Prosecutors: Runcie contacted witnesses, lied
Broward superintendent collected information days before appearing before grand jury, they say
Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie contacted witnesses in a criminal case to prepare for his testimony in front of a statewide grand jury last month, then lied about it under oath when asked, according to prosecutors.
Runcie collected the information just two days before appearing before the grand jury, despite testifying that he didn’t, prosecutors say.
The superintendent’s statements led the grand jury to indictment him last week on one count of perjury, although the specific allegation against him had not been detailed until Monday.
Broward Schools General Counsel Barbara Myrick also was charged with disclosing the grand jury’s top secret proceedings.
The charges stem from the indictment of former Broward Schools technology chief Tony Hunter, who was charged in January with rigging contracts for technology equipment for the district, as well as accepting illegal compensation from a vendor.
According to the prosecutors, Runcie got ahold of witnesses in Hunter’s case to prepare for his own testimony. Myrick also contacted witnesses and discussed them with Runcie before he testified, which helped form the basis of the charges against her, Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Richard Mantei wrote.
When asked about his preparation, Runcie said he went by his memory from a workshop on the schools’ $800 million bond issue several years ago.
“Did you talk to anybody who would have information about the Hunter situation?” Runcie was asked.
“No, not that, not that I’m
aware of,” he replied.
“What about contracting issues? ... No prep on that?”
“No,” Runcie answered. “Other than having a copy of the audit report.”
“Phone calls? Emails? Text messages? Smoke signals?”
No, not that — I am trying — no. No, I haven’t talked to anyone specifically about that.”
In the newly released document, prosecutors laid into Runcie’s answers.
“Each and every one of the defendant’s statements is false,” Mantei wrote.
Not only had Runcie consulted with witnesses in the Hunter case, Mantei alleged, but he had done it on March 29, just two days before he testified.
The statewide prosecutor’s office released the details about their charges after Runcie filed a court motion last week demanding specifics about the charge against him.
Mantei hinted that the state’s case could include additional allegations. “It would contain at least some of the following information (and possibly more),” he wrote.
“Others may be willing to simply overlook multiple barefaced falsehoods and obstructive statements under oath by Defendant; the Twentieth Statewide Grand Jury was not,” the document concluded.
Mantei said Runcie’s indictment didn’t outline his alleged lies because it was handed up while the grand jury was still in session.
The grand jury was impaneled by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019 to focus on school safety issues in the wake of the Parkland shooting. However, the three arrests so far have been related to a questionable instructional technology purchase uncovered by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The newspaper reported the district awarded $17 million in contracts for Recordex interactive flat panel TV’s to a friend of Hunter’s without seeking competitive bids. Hunter bought a house in Georgia at a large discount and two cars from this vendor, David Allen, the Sun Sentinel discovered. Prosecutors also say Allen hired Hunter’s son for a job at one of his companies while doing business with the school district. Hunter left the district in 2019 to become vice president of a company owned by Allen, who died of COVID-19 in January.
The school district fused questionable bidding practices, such as splitting a nearly $1 million purchase into two contracts just under $500,000, the maximum allowed under district policy without School Board approval. Hunter denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty.
The grand jury first learned of the purchase in late 2019 after the Sun Sentinel shared its findings of its investigation with the district’s communications staff and School Board members. Then-board member Robin Bartleman turned the findings over to prosecutors working with the grand jury, while then School Board Chairwoman Heather Brinkworth ordered Runcie to conduct an audit.
Although the audit cited numerous problems with the district policies and internal controls, Runcie falsely said in a news conference in May 2019 that the audit “clearly indicated that the district’s protocols and procedures were followed.”
The Sun Sentinel investigation also found that Broward paid nearly twice as much as Miami-Dade schools for a similar product.