Florida Assistant State Attorney Suspended for Controversial Facebook Post Following Orlando Attack

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iStock/Thinkstock(ORLANDO, Fla.) — A Florida assistant state attorney has been suspended after writing a Facebook post that denigrated the city of Orlando following the Pulse nightclub terror attack, the state attorney’s office announced Friday night.

“Downtown Orlando has no bottom,” Assistant State Attorney Kenneth Lewis wrote on his Facebook page last Sunday evening — less than 24 hours after the tragedy — according to ABC Orlando affiliate WFTV. “The entire city should be leveled. It is void of any redeeming quality…It is void of culture. If you live down there you do it at your own risk and at your own peril.” The post continued to paint Orlando and its residents in a negative light.

A spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office, Angela Starke, said Lewis’ post violated its social media policy.

“Kenneth Lewis, an Assistant State Attorney in the Office of State Attorney Ninth Judicial Circuit, was suspended today pending further review,” Starke said in a statement.

She explained, “Mr. Lewis violated the SAO9 social media policy. The social media policy was adopted and implemented on February 20, 2015, as part of SAO9’s code of conduct. Every employee is required to sign the policy. Failure to comply can result in discipline up to and including termination.”

According to WFTV, Lewis was temporarily reassigned in 2014 after writing a post using a derogatory term to describe female drug users.

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