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TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's investigation into a domestic-violence nonprofit and its alleged misappropriation of millions in state funds ramped up this week with a lawsuit against the group's executive leadership.

It says Tiffany Carr, who led the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, was paid $761,000 a year at the time of her resignation and, with paid time off, received $7 million in compensation over three years - even as the shelters under her group's management were short on funding.

Ben Wilcox, research director with the watchdog nonprofit Integrity Florida, says the state probe is long overdue.

"I think it's corruption, yeah," says Wilcox. "I think potentially, you know, criminal corruption. We'll have to see how it plays out. It may be more of a kind of legal corruption."

The Department of Children and Families, which has contracted with the coalition since 2003, filed a lawsuit Wednesday targeting Carr, the coalition's board of directors and executive officers. Yesterday, the Florida House also approved a motion to serve Carr with a subpoena "by any means necessary," after the department accused her of stonewalling oversight attempts.

According to the lawsuit, the coalition received $42 million from the Department of Children and Families in fiscal year 2017 to manage 42 domestic-violence centers that provide victims with an array of services.

Wilcox says department officials should also hold themselves accountable.

"The Department of Children and Families also failed to keep tabs on this situation," he says. "And there should be someone looking at compensation packages for these nonprofit associations that are doing business with the state."

The governor's lawyers are asking the court for more than $30,000 in damages for each of the 51 counts in the complaint against the coalition, Carr and 11 other defendants.

State Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin, R-Miami, and Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Jacksonville, sponsored legislation that the governor has signed, repealing a guaranteed state partnership with the coalition.

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