Broward schools top lawyer files motion to dismiss charges against her

The lawyer for Broward Public Schools’ general counsel filed a motion Friday to dismiss her April 15 indictment on a felony charge of disclosing statewide grand jury proceedings.

Barbara Myrick, 72, also chose not to enter a plea in the case, according to documents filed Friday in Broward Circuit Court. Rather, her attorney, J. David Bogenschutz, entered “stands mute,” which means the court will enter a plea for her.

The move is a common practice in criminal proceedings, according to attorney Craig Trocino, director of the Innocence Clinic at the University of Miami’s School of Law.

“It’s standard to stand mute and demand discovery from the state and then request time to file any motions,” Trocino said.

Bogenschutz also filed a motion for the prosecution to release a statement detailing specific accusations for which she’s being charged.

In the motion to dismiss, Bogenschutz said the indictment “fails to state any facts, act or circumstance which would constitute the alleged offense, and therefore pleads a mere conclusion of law.”

He declined to comment on the case when reached Friday.

Both Myrick and Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie agreed this week to resign from their jobs in the wake of their respective indictments.

Runcie was charged with perjury, accused of making at least one statement he knew not to be true to the grand jury, which Gov. Ron DeSantis authorized in February 2019 to investigate whether school districts were complying with school safety laws enacted after the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland shootings, which led to the death of 17 students and faculty. Myrick is accused of disclosing the grand jury’s proceedings, which are secret, and whose records are sealed.

Runcie pleaded not guilty to the perjury charge.

Myrick and Runcie are negotiating their exits with the Broward School Board and could each end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance by the time the process is through.

Runcie, whose annual salary is $356,000, stands to receive a maximum payout of five months salary, which would be $137,000, and $196,000 in accrued unused sick time and vacation. Myrick, who makes $220,000 a year, could leave office with $92,000 in salary and $116,000 in unused sick and vacation time, Broward Schools Chief Financial Officer Judith Marte said at a board meeting Thursday.

There’s also a chance Runcie could stay on the job for 90 days after his separation is negotiated due to language in his contract, School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood said during the same meeting.

The grand jury, which ended April 17, was tasked with investigating whether fraud was committed when school districts accepted millions of dollars from a state bond issue contingent on implementing school safety measures. It also investigated whether on-campus crime was under-reported by the district.

The language in the indictment puzzled legal experts in South Florida, who noted that there were few details in the indictment and that a perjury charge is rare in grand jury proceedings.

On Monday, following a motion to dismiss from Runcie’s lawyers, statewide prosecutor Richard Mantei released a more detailed document that said Runcie contacted at least one person who was a witness in another case the grand jury had been investigating, then lied to the grand jury when asked about that conversation, according to Mantei.

Mantei said he has phone records that show Runcie contacted someone on the witness list on March 30, the night before he gave his two-day testimony to the grand jury on March 31 and April 1.

That other case resulted in the indictment of the school district’s former technology chief, Tony Hunter, who was charged with buying $17 million worth of flat screen monitors for the district from his friend’s company in Georgia without going through the bidding process.

Hunter, whose case is pending, is charged with one count of bid tampering and one count of unlawful compensation. He pleaded not guilty.

Myrick, Mantei said, is also accused of contacting “one or more” person on the Hunter case witness list before her grand jury testimony this month.