Records shed light on Tony vetting
Broward sheriff didn’t submit customary questionnaire
Newly released records are shedding further light on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ rushed vetting of Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, revealing that the lawman didn’t submit a customary questionnaire during the appointment process.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement completed its background check on Jan. 10, 2019, a day before Tony was sworn
Israel.
Tony also didn’t submit an appointments questionnaire, a form that is normally filled out by candidates for governorappointed offices.
DeSantis made the appointment only three days after becoming governor, fulfilling a campaign promise to oust Israel for failures his agency made when responding to mass shootings at the Fort Lauderdale airport and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
The South Florida Sun Sentinel requested Tony’s application paperwork and in as sheriff to replace
Scott
FDLE background check a month ago when new questions were raised about Tony’s vetting. The records were released Friday night.
As a first-time candidate, Tony is under scrutiny for omitting that he shot and killed an 18-year-old man in 1993 when he was 14. Tony, 41, was not found guilty in the slaying, and he said the shooting was selfdefense. Tony also gave conflicting answers on law enforcement applications about his use of LSD as a teenager.
Helen Ferre, a DeSantis spokeswoman, defended the vetting process Monday.
“Sheriff Gregory Tony was initially vetted during transition and a review of his personnel files demonstrated a strong record as a police officer,” she said in an email. “He came highly recommended by prominent members of Parkland families.”
In early May, DeSantis told reporters in Tallahassee he didn’t know about the shooting when he appointed Tony, but it likely wouldn’t have made a difference because it was done in self-defense.
“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.”
Tony submitted a sixpage resume and a onepage biography to the governor’s office, but he didn’t complete a questionnaire that would have provided more information to the governor and his staff. The form asked about conflicts of interest regarding government contracts, references and whether the applicant had been “arrested, charged, or indicted for violation of any federal, state, county, or municipal law, regulation or ordinance.”
Tony also authorized FDLE to check employment and criminal records on Jan. 10. FDLE presented a one-page summary to the governor. The summary noted a traffic infraction, a 2000 charge for passing a bad check and a debt for medical bills that was released in 2011.
The agency conducted a Level 1 criminal background check as opposed to a more rigorous Level 2 check, which would have involved a state and national fingerprint-based check rather than just a state-based name check.
A Level 1 check does not include a verification of references and employment history, FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said in an email.
Plesseniger said she’s not aware of FDLE conducting background checks on any other candidates for the Broward County sheriff ’s post at the governor’s request.
At the time, the governor’s office did not consider the criminal charge for the bad check that turned up on Tony’s background vetting as a disqualifying event.
“Gregory Tony has an impeccable record of public service and we know he will right the ship at the Broward Sheriff ’s Office,” a DeSantis spokeswoman said in an email from the governor’s press office on Jan. 24, 2019. “In his distant past, he wrote one bad check and that does not
impact his ability to serve the families and residents of Broward County. He has an impeccable record as a police officer.”
Tony was unknown in Broward County political circles, but he did have one influential supporter. Conservative Parkland parent Andrew Pollack recommended Tony to DeSantis. Tony worked out at Pollack’s gym, and Pollack — with a sizable conservative social media following — was a chief supporter of DeSantis during the campaign.
Pollack, whose daughter Meadow was killed in the Parkland school shooting, was also a fierce critic of Israel. Other Parkland parents, including Ryan Petty and Fred Guttenberg, spoke in support of Tony when he was introduced by the governor.
Tony’s past has emerged as an issue in the race for sheriff. Tony is facing off against Israel and retired BSO Col. Al Pollock.
Tony served as a Coral Springs police officer from 2005 to 2016, reaching the rank of sergeant. He left the agency to focus on his business Blue Spear Solutions, which provides active-shooter training.
Tony didn’t disclose the decades-old shooting on his application to become a Coral Springs police officer in 2005, even though it asked whether he had ever been detained by a law enforcement officer for investigative purposes.
He also didn’t discuss the incident publicly. Tony, though, did reference the inner-city Philadelphia neighborhood in his biography he submitted to the governor’s office.
“As a young teenager Greg had dreams and aspirations of being a police officer,” the biography read. “When drugs and violent crime were consuming the majority of his peers, Greg took to sports to find an escape.”
Tony walked on to Florida State University’s football team, playing under legendary coach Bobby Bowden.
Tony wrote on his Coral
Springs application he’d never used hallucinogens, but on a previous application with the Tallahassee Police Department, he admitted to using LSD in 1995. He also left off his application that he’d been accused of passing a bad check when he was a student at Florida State University.
That charge was dismissed, but Tony wrote an apology letter for leaving it off his Coral Springs application when it turned up in a subsequent background check.
He wrote in the letter 2019. that the bad check was written for textbooks, and he paid the debt.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has launched a preliminary investigation into Tony’s paperwork.
In interviews, Tony has dismissed omissions on his law enforcement paperwork as politically motivated attacks digging up decades-old issues and urged voters to evaluate his present performance as sheriff.
Tony, who is Broward County’s first black sheriff, has referenced his past as tensions simmer police brutality.
“Long before I had stars around my collar, I was that young black man that was thrown against the ground and had a knee on his neck,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said a video posted on BSO’s Twitter account. over the