Broward schools face grand jury probe — again. Will it matter?

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis wants a statewide grand jury to investigate “systematic failures” in school safety and security in Broward.

When he made the announcement Wednesday in the county courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, he was surrounded by a supportive group of Parkland parents eager to hold the nation’s sixth-largest school system accountable for its actions in last year’s mass shooting that left 17 dead and 17 injured.

But we need to tamp down our expectations because three previous grand juries went nowhere after being tasked with investigating possible wrongdoing in Broward County schools.

The prior grand juries — one statewide, two local — focused on cronyism, waste, inefficiency and excessive influence by vendors and lobbyists in the district’s construction program. But no names were disclosed (for legal reasons — a named individual can block release of a report). And nobody went to prison as a result of the grand jurors’ work.

“All bark, no bite,” a Sun Sentinel columnist said of the last grand jury report, a 2011 rant that seriously suggested abolishing the School Board, and short of that, a reduction in the board’s size from nine to five members. It was one of many grand jury recommendations that never came to pass.

For the past eight years, under former Gov. Rick Scott, the statewide grand jury was kept in hibernation. It is probably the best weapon available to DeSantis, a former federal prosecutor, to force changes.

What is it? It’s an 18-member panel of private citizens, likely living in Broward and surrounding counties, who will be able to devote three days a month for a year or more to studying school safety.

Statewide grand juries can indict people on criminal charges, and can issue reports — presentment — that recommend changes in state law and policies.

One expert in the system says the Broward investigation might not lead to criminal charges against anyone.

“The statewide grand jury is not a pure tool of indictments,” said Bill Shepherd, a lawyer at Holland & Knight in West Palm Beach who was statewide prosecutor from 2007 to 2011 and directed a public corruption probe that included Broward schools. “It’s a research tool to give a broader perspective to issues affecting the whole state.”

In a petition filed with the Florida Supreme Court, DeSantis seeks a multijurisdictional investigation — as state law requires.

He made it clear that, among other things, he wants the grand jury to look into “crimes and wrongs” that led to the Parkland tragedy a year ago this week, and the school board’s refusal to follow mandates in last year’s school safety law that followed the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

DeSantis’ request for a statewide grand jury is expected to receive swift approval from a court that includes three new justices appointed by him.

The governor wants the grand jury to be based in Broward, with the 18 jurors drawn from Broward and neighboring judicial circuits (Palm Beach and Miami-Dade are the obvious candidates).

“I think they’re going to have a very broad mandate,” DeSantis told reporters. “I think they’re going to have the power — subpoena and otherwise — to be able to get to the facts and get the truth and hold people accountable.”

That’s the idea. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

The Florida Legislature created a statewide grand jury in 1973 to investigate criminal problems that are statewide in scope, not limited to one county or judicial circuit.

The first and most obvious target was organized crime. A decade ago, Shepherd led a statewide grand jury probe of public corruption that had reached epidemic proportions.

It took the Legislature seven years to act on the report, and lawmakers adopted only a few of the grand jury’s recommendations.

Before long, the subpoenas will be flying in Broward. Statewide grand juries generally meet for two or three days a week over the course of a year, and they can be stretched to 18 months with Supreme Court approval.

And even though this investigation will focus on the school district, the grand jury’s work is likely to influence the 2020 election cycle in Broward, including the next race for sheriff.

The next statewide grand jury would logically pick up where the last one ended.

If so, grand jurors would see this passage from the 2011 report: “The gross mismanagement and apparent ineptitude of so many individuals at so many levels is so overwhelming that we cannot imagine any level of incompetence that would explain what we have seen.”