Two years later, former Broward schools superintendent free from perjury charge

A judge Tuesday dismissed the perjury charge against former Broward County Public Schools superintendent Robert Runcie, who resigned in 2021 as head of the nation’s sixth-largest school district.

Runcie, 61, was arrested in April 2021 on the charge of lying to the grand jury, which was related to his two-day testimony on March 31 and April 1, 2021. The statewide grand jury, which Gov. Ron DeSantis sought and the Florida Supreme Court authorized, was investigating whether school districts were complying with state school safety laws enacted after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, which led to the deaths of 17 students and faculty members.

Broward judge Martin Fein dismissed the case Tuesday.

“Judge Fein’s Order incorporates and adopts the theories advanced in our pleadings and arguments and reflects intellectual honesty and courage in the face of what some viewed as a politically sensitive issue,” Runcie’s attorney Jeremy Kroll said in a statement Tuesday. “We are grateful.”

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

Runcie, prosecutors alleged, prepared to testify in front of a grand jury by talking to at least one witness in another case that the grand jury investigated — and then didn’t tell the truth under oath when asked about it.

The former superintendent, however, always maintained his innocence. In a video the Broward school district released shortly after his arrest, Runcie declared: “I am confident that I will be vindicated, and I intend to continue to carry out my responsibilities as superintendent with the highest degree of integrity and moral standards as I have done for nearly 10 years.”

Kroll, Runcie’s attorney, and Runcie’s supporters suspected the former superintendent’s indictment was politically motivated. The Florida Supreme Court impaneled the grand jury in February 2019 at the request of DeSantis, who said when he was running for his first term of governor in 2018 that he wanted Runcie removed from office after the Parkland shootings.

After becoming governor in January 2019, DeSantis said Florida law prohibited him from removing Runcie since he was hired by the Broward School Board and wasn’t an elected official, whom a governor could remove.

“It’s a sad day in Broward County and across Florida when politics becomes more important that the interests of our students,” Kroll said after the indictment.

READ MORE: Legal experts say perjury charge against Runcie is rare; Black leaders point to politics

Runcie resigned and the Broward School Board approved a $754,900 exit package for him in May 2021. The board had hired him in 2011 from the Chicago Board of Education. He was the district’s first Black superintendent, the son of Jamaican parents.

When Runcie told the Broward School Board in April 2021 he would resign, he said he resigned not because of the perjury charge, but because of how he was being blamed for the events leading up to the Feb. 14, 2018, Parkland school shootings.

Runcie lists himself on LinkedIn as a board member of several nonprofits, including KnowledgeWorks, which creates policies that support innovative teaching; National Education Equity Lab, which focuses on economic mobility and opportunity through education; and Code.org, which advocates for teaching computer science in K-12 schools. He’s also a Chief In Residence for Chiefs for Change, an organization that coaches school district leaders.

If the case had reached trial, Runcie could have faced up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines for the criminal felony charge.