MIAMI – The superintendent of the public school district in Broward County, Fla., Was arrested Wednesday as part of a comprehensive criminal investigation that began in the turbulent months following the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Authorities also arrested Barbara J. Myrick, the district attorney general. She is charged with unlawful disclosure of the proceedings in the grand jury, which is also an offense. Both mr. Runcie (59) and Mrs. Myrick, 72, was released shortly after being jailed.
The two sensational arrests are the latest turmoil that has surrounded leading Broward County leaders since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which left 17 students and staff dead and 17 others wounded in 2018 and led to a national wave of activism to cage the gun. violence. Florida tightened gun laws and introduced safety requirements for the school after the shooting – and allowed some teachers to carry guns at school.
In Broward County, the shooting incident cast a long shadow over the sheriff’s office over the poor response to the massacre, and the school district over how it used to kill the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, a former student of Stoneman Douglas, and others students who were upset. behavior at school. (Mr Cruz is in jail awaiting trial for head murder.)
In a statement, lawyers for Mr. Runcie that he will plead not guilty and continue his role as superintendent. They said that Mr. Runcie “fully cooperated” with law enforcement during the grand jury’s investigation, and that the accusation against him “sheds no light on the false statement allegedly made.”
“This is a sad day in Broward County and across Florida when politics becomes more important than the interests of our students,” the lawyers said.
Me. Myrick did not respond to a request for comment.
The families of some of the victims of the school shooting have sued the sheriff and the school district, claiming they are negligent and possibly claiming millions of dollars in damages. Some of the families also led to an unsuccessful attempt to kill Mr. Runcie fired too late. The school board now has two relatives of the victims: Lori Alhadeff, who lost her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, and Debra Hixon, who lost her husband, Christopher, who was the athletic director of Stoneman Douglas.
Tony Montalto, president of Stand With Parkland, a group of some of the families, said in a statement on Wednesday that the families were grateful for the work of the grand jury.
“The grand jury is doing its job by holding people responsible for the safety of our children and staff members,” he said. Montalto, who lost his 14-year-old daughter, Gina, in the shooting incident, said. “We know that Mr. Runcie’s weak leadership contributed to the Parkland tragedy. ‘
Former Sheriff Scott J. Israel, a Democrat, was removed from office by Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, shortly after the governor took office in 2019. Mr. DeSantis has appointed to replace Mr. To take Israel.
Apart from the investigation into the school district, the Florida Department of Law is also investigating Sheriff Tony, according to court reports. The investigation stems from revelations during last year’s campaign that Mr. Tony, a Democrat, shot dead a man as a teenager in Philadelphia and lied on an affidavit to become sheriff.
Broward County Public Schools, the sixth largest district in the country, has a long history of mismanagement and corruption scandals, many of which are related to school building. More than a decade ago, a school board member served a prison sentence after taking bribes from secret agents posing as contractors.
The latest arrests relate to a grand jury that was born after Mr. DeSantis requested it in February 2019.
“As the one-year anniversary of one of the darkest days in Florida’s history approaches, it’s clear that more needs to be done,” he said in a statement at the time.
A state commission also investigated the shooting and met regularly.
In January, authorities arrested Tony Hunter, the district’s former intelligence chief. The Broward County grand jury has charged him with embezzlement and illegal compensation by a public official after he was accused of sending a $ 17 million technology contract to a friend. He pleaded not guilty.
The grand jury intends to investigate possible violations in school districts across the country, including if the refusal or failure to comply with school safety legislation endangers students; if districts have committed fraud by accepting state funds conditioned on security measures without putting them in place; and if districts diverted funds for school safety for other purposes from ties.
The grand jury was also authorized to investigate where districts systematically “underreport” incidents of criminal activity in schools, which some parents of Parkland students protested after the shooting. Mr. Runcie, who was appointed by the school board in 2011, campaigned for the termination of the so-called zero tolerance policy that led to the suspension and expulsion of many colored students.