Gregory Tony cruises to win as Broward County sheriff after bruising campaign
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, who survived a brutal Democratic August primary filled with personal attacks, coasted to victory Tuesday night against his Republican challenger in the state’s bluest county.
Tony, appointed to lead one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the southeastern U.S. by the governor after the state’s most deadly high school shooting, easily held off attorney and military veteran H. Wayne Clark. The sheriff campaigned on promises to continue to diversify leadership positions and clean up an agency that had been besieged with questionable uses of force by deputies, many of which were captured on public cellphone video cameras.
Tony, 41, who chose to forgo an election evening celebration, released a statement saying that while he’s honored the residents of Broward voted for him, there’s still much work to do.
“While I’m thrilled with the progress we’ve made in the last two years — whether in providing better training for our staff, creating a better culture of accountability and transparency, or making our schools safer — there is still much to be done,” the sheriff said.
The sheriff has also pledged to abide by a host of police reforms that include implicit bias training for the department’s 2,800 deputies and the distribution of up to 30 percent of the department’s Law Enforcement Trust Fund to various community organizations. He also promised to beef up training and rid the department of the political infighting that turned the August primary into a mud wrestling match.
Clark, a former military airborne engineer and staff attorney for Broward County’s chief judge, used the later stages of his campaign to attack Tony for questionable incidents in his youth. Without any proof, the Republican challenger claimed Tony had been charged with felonies in circumstances Clark was unable to explain.
He stuck with that Tuesday, while conceding defeat.
“Tonight’s result simply means we need to work harder in the coming weeks,” Clark said. “I still believe Gregory Tony is a felon. We kicked off this campaign to restore honor, dignity and transparency. And we’re not going away until we see justice done with Gregory Tony.”
At 9 p.m. and with 90 percent of the precincts reporting, Tony held more than a two-to-one edge over Clark, according to the Broward County Supervisor of Elections office.
Early in the day, voters at the Walnut Creek Clubhouse in Pembroke Pines seemed to be breaking Tony’s way.
Vyom Upadhya, 38, a new dad, cast his ballot for the sheriff, he said, because in the almost two years he’s been sheriff his focus has been on the community.
“School safety from gun violence and police reform training is exactly what we need in our community and country,” Upadhya said.
Tony’s victory was not unexpected in Broward County, the most liberal bastion of Florida and a region where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2-1. As Broward sheriff he will continue to oversee more than 5,400 employees in law enforcement, fire rescue and at the county’s jails.
Before being tapped as sheriff by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2018, Tony was running a South Carolina active shooter training business. The governor needed to fill the slot after removing twice-elected Sheriff Scott Israel in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of 17 students and administrators and seriously injured 17 others.
A state-appointed panel that investigated the Valentine’s Day 2018 tragedy determined that Israel’s leadership was partly responsible for the refusal of several of his deputies to enter a building and confront shooter Nikolas Cruz as he continued his slaughter.
But Israel refused to go away quietly, fighting the removal through the state Legislature, in court and finally by making the decision to challenge Tony in the August Democratic primary for Broward sheriff. Though Tony would eventually prevail, his victory did not come without tearing the scabs off some old wounds.
As the primary heated up, an almost three-decade-old police report surfaced showing Tony had shot and killed an 18-year-old man at his family’s Philadelphia home when he was 14 years old. Though Tony was acquitted by a judge in juvenile court seven months later, the “homicide record” seemed to contradict several statements the sheriff made about why he never disclosed the shooting on law enforcement job applications or to Gov. DeSantis, who appointed him to the post.
Tony argued that once his juvenile records were sealed, he was fully cleared of any wrongdoing and it was as no different than if the incident had never taken place. Once word of the shooting reached the governor, DeSantis distanced himself from Tony, saying: “I don’t even know the guy.”
The 1993 shooting didn’t show up during a background check by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement before Tony’s appointment as sheriff. And it also didn’t appear when Tony was hired by the Coral Springs police, whose chief said if the sheriff had been more forthcoming, he wouldn’t have hired him.
And even before that scandal had subsided, a British tabloid released pictures of scantily clad Tony and his wife with another couple at a South Florida swingers club. Tony claimed both instances were just political hit-jobs pushed by Israel’s camp and the agency’s largest police union, which he had a falling out with.
In an unusual move, Tony suspended Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association President Jeff Bell after the union president attempted to link the COVID-19-related death of Broward Deputy Shannon Bennett to a lack of personal protective equipment at the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Tony called the accusation absurd and Bell filed a lawsuit seeking reinstatement. Tony has also pledged to try and repair the fracture between his office and the deputies union.
Tony, who is married and has no kids and who attended Florida State University, worked for the Coral Springs Police Department for a decade before going out on his own and opening the South Carolina active shooter business. He was introduced to DeSantis through Andrew Pollack, whose daughter was killed in the Parkland high school shooting and who Tony met while working out at a local gym.
Also victorious Tuesday night was Democrat Harold Fernandez-Pryor, who will replace outgoing Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, who is retiring after a 44-year run as the county’s top prosecutor. Fernandez-Pryor, 33, who spent three years as an assistant state attorney in Broward, was leading Republican challenger Gregg Rossman by an almost two-to-one margin with most precincts reporting.
Fernandez-Pryor, who will be the county’s first Black lead prosecutor, said one of his first priorities will be to create a cashless bail system for low-level nonviolent offenders. The win means Fernandez-Pryor will oversee one of the most important cases in county history, the prosecution of Marjory Stoneman Douglas gunman Cruz.
University of Miami student Navya Kulhari contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 8:55 PM.
