Fort Lauderdale area Sheriff who lied about drug use and murder arrest won't be prosecuted 

Florida closed a case on Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was previously under investigation for lying on official applications, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel exclusively reported on Monday. Despite investigation results, Tony will not be charged for the felony. 

Tony lied in his official applications to become a law enforcement official about drug use, traffic tickets, and arrest history. Most recently, the sheriff lied to obtain a new driver’s license. 

“Although it appears that Tony knowingly and willfully [misled] public servants in the performance of their official duties by making false statements in writing on his official applications... a criminal prosecution of these actions would be negated” by the Florida statute of limitations, said Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigator Keith Riddick.

In 1993, when Tony was 14 years old, he was arrested for shooting a teenager from his neighborhood. After standing trial and claiming self-defense, he was found not guilty. 

“Tony was arrested and charged with murder, possessing instruments of crime, possession of an unlicensed firearm, and carrying firearms on public streets or public property in Philadelphia,” FDLE found.

On applications for a job with the Florida Department of Law enforcement, he answered “no” to questions about arrests or encounters with law enforcement officers. 

In January 2020, Tony signed an FDLE affidavit claiming he did not have “a criminal record sealed or expunged.” The Sheriff’s campaign claims Tony did not lie in the affidavit. 

“The FDLE form specifically asked whether he ever ‘had a criminal record sealed or expunged.’ The Sheriff has never had a criminal record,” a statement from the campaign read.

“There was no crime, no arrest, and this was considered a self-defense case, as it should have been,” Tony said in an interview about the shooting in May 2020. 

The investigators found that Tony committed “false affidavit perjury,” a third-degree felony because he did not disclose the information when he became a law enforcement officer.

However, FDLE said, “the sheriff’s falsehoods were too long ago to prosecute, and the most recent allegation — that he lied to obtain a new driver license — will not be pursued because the clerk’s memory of the incident is fuzzy,” wrote the Sun-Sentinel. 

Tony was being investigated at the request of the governor’s Office of Executive Investigations.