A Florida appeals court has ordered the entire grand jury report on the Hope Florida Foundation expunged, finding the panel overstepped its authority by accusing people of wrongdoing without bringing charges. The First District Court of Appeal issued a 19-page opinion reversing a lower court that had let parts of the report stand.
The grand jury said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone criminally. The appeals court said that did not give the panel room to name individuals and describe their conduct as criminal-like. The court also said the report was careless in its grammar, mistaken in its law and unfaithful to its own record, a line aimed at Leon County State Attorney Jack Campbell.
The investigation focused on $10 million that Centene Corporation paid the Hope Florida Foundation as part of a $67 million Medicaid overcharge settlement with the state. The grand jury called that money misappropriated. The court disagreed, saying the payment went directly from Centene to the foundation and was never state money. It also noted the Legislature has not made such third-party settlement payments illegal.
The court was also critical of how the report was handled. It said the state attorney sent the document to at least 49 recipients before the people named in it could seek to have it removed, a premature disclosure it called an independent reason for expungement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the decision in a social media post Wednesday night, calling the grand jury investigation a hoax. Earlier this week he called for a criminal investigation into how the report was leaked. CBS News Miami obtained a copy of the report in August.
