Bruce Colton, the State Attorney of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, is not unfamiliar with investigations related to high-profile sex crimes.

Colton, who was tapped by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday to oversee the investigative probe scrutinizing Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal with prosecutors and work release by law enforcement, has been working with his office on prosecuting defendants swept up in the same statewide sex trafficking investigation as New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

As reported in the Palm Beach Post, the state attorney’s office for the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit has taken a hard-line approach to these defendants. It declined to offer them the same sort of pre-trial agreements extended to Kraft and other men facing identical charges in Palm Beach County, saying that precedent in Martin County shows no deferred prosecution offers for similar offenses.

Colton also touted his office’s handling of victim’s rights as it relates to the circumstances and allegations surrounding Epstein’s case and his new role within it.

“Working with victims is what we do all the time,” he said. “We were one of the first state attorney’s offices in Florida to establish a victims’ services division.”

Colton described himself as a “career prosecutor” on Wednesday.

“I’ve been with this office since 1974,” he said of his involvement with the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit.

Colton, whose appointment on Tuesday sees him replace Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg in the Epstein investigation, has been a prosecutor for nearly his entire legal career.

Prior to joining the state attorney’s office, Colton spent a year and a half working as an assistant public defender in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit, which comprises Florida’s Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie Counties. He had previously interned with the public defender’s office in Alachua County while studying at the University of Florida to earn his J.D.

Following his initial stint as an assistant state attorney, Colton graduated to the position of chief assistant state attorney shortly thereafter. He assumed the role of state attorney for the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit in 1985 and has held the title ever since.

Colton said he’s found the position to be fulfilling and has stuck with it out of an appreciation for upholding the law.

“I enjoy working for the prosecution,” Colton said, adding he tries to work with young prosecutors within his office whenever possible, even if he doesn’t try as many cases as he used to do.

Read the executive order appointing Colton: [falcon-embed src="embed_1"]

The state attorney told CNBC on Tuesday he was only notified of DeSantis’ intention to place him on the probe roughly 90 minutes before the governor’s executive order was made public. He said he anticipates the bulk of the investigation will be conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which DeSantis selected to assume the case from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

“We have local FDLE agents and we’ve worked with the executive office out of Tallahassee, who will be handling this,” Colton said. ”We will rely on them to do the bulk of the legwork and we will consult with them throughout. If there’s interviews and research to be done by our attorneys, then they’ll do that as well.”

He added, “If it’s necessary for me or assistants from my office to go to Palm Beach County, we will.”

Colton noted his office is based approximately an hour away from West Palm Beach, and shared he’s previously received executive assignments to handle conflicting cases in Broward and Brevard Counties. The state attorney said, “It’s not a tremendous burden to travel back and forth” between his home base and Palm Beach County.

In addition to the changes and cases he’s pursued through his own office, Colton has also previously worked with victim advocacy organizations including  the Florida Network of Victim Witness Services and Florida Council Against Sexual Violence. “It’s always been important to me and it’s always been one our office has tried to concentrate on,” he said of tackling human trafficking and sexual assault crimes.

Colton will work alongside the FDLE to determine if there were “irregularities” in the handling of Epstein’s case, as well as Epstein’s subsequent plea deal and work release by Florida authorities. He is presently serving a four-year term after running unopposed for the position of state attorney in 2016.

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