Troubling questions about Sheriff Tony, past and present

The story was three decades old, yet it arrived with the shock value and immediacy of a hot-off-the-presses news bulletin.

When Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony was a teen on the mean streets of Philadelphia, he killed a man, using his father’s gun to fire multiple shots into his 18-year-old neighbor’s head and body, according to reports.

Tony, 14, said he acted in self-defense. He was ultimately tried as a juvenile and acquitted. The record was sealed. The details emerged on the Florida Bulldog news site, which said it had the police report.

The chief law enforcement officer of Broward County shot and killed someone. That seems like something the public should know, especially when Tony is asking for the support of voters in the upcoming election.

But nobody knew. Not the Coral Springs police department that hired Tony 15 years ago. Not Gov. Ron DeSantis, who appointed Tony last year after suspending former sheriff Scott Israel. Not the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which ran a background check on Tony before DeSantis appointed him.

Now that the story is finally becoming known, troubling questions abound.

Why was Tony, the man, not honest about what happened? On his Coral Springs job application, Tony, then 26, was asked whether he had ever been arrested, charged, detained or been a suspect in a criminal investigation. His answers: “No.”

Yet news accounts from 1993 said Tony was charged with murder and initially held without bail.

Tony told the Sun Sentinel that he did not think he was technically “charged with a crime.” As the Bulldog reported, he was acquitted. But surely he remembers standing before a judge, charged with murder. And certainly he remembers being detained. How do you forget something like that?

Had he had any doubt, Tony should have had the good sense to ask someone.

For jobs in law enforcement and those that deal with children, applicants must disclose if they’ve ever been arrested or charged, even if it happened when they were a juvenile and the record was sealed. The reason is simple: society expects the record and character of applicants for such jobs to be thoroughly vetted.

Knowing what he knows now, the Coral Springs chief who hired Tony, Duncan Foster, told the Sun Sentinel that he would not have hired him. “All things being equal, there are more qualified candidates who did not have involvement with the criminal justice system to the extent that he did.”

Where was the shooting? Tony told our reporters that victim Hector “Chino” Rodriguez was armed and chased Tony and his brother into their house. But news accounts say the shooting happened outside. Tony’s father, William Scott, also told the Daily News that he heard the gunshots from the street, just off a curb.

Tony told our reporters that he doesn’t remember exactly how the shooting played out. Given that, he should make a formal request to the Philadelphia courts and district attorney to unseal his record. The sheriff regularly speaks about accountability for his deputies. It’s now his turn for a public reckoning.

Why the different names? News reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News referred to him as Gregory Scott-Toney when he was charged. In a brief story about his preliminary hearing eight days later, the Daily News again identified him by that name. A 2003 copy of Tony’s redacted birth certificate, released by Coral Springs Police Department, shows his name as we know it today. The reason for the name discrepancy remains unclear.

Where was the vetting? DeSantis says he was not aware of Tony’s past before appointing him on Jan. 11, 2019. FDLE says it conducted a background check, but found no court records in Pennsylvania and no indication of a sealed record on the NCIC federal computer crime database.

“It was a self-defense so he was never charged with anything, so it wasn’t anything that would show up,” DeSantis said Monday.

It’s shocking to learn the governor appointed Tony to the most powerful position in Broward County without knowing he’d gone on trial for killing someone. An investigation of this lapse is warranted.

It’s a safe assumption that Tony would not have been chosen if, after all these years, he had finally disclosed his past. Tony told the Sun Sentinel why he didn’t do so.

“Why would I put myself in a position where I’m talking about a brutal attack that I survived, for the sake of an interview? I don’t think anyone would have done that.”

Tony brushes off the controversy, saying his political opponents are “trying to retry a 14-year-old black kid.”

But this isn’t solely about what happened back in Tony’s old neighborhood. This is about the veracity and character of the man who was appointed sheriff and now wants to be elected sheriff.

Tony’s actions were not only deceptive, his failure to be forthright kept our community from better understanding who he is. It didn’t have to be this way.

At a forum last October at the African-American library in Fort Lauderdale, in remarks captured on video, Tony vacillated on the controversial Promise program in Broward schools and took offense at suggestions that he couldn’t relate to inner-city residents.

“My story isn’t told,” Tony said. “Yes, I grew up in the inner city of North Philadelphia, in the Badlands. And I survived gang shootings and home invasions, been in all parts of that. Been in gangs. Long before I had stars on my collar, I had a knee on my neck. So don’t lecture me on the issues related to being black in this country. That I find offensive.”

On Sunday, Tony told our reporters there would be no other big surprises about him. “There’s nothing else that’s going to come to light,” he said.

Yet Monday, photos emerged of Tony at parties organized by the promoter of “erotic theme events,” including “strip and swing club invasions.” The photos — taken before he was sheriff — show Tony in tight-fitting swim shorts with women wearing pasties instead of bras. Tony’s attorney says the photos are of legal activities and “not of public concern.”

Not of public concern? We are still getting to know this man who was appointed sheriff. It may be legal to engage in such events, but it’s unusual behavior for someone who seeks a career in politics. It’s also behavior that a lot of voters would find troubling.

DeSantis, who plucked Tony from obscurity, seems to be distancing himself from his appointee. The governor made a startling declaration Monday. “It’s not like he’s my sheriff,” he told reporters in Tallahassee. “I didn’t even know the guy.”

It turns out that the rest of us don’t, either.

Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O’Hara, Sergio Bustos, Steve Bousquet and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.