Home FloridaBulldog.org DeSantis Rush Job: Records Show Feeble FDLE Screening Of Broward Sheriff Tony

DeSantis Rush Job: Records Show Feeble FDLE Screening Of Broward Sheriff Tony

Gov. Ron DeSantis introducing new Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony to the public at BSO headquarters on Jan. 11, 2019 (Image: FloridaBulldog)

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office didn’t ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct a background check on Gregory Tony until the day before DeSantis announced that Tony was his choice to be Broward’s next sheriff, according to state records obtained by Florida Bulldog.

The result: a cursory inquiry by the FDLE’s Office of Executive Investigations that failed to find out that Tony had killed a man when he was a teenager living in a poor, urban neighborhood in Philadelphia, or that he’d once been rejected for a police job after admitting he had used LSD.

In fact, the FDLE’s one-page report to the governor fails to meet even the state’s most basic standards for screening job candidates.

The governor’s decision to install Tony as Broward sheriff appears to have been  so rushed that his office did not even have Tony fill out an “Appointments Questionnaire” that’s routinely provided those seeking gubernatorial appointments.

Among the seven-page form’s questions: “Have you ever been arrested, charged or indicted for violation of any federal, state, county or municipal law, regulation or ordinance?” Tony answered no to that question on a number of other forms, sometimes under oath, until admitting to it in response to questions from Florida Bulldog on May 2.

[vc_btn title=”Continue reading” color=”primary” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.floridabulldog.org%2F2020%2F06%2Fdesantis-rush-job-records-show-feeble-fdle-screening-of-sheriff-tony%2F||target:%20_blank|”][vc_message message_box_style=”solid-icon” message_box_color=”blue”]By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org, Special to SouthFloridaReporter.com, June 8, 2020[/vc_message]