Parkland Dad Calls For Probe Into Broward Sheriff’s Office

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — The father of a survivor of the Parkland school shooting rampage on Thursday called for an investigation into the handling of a 2014 incident involving one of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s children. The alleged incident occurred exactly four years before the deadly massacre on Valentine’s Day.

In a statement issued through his Fort Lauderdale attorney’s office, Royer Borges said that a then 17-year-old son of the sheriff was involved in an incident with former Deputy Scot Peterson, the former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resource officer. Peterson was the resource officer who failed to enter the high school as a gunman gunned down students and staff inside, leaving 17 dead and others injured.

The sheriff’s son and another boy received a three-day suspension as a result of the 2014 incident in what the police report described as a simple battery. Borges said that the prior case involved a “young man who was sexually assaulted.”

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Peterson investigated the case. Borges, though, contends that the deputy did not push the case far enough.
“This incident never got past (Peterson),” wrote Borges in his statement. “(Peterson) wrote this up as a simple battery and stated that this did not have to be reported according to the discipline matrix. Allowing the deputy to reduce a sexual assault to simple battery was disgusting and should have never been permitted. Maybe if deputy Peterson would have been made to answer for this he may have been replaced by a more competent deputy but it was not done and the two individuals were charged with a simple battery.”

Borges is asking that Florida Gov. Rick Scott launch an investigation into the matter. The Broward Sheriff’s Office did not immediately comment on Borges’ claims.

In his statement, Borges also noted that Peterson was allowed to retire with his pension.

“Now I ask you: If this wouldn't have been the sheriff’s son, would a sexual assault have been reduced to a simple battery? Was deputy Peterson allowed to retire with his pension because he protected Sheriff Israel’s son from having a felony arrest,” Borges asked. “These are the questions that I and I’m sure many people from this county want answered.”

According to a copy of a redacted police report provided by Borges’ attorney, the incident involving the sheriff’s son took place after baseball practice near the entrance to a ballfield. Israel’s son was accused of holding the ankles of a fellow student while another teenager grabbed the boy’s groin area with his hand before pushing a baseball bat against the fully-clothed boy’s buttocks.

“The school district disciplinary matrix requires no law enforcement action required regarding the above incident,” Peterson wrote in the narrative, adding that the parents of the victim did not request “any law enforcement action regarding the above incident.”

Borges’ son, who remains confined to a wheelchair, has been dubbed "Iron Man" for his heroic efforts, a moniker that he dismisses.

The Borges family filed the first lawsuit against accused Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz in April. The family is also suing three mental health providers that failed to recognize the threat posed by Cruz, the couple who allowed him to bring guns into their home and the estate of Cruz' adopted mother. The Borges family also planned to file a separate lawsuit against the Broward County school system and sheriff's office.

The suit, filed by attorney Alex Arreaza of Fort Lauderdale in Broward County Circuit Court, seeks unspecified damages in excess of $15,000 and reserves the right to seek punitive damages in the future.

Photo courtesy Broward Sheriff's Office