prosecutor’s performance as a standard procedure to ensure that her office is operating in a way that is “consistent with the highest and best practices.”