What did Judge Jeffrey Ashton do? Allegations against Ninth Judicial Circuit judge explored

American judge Jeffrey Ashton, best known for being the prosecutor in the Casey Anthony case, is reportedly being investigated over allegations of failure to report child abuse and molestation made against him. As per Fox 35 Orlando, the accusations came to the limelight after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order about the prosecution of the case posted on his official website on October 11, 2023.

The executive order states that in order to avoid a conflict of interest, State Attorney Andrew Baine - who was appointed to the Ninth Judicial Circuit in August 2023 following the suspension of former State Attorney Monique Worrell - requested that the alleged case be transferred to the Tenth Judicial Circuit because Ashton is a judge with the Ninth Judicial Circuit.

The order designates the Tenth Judicial District state attorney Brian Hass to administer the accusations faced by Jeffrey Ashton, his spouse Rita, and David Ashton.

According to the order, Bain notified the governor's office of the claims, accusing Ashton of "lewd and lascivious molestation on a child under the age of 16 and failure to report child abuse." However, Jeffrey Ashton is not facing any criminal charges as of writing.

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Attornies claim Andrew Bain removing himself from Judge Jeffrey Ashton's case is logical

According to the executive order signed by Ron DeSantis, Andrew Bain "voluntarily disqualified himself" and has asked executive assignment of another state attorney regarding the investigation and prosecution of the matter.

While speaking to Channel 9, criminal defense attorney Brian Pakett said that voluntarily disqualifying himself from the case was logical since people from his office would have had encounters with Jeffrey Ashton.

Police in Winter Park said that they are looking into Ashton's accusations. They said they would not be making any comments at this time since the investigation is still busy.

Ashton held the position of state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit before being elected as a circuit judge. He continued to oversee cases as of October 13 and also previously chaired a virtual public hearing at WKMG.

The now-circuit judge had served as Orange-Osceola state attorney for four years before becoming the bench, however, was defeated in the 2016 election by Aramis Ayala.

Jeffrey Ashton previously worked as a state prosecutor for the Ninth Circuit for 30 years, including overseeing the state's Casey Anthony murder trial in 2011. Anthony was cleared of all charges. Ashton's bio page remained online on the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida website as per Fox News.

As of writing, neither Ashton, his spouse nor David, have commented on the allegations.