Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Lawyer tells ethics panel Sheriff didn’t lie on forms
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony hadn’t withheld vital information from state law enforcement forms that would have revealed he was involved in a fatal shooting when he was a teenager, his attorney argued to a state ethics commission.
The commission found probable cause to pursue an ethics case against the sheriff anyway, for the second time in recent months.
“Could things have been done differently, could things have been done better? Probably. Most likely. But that’s not what’s before this commission,” Tony’s attorney Louis Jean-Baptiste argued, saying the sheriff hadn’t used his office for personal benefit.
More details emerged Wednesday about Friday’s closed-door session of the Florida Commission on Ethics, showing the lawyer’s arguments to try to absolve Tony of accusations of untruths. The end result could potentially be a recommendation by the panel that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspend him.
All eight commission members in attendance voted to find probable cause to pursue a case against Tony’s untruths; the ninth member was absent from the hearing.
The probable cause was that Tony misused his public position:
■ When he provided false information or did not disclose information during the appointment process for his service as Broward County Sheriff by the governor.
■ When he completed a notarized form to the state while already serving as Broward’s sheriff. ■ When he applied to renew his driver’s license while serving in public office to benefit himself.
The cases stem from Tony:
■ Having been arrested on a murder charge, possessing instruments of crime, possession of an unlicensed firearm and carrying firearms on public streets or public property in Philadelphia and not disclosing it to the governor when he was considered to be appointed sheriff. Tony never disclosed on forms that he in 1993 had shot and killed an 18-year-old man, Hector “Chino” Rodriguez, when he was a teenager living in Philadelphia. He was acquitted in the case, which he called an instance of self-defense.
Having falsely indicated his driving privileges had never been revoked, suspended or denied in any state when he renewed his Florida driver’s license, according to state investigators.
Attesting “false” to the statement “I had a criminal record sealed or expunged” on a Florida Department of Law Enforcement document required for cops to retain their law enforcement certification. That form is an “affidavit of applicant” and attests they are of “good moral character.”
In September, the commission found probable cause in the same allegations, and one commission member at the time called Tony’s behavior “despicable.”
The state panel found Tony ”misused his public position” when he provided false information or did not disclose information, determining that the “extraordinary relevant set of facts” that he omitted directly benefited him in getting jobs. The vote in September was 7-1, with a ninth commissioner absent from the meeting.
Tony has two options: He can choose to go to a full evidentiary hearing before a judge with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings. Or he could immediately enter into a
stipulated agreement. Either way, the findings come back to the Commission on Ethics for its approval.
The two cases can be consolidated going forward, according to the commission.
This was heard twice because the first was a referral from Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement. This last hearing was a complaint filed a citizen — who was a captain with the Sheriff ’s Office when said he was given a choice after the 2020 election whether to resign or be terminated. The captain was a supporter of former Sheriff Scott Israel, who lost the Democratic primary.
The resident, Jerald Fuller, filed the 15-page complaint. He was frustrated after Friday’s hearing: He said he felt the legal advocate for the commission, who is an employee of the Attorney General’s office and pushed for the commission to not find probable cause, was “acting as a defense attorney” for the sheriff.
Attorney Jean-Baptiste argued that Tony shouldn’t be faulted for not revealing the charge in the fatal death of an unarmed man, because the records were destroyed as a matter of process, and not because Tony asked for the paperwork to be stripped from the records.
The statement “I had a criminal record sealed or expunged” on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement document infers there was such action taken by the person submitting the form, he argued.
Jean-Baptiste said the statement “I had” asks for action on his part and not that it happened by legal requirements. In Pennsylvania where the killing happened, “in a juvenile proceeding, if there’s a not guilty verdict, the judge must have the records destroyed,” he said.
Investigators with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded pertinent court records were most likely destroyed, ethics commissioners previously were told, although some court officials and staff at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office “surmised” records had been expunged.
“If the phrase was ‘I got a criminal record sealed or expunged, you would agree that he did?” asked William Cervone, an ethics commissioner and former state attorney, asked.
“I have” means “I got” the benefit of the expungement, he argued.
“There would be a debate we would have,” his lawyer responded, about whether sealing or expunging meant destroyed. But since it doesn’t ask “I got,” “we shouldn’t even open the door to that discussion.”
On Friday, Tony’s lawyers also acknowledged they told him not to be interviewed by state investigators or the state ethics commission.
“Why wouldn’t he participate in a sworn interview with this commission ... and sort it all out?” asked ethics commission member Don Gaetz, the former Florida Senate president. “Why did Sheriff Tony refuse to participate in a sworn interview where some of these hair-splitting questions could be answered with factual and truthful testimony?”
Said attorney Stephen Webster: “He’s under the advice of counsel. It usually is just not a good idea to continue being cross-examined on something.”
Ben Wilcox, the research director at Integrity Florida, the Tallahassee-based government watchdog, said Friday’s decision “reinforces the earlier probable-cause decision.”
“It would make a case that he [the governor] should resolve the situation somehow,” he said.
In February, DeSantis told reporters at a news conference that he has seen the outcome of a state investigation into Tony’s falsehoods on official applications. When asked about Tony, DeSantis replied, “We’re going to review everything ... in the coming days.” DeSantis didn’t elaborate.
His office has not responded to multiple requests for comment about the ethics commission’s second decision.
But in September the office said it would wait until the final outcome from the Commission on Ethics: “The case doesn’t come to this office until all of that is complete,” a spokesman said at the time.