VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – R.J. Larizza, state attorney for the 7th Judicial District of Florida, has voluntarily disqualified himself from the investigation and prosecution of a dog attack that killed a DeLand boy due to how one of his office’s employees is related to one of the dogs’ owners, according to an executive order.

Michael Millett, 8, died Jan. 13 after the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office reported he was “brutally mauled” that evening in a gated community north of DeLand.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Millett was riding his bicycle around a subdivision with his friend and had stopped to pet one of the dogs when he was attacked.

The dogs had escaped from their owner’s property and went into Millett’s neighborhood, Chitwood said, adding the owner of the dogs were not on the property at the time of the attack. Both dogs have since been euthanized.

An executive order signed Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis describes two individuals — whom News 6 is not naming because they do not face charges — who are under investigation “for manslaughter by culpable negligence and owning a dangerous dog.”

Larizza’s decision is introduced as a way to avoid a conflict of interest or any appearance of propriety, requesting the executive assignment of William Scheiner, state attorney for the 18th Judicial District of Florida, whom the order states “has agreed to accept an executive assignment in this matter.”

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