Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony will not face prosecution, despite an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) concluding that he lied multiple times on official documents.
The sheriff came under fire in 2020 for failing to disclose that authorities arrested him for a fatal shooting in 1993 when he was 14. He was found not guilty after arguing self-defense. Tony was reportedly exonerated for the incident and the records sealed.
Following reports that Tony lied on an affidavit he signed in 2005 when applying to the Coral Springs Police Department, the FDLE began investigating him. He signed saying that he had never had a criminal record sealed or expunged. He also lied about never being arrested.
Tony talks too little, too late
But despite the findings, the FDLE noted that the falsehoods made were too long ago to prosecute.
“Although it appears that Tony knowingly and willfully misled public servants in the performance of their official duties by making false statements in writing on his official applications (regarding his traffic citation, drug use, and arrest history) to members of the CSPD, a criminal prosecution of these actions would be negated per Florida State Statute (F.S.S.) 775.15 (2) (d), Florida’s Statute of Limitations,” the FDLE stated in a report.
In 1993, Tony was arrested, after shooting and killing 18-year-old Hector Rodriguez, using his father’s gun, at his family home in Philadelphia. According to Tony, Rodriguez had threatened to kill him and his brother, and the shooting was an act of self-defense.
When the troubling details about his past emerged, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who had appointed Tony as Sheriff, came to his defense.
“It seems like he was in a very rough neighborhood, and he was trying to defend his family. I don’t think it would’ve, because it was self-defense,” the governor said then. “It did not come up in the background check because he had never been charged.”
Sheriff Tony received his appointment by DeSantis in 2019 after the department suspended Scott Israel due to the Broward Sheriff Office’s handling of the Parkland shooting and Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting.
