Problems with Broward’s sheriff during, before pandemic show he lacks judgment for position.
The people of Broward County deserve better than what we’re getting from Sheriff Gregory Tony.
Consider recent revelations:
First, the county’s top lawman is forced to confirm a shocking Florida Bulldog report that when he was a 14-year-old living in Philadelphia, he shot and killed his 18-year-old neighbor. He was charged with murder, but acquitted on self-defense. Old newspaper clippings tell a different story than the sketchy details the sheriff recalls. The truth lies in a Pennsylvania juvenile court file that has either been sealed or expunged.
Then we learn that in 2005, when Tony applied to join the Coral Springs Police Department, he denied having ever been arrested, charged or detained, or having been the suspect in a criminal investigation.
Then we learn that this year, well after Gov. Ron DeSantis had appointed him to replace elected Sheriff Scott Israel, Tony sent the Florida Department of Law Enforcement a sworn affidavit that said he has never had a criminal record sealed or expunged. FDLE is investigating.
Then we learn the Internet has exploded with salacious five-year-old photos of Tony and his wife at a swingers’ club.
All this, just three weeks after two unions — one representing road-patrol deputies, the other their mid-level managers — overwhelmingly voted “no confidence” in Tony.
This after the sheriff verbally exploded at BSO deputies outside the hospital where Deputy Shannon Bennett had just died of COVID-19, and again later at the funeral home. Tony similarly lost his cool at a press conference where he announced the suspension of a union leader who had publicly complained about deputies lacking the protective gear they need for the pandemic.
The picture is clear.
Tony is a personable man who aims to please, but he lacks the judgment and temperament needed to run one of the nation’s largest public safety departments.
Neither can the Broward Sheriff ’s Office operate effectively with Tony’s credibility and character now in question.
Besides, the sheriff cannot want schoolchildren — completing a homework assignment on BSO — to stumble upon his photos, which cannot be printed in a family newspaper without portions blurred out.
Tony should do the right thing and resign. If he refuses, Gov. Ron DeSantis should remove and replace him.
This community, and this newspaper, had high hopes for Tony when the governor appointed him last year to replace former Sheriff Israel. For Broward has a long history of troubled sheriffs and we wanted the first person of color in that role to succeed.
But BSO is a complicated enterprise, with 5,600 employees, seven unions, four jails and fire-rescue operations. And before his selection, Tony had been running a two-person consulting business.
It’s clear the governor has his doubts, too. When asked at a Monday press conference if he still has faith in Tony, DeSantis all but abandoned him.
“You would know more than me from people down there,” DeSantis told Steve Bousquet of our editorial board. “It’s not like he’s my sheriff. I didn’t even know the guy. It’s not like he was a political ally of mine. I wasn’t trying to do that. I was just trying to do someone who had done a good job. I liked that he had come from a real tough upbringing, Florida State football, and had been a great law enforcement officer.”
DeSantis — surely guided in the choice of Tony by his chief of staff, Shane Strum, a supposedly savvy veteran of Broward politics — ignored a fundamental rule of politics. When you appoint someone, you own him.
DeSantis evaded responsibility. Despite his problems, Tony did not deserve to be humiliated that way.
The contours of this story are well known. As a candidate in 2018, DeSantis promised the Parkland parents that he would replace Israel because of how his department handled the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Four days after taking office, DeSantis picked Tony to be the 17th sheriff in Broward County’s history.
Israel appealed his suspension and last summer, a special magistrate determined the governor had failed to substantiate a single one of the 10 charges of malfeasance used to justify his removal. Nevertheless, the Republican-led Florida Senate backed its governor and upheld the removal of an elected sheriff.
Israel is running to get his job back. He faces Tony and five others in the Democratic primary in August. Four Republicans also have filed.
For the most powerful position in Broward, voters are entitled to a serious discussion, not sideshows.
We encourage Tony to step down and away from his campaign. To continue his quest would ensure an election about secret pasts and swinger photos, not about fighting a pandemic and improving public safety in the first vote for sheriff since the Parkland tragedy.
The people of Broward County deserve better than that.
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.