MIAMI — A Miami judge approved a motion to dismiss Friday in the case against Robert Lee Wood, 56, the first of the 17 people charged with election fraud in a statewide roundup in August by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ new Election Crimes Unit.
The defense argued that the Office of the Statewide Prosecutor did not have jurisdiction over the case. The judge agreed, in an order that not only dismissed the charges against Wood, but concluded that the state’s prosecution of election crimes constitutes an overreach of power.
“‘His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings,’” the judge wrote in the order, quoting Shakespeare. “How much wider even than that does OSP seek to extend its reach? In the case at bar the answer is simple: wider than the enabling statute contemplates, and therefore too wide.”
