Broward schools chief Robert Runcie releases video statement: ‘I will be vindicated’
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie released a video statement Tuesday morning saying he will be vindicated following his arrest and grand jury indictment earlier this month on a perjury charge.
The video, released through the school district’s public information office, not his attorneys, repeated much of the same sentences his lawyers sent to reporters last Wednesday, the day he was arrested by state law enforcement agents.
“I am confident that I will be vindicated, and I intend to continue to carry out my responsibilities as superintendent with the highest degree of integrity and moral standards as I have done for nearly 10 years,” said Runcie, who is charged with lying to a statewide grand jury investigating whether school districts were complying with state school safety laws.
The Legislature passed the laws after the Feb. 14, 2018, shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, which killed 17 students and faculty members and injured another 17.
Runcie also repeated what his attorneys have been saying, that is, the grand jury indictment was politically motivated.
“It’s a sad day in Broward County and across Florida when politics becomes more important than the interests of our students,” Runcie said.
The grand jury was impaneled by the Florida Supreme Court in February 2019 at the request of Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said on the campaign trail months before that he wanted Runcie removed from office as a result of the Parkland shootings. Shortly after becoming governor in January 2019, however, DeSantis said the law prohibited him from removing Runcie since he was hired by the Broward School Board and was not an elected official.
DeSantis, and several parents of the Parkland shooting victims, blame Runcie for setting up the conditions leading up to Nikolas Cruz opening fire on his former Marjory Douglas schoolmates and teachers. Runcie was instrumental in implementing an initiative that placed students who commit certain misdemeanors in an alternative school rather than getting the police involved.
School officials transferred Cruz from Stoneman Douglas in 2017 to an alternative school over disciplinary issues.
The grand jury was tasked with investigating whether the school district solicited and accepted state funds that were contingent on implementing safety measures mandated after the Parkland shootings.
The indictment states Runcie made at least one statement he knew to be false when he testified between March 31 and April 1. Statewide prosecutor Richard Mantei in a court document filed Monday said Runcie contacted one or more people on the witness list for another case the grand jury is investigating, and that he lied to the grand jury while testifying under oath about conversing with that person or those people.
The district’s general counsel, Barbara Myrick, 72, was also arrested last Wednesday and has been indicted by the grand jury. She is accused of contacting someone on that witness list. She’s charged with disclosing grand jury proceedings.
The case in question is the January indictment of the former head of the schools information technology department, Tony Hunter, who is charged with giving a lucrative contract to a friend’s company without going through the bidding process.
In Tuesday’s video, Runcie said the district is going through a “difficult time,” but it shouldn’t distract educators from doing their jobs.
“It is how we cope during these difficult times that shows our true character and makes us stronger,” he said. “The most positive action that any of us can take now is to focus on our core mission of giving our students the best possible educational experience to prepare them for successful future and to instill in them the confidence to stand up for what is right.”
Runcie ended the video by telling “all of our students, staff and community, I love you and I appreciate you.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 12:04 PM.
