NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) — Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony is facing more controversy.
On Tuesday, Tony was added to the Brady List, a list kept by prosecutors of Broward law enforcement officials who could be perceived as having credibility issues.
The list includes officers who were convicted of crimes or are under investigation.
The announcement by the Broward State Attorney’s Office came in response to media requests.
On Wednesday, 7News cameras showed the sheriff in Pompano Beach as he handed out checks from a law enforcement fund to community improvement organizations.
“Let’s reinvest it back into the community,” he said.
Prosecutors said they added Tony to the Brady List after findings surfaced from the Florida Commission on Ethics.
Tony’s inclusion in the 26-page list means that his testimony on any given case could be considered suspect, potentially discrediting him on the witness stand.
After his event in Pompano Beach, Tony was asked about the matter.
“The focal point today has been issuing out $930,000 to people that need it in this community. There’s your answer,” he said.
Officials with the ethics commission said last week that there was probable cause to believe Tony had misused his public position when he provided false information or did not disclose information when undergoing the hiring process at Coral Springs Police and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
The incident in question is Tony’s arrest as a teenager for killing a man in self-defense in Philadelphia back in 1993, as well as failures to appear in court.
In a May 2020 interview with 7News, the sheriff said, “In all that time, every background [check] I went through, through FDLE, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, or the FBI clearances that I’ve had to acquire to attain this position, and many others. It’s never come up.”
Last week, Tony’s attorney called the ethics commission’s findings unprecedented because they overruled the commission’s own advocate, who said there really wasn’t any evidence that the sheriff had given out false information.
At this point, Tony could ask for a hearing before the commission or negotiate some kind of fine.
Wednesday night, his legal team issued a statement that reads in part, “While disappointed in the Commission’s action, my client looks forward to a swift finding of innocence.”
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