Prosecutor details what he said Runcie lied to the grand jury about

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie prepared to testify in front of a grand jury late last month by talking to at least one witness in another case that the same grand jury investigated, and then did not tell the truth when asked about it, according to state prosecutors.

The prosecutors’ court document, filed Monday in Broward Circuit Court, adds more details to a perjury indictment handed down against Runcie April 15, two days before the grand jury’s term was set to expire. Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents arrested Runcie, 59, last Wednesday, and he was released on his own recognizance later that day.

Up until Monday, prosecutors had not revealed exactly what Runcie had said when he testified before the grand jury between March 31 and April 1, leading to the perjury indictment.

The statewide grand jury, authorized by Gov. Ron DeSantis, was investigating whether school districts were complying with state school safety laws enacted after the Feb. 14, 2018, shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, which killed 17 students and faculty members and injured another 17.

Prosecutor Richard Mantei, answering a motion filed Thursday by Runcie’s attorneys arguing the indictment was too vague, responded that the superintendent lied several times when asked if he had spoken to anyone with information about the pending case against Tony Hunter.

Hunter is the district’s former technology chief whom the grand jury indicted in January on charges he steered lucrative contracts to a friend’s business without seeking other bids. That case is pending.

“Each and every one of the Defendant’s statements is false,” Mantei wrote in the response, filed in the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward.

Mantei, a prosecutor with the Office of Attorney General Ashley Moody, said Runcie contacted “one or more” of the listed witnesses in the Hunter case, and he did so on the night of March 29, the eve of his testimony to the grand jury.

Barbara Myrick, 72, the Broward school district’s top lawyer, was also arrested last week after she was indicted on a charge of disclosing grand jury proceedings. Mantei said in Monday’s filing that Myrick also contacted “one or more” of the listed witnesses in the Hunter case.

“Myrick stated she was not supposed to disclose the fact, but she was assisting Defendant’s attorney to prepare Defendant’s Grand Jury testimony,” Mantei said. “She received the same information.”

Myrick’s criminal defense attorney, J. David Bogenschutz, on Monday questioned the prosecutors’ allegations.

“Very interesting,’’ he said in an email. “If that is the basis for Ms. Myrick’s charge, it raises some very unique legal and constitutional issues, not to mention jurisdictional questions about the Grand Jury’s return of this charge. It will be a challenging criminal journey.”

Mantei said he knows Runcie and Myrick contacted at least one of the witnesses in the Hunter case because of phone records that “substantiate these phone calls as well as calls between Myrick and counsel for Defendant on the evening of March 31 and the morning of April 1, 2021 — the dates of Defendant’s testimony.”

Mantei also said Runcie “stated that Myrick had disclosed to him other witnesses who had been summoned.”

The statewide prosecutor ended the filing saying the grand jury was continuing to investigate Hunter when it took Runcie’s testimony, “including the extent of [Runcie’s] involvement in the process.”

Legal experts have questioned the perjury charge against Runcie, saying it is rare, difficult to prosecute and any lies would have to be material to what the grand jury is investigating.

“The materiality has clearly been met. Others may be willing to simply overlook multiple barefaced falsehoods and obstructive statements under oath by [Runcie]; the Twentieth Statewide Grand Jury was not,” Mantei wrote in the filing.

Although Runcie’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment on the latest filing, one of his attorneys, Johnny McCray, on Sunday released a timeline of events leading up to this month’s indictment that he said shows the “process is a direct result of vengeful politics.”

The grand jury was impaneled in February 2019 by the Florida Supreme Court at the request of DeSantis, who had said he had looked into removing Runcie after the Parkland shooting, but was advised he could not do so because Runcie was not an elected official. The Broward School Board hired Runcie in 2011 and extended his contract for a second time in 2017 to 2023. He makes $356,000 a year.

DeSantis and others, including some of the Parkland parents whose children were killed in the shootings, blamed Runcie for the conditions leading up to Nikolas Cruz opening fire on his former 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.

Runcie’s allies say the grand jury was a tool through which DeSantis could force Runcie out of office. Political leaders, as well as some members of the Broward business and faith communities, held a press conference Friday supporting Runcie and denouncing what they say are the political motivations behind his indictment.

The Broward School Board is scheduled to discuss Runcie’s indictment during a special workshop meeting Tuesday afternoon.