Broward sheriff ’s election heats up
Undisclosed killing, racy photos push Tony into spotlight
Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony is getting a political baptism by fire in an election that reads like a Hollywood screenplay with racy photos, a secret decades-old killing and a bitter union fight.
Tony, 41, rode into arguably the most highprofile post in Broward County as an unknown who had the crucial backing of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
His vetting in January 2019 appeared rushed and hurried by the governor’s office. But now the first-time candidate who is running as a Democrat is combating an onslaught of salacious headlines that show just how bruising South Florida politics can be. In order to retain the job of top lawman in the county, Tony will have to persuade voters he can be trusted and overcome lingering questions that he hasn’t been honest about his past.
In a week’s span came revelations that Tony had shot and killed an 18-year-old man in 1993 when he was a 14-year-old boy living in a rough neighborhood in Philadelphia. The killing was deemed to be self-defense. Next, came the photos of Tony at two gatherings billed by promoters as “erotic theme events, pool parties, strip and swing club invasions and group vacations.”
The one-two punch heaped drama into what was already expected to be a blockbuster bout between Tony and his top opponent Scott Israel, the previous sheriff who is trying to resurrect his political career. DeSantis removed Israel from the post in January 2019, citing failures related
to mass shootings at the Fort Lauderdale airport and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, and replaced him with Tony. Tony vows to keep fighting. “I knew this was going to be a dirty political season,” Tony told the radio station WIOD on Wednesday. “Everyone warned me how my opponents operated . ... Even though that experience is traumatic and devastating, look at the end result — it just pushed me out into the community.”
Dueling websites paint vastly different pictures of Tony. One website — sherifftonytruth.com — describes Tony as a man who overcame a traumatic event where he felt his life was in danger and he had no choice but to defend his family. The other website — tonyunmasked.com — depicts Tony as being untruthful about the decades-old shooting in which he shot Hector Rodriguez five times.
Moving beyond the recent bombshell reports, Tony’s earlier missteps, which alienated key power bases in Broward County, could end up costing him more, even though they didn’t generate provocative headlines, said Bob Jarvis, a Nova Southeastern University law professor who wrote a book about the history of the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.
Tony picked a fight with the Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association, suspending its vocal leader Jeff Bell on April 10. The union is accusing Tony of not providing enough protective equipment to deputies, linking a shortage of supplies to the coronavirus death of 39-year-old deputy Shannon Bennett.
Those accusations enraged Tony, who accused the union of using Bennett’s death to score political points.
A video surfaced showing Tony yelling at union members mourning Bennett’s death. Tony has lost his cool on other occasions, Jarvis said. Just a few months into the job, Tony clashed with city commissioners in Tamarac who wanted a deputy removed who had been accused of using excessive force. Tony told the commissioners that he would not “be lectured to about the laws of investigative practices.”
“You have to be unflappable,” Jarvis said. “You have to let things roll off your back. You need the unions. You need the county commission. You need the cities. You need all these entities to work with you and want to help you to succeed.” Not long after Bell’s suspension, on April 20, the Broward Sheriffs Office Deputies Association held a vote of no confidence in the sheriff, based on the dispute over the protective gear. Soon after that union vote, the secrets in Tony’s background emerged.
About the shooting 27 years ago, Tony said he fired the shots in selfdefense to protect his family, and he was never found guilty of any wrongdoing. But the incident is raising questions about whether Tony was honest on application forms.
Tony never disclosed the killing to the governor, the public or on his application to become a Coral Springs police officer in 2005. As recently as January, Tony marked on a form that he had never had a criminal record sealed or expunged.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is reviewing a complaint that Tony lied on the form.
Tony’s campaign maintains he didn’t need to disclose the shooting because he wasn’t arrested and went through a petition of delinquency, therefore he had no criminal record. His application, though, with Coral Springs asked Tony whether he had even been detained by law enforcement for investigative purposes. Tony answered no. A press report at the time described Tony as being charged with murder and held without bail.
Tony also had to write an apology letter for omitting that he had been charged in 2001 with writing a bad check when he was in college. That charge ultimately was dismissed, and Tony wrote he paid the debt, which was for textbooks.
Duncan Foster, the retired chief of the Coral Springs Police Department, said he wouldn’t have hired Tony if he had known about the shooting. As for the revealing photos, Tony’s supporters say they were taken before he became sheriff and have no relevance to his ability to do his job. Israel has denied that he had anything to do with the release of the photos.
Tony’s main Democratic opponent in the sheriff’s race, Israel, is also tainted because he embodies the agency’s failures during the Parkland school shooting, Jarvis said.
Tony’s life story appealed to DeSantis. When DeSantis introduced him as Israel’s replacement on Jan. 11, 2019, the governor described Tony as someone who made his way from Philadelphia to Florida State University to play football for legendary coach Bobby Bowden. Then he had a distinguished career with the Coral Springs Police Department
and left to start his own company specializing in training to prevent mass shootings, DeSantis said.
But in a news conference on Monday, DeSantis distanced himself from Tony when asked about the decades-old shooting. “It’s not like he’s my sheriff,” DeSantis said. “I didn’t even know the guy. It was not like he was a political ally of mine.”
But DeSantis said it likely wouldn’t have changed his mind had he known about it because it was self-defense. The governor said he wasn’t planning to get involved in the matter and would leave it to Broward County voters to pick the sheriff.
Israel is seeking his third term as sheriff while Tony is attempting to land his first full term. And Al Pollock, a retired BSO colonel, is hoping he can capitalize on his opponents’ baggage. Pollock has raised the most money in the Democratic race besides Israel and Tony.
“Broward County doesn’t deserve this,” he said. “They deserve better from their chief law enforcement officer.”
Four Republicans, three other Democrats and an independent are also in the race. Given that Broward is heavily Democratic, the winner of the Democratic primary on Aug. 18 is expected to emerge as the victor in the general election in November.
The primary is expected to be one of the year’s most expensive county-level races in Florida. Money continues to pour into Tony’s campaign, largely behind contributions totaling $600,000 so far from a wealthy super-donor, financier S. Donald Sussman.
Running a competitive race for Broward sheriff could require spending approaching $1 million, said Cynthia Busch, chairwoman of the Broward Democratic Party, who is neutral in the contest because of her party position.
The sheriff has immense power, overseeing an agency with a nearly $1 billion budget and more than 5,400 employees.
Jarvis said he’s not surprised the race has turned nasty based on the county’s history. “There have always been these kinds of scandals and finger-pointing and smear campaigns,” Jarvis said. “Our sheriff’s elections are always ugly.”