Deerfield-News.com-Deerfield Beach, Fl-Yesterday Florida’s Governor’s attorney made some compelling arguments to the Senate Rules Committee that voted 9-8 in favor of the removal of Scott Israel. The removal of a duly elected Sheriff is nothing to be taken lightly. A special master ruled against Israel’s removal last month. Goodlette the special master wrote in his report, “While the governor has offered a plethora of criticism, he has not shown that Sheriff Israel’s policies procedures or trainings on active shooter situations are inconsistent with Florida law enforcement standards.” Also-“are not blameless for the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas,” but added, “the evidence offered has not demonstrated that Sheriff Israel should be removed from office based on this incident.”
“Attorney Levesque for the Governor said-“These failures are properly and legally laid at the feet of Scott Israel for two reasons. One, the law makes him responsible for the acts of his deputies. And he’s also responsible for the incident commanding control failures because he knew of the deficiencies related to the incident command and responses and did nothing to correct them in between the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting,”
Attorney Benedict Kuehne representing Israel told the committee-“Sheriff Israel has never, never taken the position that anybody, including himself, acted perfectly. He does, however, assert the position that officers were trained and knew their responsibility and had to act based on knowledge and information they had or that was relayed to them.” The full Florida Senate is set to vote Wednesday on Isreal’s removal. As Deerfield-News.com has previously reported Scott Israel will run for re-election no matter what the Florida senate does. Stay tuned.
