Remember when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew about 50 illegal aliens from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard? The governor and other state officials, along with the Florida Dept. of Transportation find themselves involved in several lawsuits over that action. A Leon County Circuit judge dismissed one lawsuit that alleged the Dept. of Transportation and a contractor did not fully comply with public records requests about the migrant flights.

Judge Angela Dempsey issued two similar decisions rejecting the lawsuit brought by the Florida Center for Government Accountability in October against the Dept. of Transportation and Vertol Systems Company, Inc. She ruled that the center did not prove that the department and Vertol had withheld documents. The burden of proof is on the plaintiff. The non-profit did not prove its case in court.

“The burden is on the plaintiff to prove they made a specific request for public records, that Vertol received the request, the requested public records exist and Vertol refused to provide them in a timely manner,” Dempsey wrote in one of the decisions. “While plaintiff meets the first and second prongs of the test, there is no evidence that the public records exist or that Vertol refused to produce public records in a timely manner.”

Judge Dempsey’s ruling was the opposite of what a different Leon County Circuit judge ruled last October. In that case, a separate lawsuit was filed against DeSantis’ office. Judge Marsh ruled the governor’s office did not comply with the public records law. The DeSantis administration has appealed to the 1st District Court of Appeal.

The migrant flights started in San Antonio, stopped at an airport in Crestview, Florida, and then flew to Martha’s Vineyard. The DeSantis administration used money from the $12M provided by the Florida Legislature to transport illegal aliens from Florida. The non-profit filed a lawsuit against the Department of Transportation and Vertol on September 21 and 22. Both have provided documents, but the center says they didn’t fully comply with the requests.

Florida has budgeted $1.5M in legal fees for lawsuits filed over the migrant flights sent to Martha’s Vineyard. That is about what the state paid for the flights themselves, according to reports. That includes a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of the migrants. The migrants claim they were lied to and misled when they left San Antonio for Martha’s Vineyard. Two Boston law firms are being paid up to $500,000 each to defend Governor DeSantis, the Florida Dept. of Transportation, and other officials named in the lawsuit.

As she cleared Vertol, Judge Dempsey addressed arguments that text messages related to the contract are public records. Not so fast was her response.

“(Under) Florida caselaw, there are classes of documents that may be in the possession and control of Vertol that do not fall within the category of a ‘public record,’” she wrote. “The mere fact that a document, such as a text email or test message is part of Vertol’s files, does not make it a ‘public record.’ Even if the text or email is downloaded to the agency’s computer, it does not convert it to a ‘public record.’”

One lawsuit down, more to go. I have a feeling that DeSantis and his team had all their ducks in a row and knew exactly what was and was not legal for them to do. He certainly succeeded in showing the utter hypocrisy of the progressive left on the topic of sanctuary cities. That was priceless.