A judge on Thursday sided with two fired deputies who failed to confront the Parkland school shooter in 2018, concluding that they should get their jobs back due to procedural technicalities related to their termination, including an omission in the filing of crucial documents and a missed deadline.
Broward Circuit Judge Keathan Frink did not weigh in on the failures of the deputies to respond during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, but found the arbitrators were correct when they ruled the sheriff’s office acted too late when it fired the deputies.
Under state law, police agencies are given 180 days to investigate and discipline officers. And investigators must swear they’ve read reports about officers in their entirety and that the forms are accurate. But the version of the oath that the Sheriff’s Office had used on its forms for many years omitted that line — and no one ever said it needed to be included. But the union representing the deputies seized on that.
“They were wrongfully terminated ... It's like a statute of limitations. Deadlines are there for a reason: to keep checks and balances."
Frink concluded that arbitrators were correct in ruling that the fired sheriff’s deputies, Brian Miller and Joshua Stambaugh, should get their jobs back, with back pay plus other payments. That includes accrued sick and vacation time, holiday pay, overtime and off-duty detail pay they likely would have made had they not been fired. That’s in addition to car stipends, pension contributions and medical expenses, among other benefits.
And in the Miller case, the submitted documents ultimately were considered a mere two days too late because of the issue over the written oath.
“This is a huge victory this morning,” said Jeff Bell, the president of the Sheriff’s Office Deputies Association.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Sheriff Gregory Tony had been in office five months before firing three Parkland officers.
The case involving a third deputy, Edward Eason, still is being weighed by an arbitrator. Tony’s predecessor, Scott Israel, who was ousted over Parkland, also could have acted in time, Bell said.
“They were wrongfully terminated,” Bell said, adding he recognizes that there is a need to discipline when mistakes are made by any employee. “It’s like a statute of limitations. Deadlines are there for a reason: to keep checks and balances.”
“Alyssa and 16 others are no longer here because of the failures and inactions by many, including [officers Brian] Miller and [Joshua] Stambaugh. It is painful for me to once again see there is no accountability."
Bell said he fully understands the ruling will not sit well with Parkland families and survivors.
“Alyssa and 16 others are no longer here because of the failures and inactions by many, including Miller and Stambaugh,” said Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa, was killed in the massacre. “It is painful for me to once again see there is no accountability.”
Andy Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, was killed in the attack, said he hopes the decision is a call-to-action for city and county leaders. “Every mayor in every city should say we don’t want these deputies in our town responding to a 911 situation. ... If people really cared, that is what they would do.”
He said he wants parents to know that the fired deputies could possibly be called to an emergency: “[They should know] this is who you got coming.”
“We don’t get to bring back the children who were murdered on a technicality,” Pollack said.
Despite Thursday’s ruling, the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s general counsel maintains the deputies shouldn’t get their jobs back. “There were no victors on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when Miller and Stambaugh failed to do their jobs, and it is [the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s] belief that the deputies do not deserve their jobs back.
“The union’s claimed ‘victory’ fails to acknowledge that the union fought desperately to prevent the arbitrator from hearing the facts that justified the termination of these deputies, and that this ‘victory’ was the result of a procedural technicality, which the Sheriff’s Office maintains was wrongly decided.”
The Sheriff’s Office said it believes that the arbitration process is inherently flawed, preventing law enforcement agencies from holding law enforcement officers accountable for misconduct.
“Nevertheless, [the Broward Sheriff’s Office] will continue to fight to uphold discipline when deputies commit misconduct on the job.”
The sheriff’s office would not say Thursday if it intends to appeal the decision at a higher level.
The ruling, especially if the third deputy is successful, could reach upward of $1 million in pay and benefits.
Stambaugh earned $152,857 in base and overtime pay in 2018 and Miller earned $137,249.
So in just back pay and overtime, the decision on the two deputies represents some $580,000 just in back pay and likely accrued overtime if the deputies are reinstated in June, two years after they were terminated.
Miller, Stambaugh and Eason represented part of the failed police response on the day when a teenage gunman murdered 17 staff and students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Sergeant Miller stood outside the school as shots rang out. Stambaugh, after arriving to the school, drove to a nearby highway and looked on through field glasses. And Eason said he stayed on the school’s periphery, unsure of where the gunshots were coming from, but bodycam video showed him saying he heard shots fired and pointing toward the school.
Miller was fired June 4. An arbitrator a year ago concluded that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office violated Miller’s due process rights when Tony terminated him two days past a deadline that a state law allows for punishing law enforcement officers once an investigation is completed.
In September, an arbitrator ruled Stambaugh also should be reinstated with back pay, citing the same reason as the other arbitrator.
Bell said the judge’s “decision today solidifies that Sgt. Miller and Deputy Stambaugh were terminated improperly.
“Deadlines are set for specific reasons and the Sheriff’s Office must adhere to those same guidelines as we demand from the citizens of Broward County,” Bell said.
The three fired deputies are among eight deputies who heard the explosion of gunfire but failed to rush into the school.
Three other deputies, Arthur Perry, Michael Kratz and Brian Goolsby transferred out of the Parkland district and remain employed by the Sheriff’s Office today. Richard Seward retired eight months after the massacre and died not long afterward, of an aggressive form of cancer.
Perhaps the most notable of the deputies who failed to respond was Scot Peterson, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school resource officer since 2009 who was at the school on the day of the shooting. Instead of going into the building, Peterson took cover at a different building for nearly 48 minutes and told deputies to stay away from the building.
A state commission investigating the Sheriff’s Office was critical of his response, saying he was “derelict in his duty.” The State Attorney’s Office took it a step further and filed seven, second-degree negligence charges against Peterson, who resigned just weeks after the massacre. He also faced three charges of culpable negligence and one count of perjury. Peterson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Staff writer Lisa Huriash contributed to this report.
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