Broward Sheriff Greg Tony faces growing pressure about his past as two court cases proceed
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A second team of lawyers is urging a Broward judge to force Sheriff Gregory Tony to answer whether he was ever charged as an adult with a felony, intensifying questions about his past that have dogged him for the past year.
Tony was elected in November to his first term as sheriff after being appointed to the position in January 2019.
But that hasn’t stopped his opponents from raising questions about his past in Philadelphia, and at least one statewide investigation is underway into whether he lied about that past on official statements under penalty of perjury.
Tony’s general election opponent, Republican H. Wayne Clark, and one of his Democratic primary opponents, predecessor Scott Israel, filed separate lawsuits in November accusing Tony of being ineligible to serve because of what they claim is at least one felony conviction in Pennsylvania, although no evidence of such a conviction has been produced.
On Wednesday, in a separate legal action, Broward Circuit Judge Michele Towbin Singer ordered Tony to answer similar questions as part of a pretrial process of gathering information. Tony’s lawyers have resisted, and the attorneys in that case are scheduled back in court Monday to iron out the limits of Towbin Singer’s order.
That decision puts Tony in a legal bind if he has ever failed to disclose arrests, charges or previous convictions, say lawyers on both cases.
If Tony were to have a previous conviction he has yet to disclose, admitting it now would be admitting he lied on applications to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Tonja Haddad Coleman, the attorney on the case before Towbin Singer. If he were to say under oath he has no convictions and evidence turns up that he does, he could add a new case of perjury to his legal woes, said Clark, who is acting as his own lawyer in his lawsuit against Tony.
Tony’s lawyers maintain he is telling the truth, that he has no relevant criminal record and that his political opponents are abusing the legal process to defame him.
Attorney Michael Moskowitz, who represented Tony at Thursday’s hearing before Broward Circuit Judge William Haury in the lawsuits brought by Clark and Israel, said he has already provided documentation that Tony has no felony record.
“A certified Criminal Record Check by the Pennsylvania State Police states that Sheriff Tony ‘has no criminal record in Pennsylvania,’ directly refuting Plaintiff’s contention to the contrary,” Moskowitz wrote in a motion to dismiss the Clark-Israel lawsuit last month.
In court Thursday, Moskowitz cited that information as evidence Tony has already answered the questions at the heart of the lawsuit.
But he has not answered the questions under oath, said Clark, who is acting as his own lawyer in the case.
Haury scheduled a hearing for next Thursday to decide whether Tony will be required to answer the same questions in his case that Towbin Singer approved in hers.
A second hearing was scheduled for Feb. 25 on Tony’s motion to dismiss the Clark-Israel lawsuit.
