TALLAHASSEE – An appeals court Wednesday revived a perjury charge against former Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie stemming from testimony he gave to a statewide grand jury that investigated school safety issues after the 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School .
A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal overturned Broward County Circuit Judge Martin Fein’s decision last year to dismiss the charge. The dismissal and appeal centered on whether the statewide grand jury had the authority to indict Runcie.
Fein ruled that the statewide grand jury did not have authority because the alleged perjury occurred in only one judicial circuit, where crimes are handled by local prosecutors or grand juries. By law, statewide grand juries have authority to indict people for perjury that occurs in “two or more judicial circuits as part of a related transaction ”