DeSantis suspends Lake Wales City Commissioner Kristen Fitzgerald after arrest

Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended a Lake Wales city commissioner Wednesday, more than a month after her arrest.

Per the executive order, Commissioner Kristen Fitzgerald is prohibited from performing any official act, duty, or function of public office during the period of the suspension.

Fitzgerald, 41, who has yet to be convicted of a crime, declined to comment on the governor’s action.

“I have no comment at this time,” she said in a phone call early Wednesday evening.

The executive order signed by DeSantis says that any elected official indicted in a crime may be suspended from office until acquitted.

The incident

Fitzgerald was arrested June 3 and spent a night in the Polk County Jail on charges that she used a gun to threaten an 11-year-old boy whom she’d picked up without the parents’ permission.

While it is unclear what the nature of the relationship is between the boy’s family and Fitzgerald, the affidavit stated Fitzgerald was confronting the boy about an incident she alleges occurred between him and her 13-year-old daughter. 

Fitzgerald denied pointing the gun at the child, according to the arrest affidavit. 

She has entered a plea of not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Why Fitzgerald was suspended

“We are certain that Governor DeSantis, a lawyer himself, has not concluded in any way that Ms. Fitzgerald is guilty of any crime following her arrest,” Fitzgerald’s attorney, Grady Irvin, said in an emailed statement to The Ledger. “And we are just as certain that he took no joy, whatsoever, in suspending the duly elected Ms. Fitzgerald.”

Per state statute, an elected official can only be removed for misfeasance, malfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform their duty, or conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude.

The executive order signed by DeSantis includes a letter from the state attorney for the Tenth District Judicial Circuit that details Fitzgerald’s charges.

 “The Florida Constitution provides that the Governor can suspend any elected municipal officer indicted for a crime,” DeSantis’ spokeswoman Christina Pushaw said in an email. “Fitzgerald has been charged with felonies in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in and for Polk County.”