UPDATE 10:20 a.m. Friday — The bloodletting continued Thursday night at the Broward Sheriff’s Office when Sheriff Gregory Tony fired Col. Andrew Dunbar, according to police sources. Dunbar, whose picture and biography have been removed from the executive command staff on BSO’s website, is a veteran employee who would have reached 34 years of service next month. Tony promoted Dunbar to colonel in 2024 while he was a major serving as director of human relations.
By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony has a new undersheriff and a new headache.
Col. Steve Robson got the job when Tony abruptly axed his longtime Undersheriff Nichole Anderson, her civilian aide and her driver – a BSO captain – Tuesday night after police sources say he heard that Anderson was thinking about running against him in 2028.
Robson, Florida Bulldog has learned, is the unnamed “victim” in an odd all-BSO criminal incident that happened Feb. 10 at 8:30 a.m. in the parking garage of BSO’s Research, Development and Training Center at BSO headquarters at 2601 W. Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.
The alleged culprit is Damar Edwards, 44, an accountant who has worked in BSO’s finance division since July 2019. He was arrested three days after the Feb. 10 encounter with Robson. The charge against him: battery on a law enforcement officer – Robson. If Edwards is convicted of the third-degree felony, he is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Battery on a law enforcement officer sounds bad, conjuring up images of cops who’ve been bloodied and bruised after taking a beating while arresting a suspect. That’s not what happened to Undersheriff Robson, whose name is blacked out in the sworn complaint affidavit that’s the basis for Edwards’s arrest. In fact, there is no indication in the complaint that Robson suffered any injury at all.
According to the complaint, the situation began “a few days prior” to the arrest when Robson spotted Edwards “operating his vehicle at an unsafe speed” in the parking garage “at which time he verbally counseled him.”
“The victim didn’t make physical contact on that occasion because he was not in uniform and identifiable as a law enforcement officer. The victim noted that on that same occasion the defendant was argumentative,” says the complaint sworn to by Sgt. Joshua Webb of BSO’s public corruption unit. Why public corruption? It seems that Webb was chosen by Robson, his superior, to file the complaint using Florida’s “fellow officer rule” that allows a deputy to make an arrest based on information received from another officer.
On Feb. 10, the report says, a uniformed Robson saw Edwards in the same vehicle (while apparently arriving for work in the morning) allegedly speeding once again in the garage. Surveillance video showed that Robson “made contact” with Edwards as he was getting out of his car. Robson told Edwards he’d seen him speeding in the garage before and asked him why he was doing it. Robson asked Edwards to identify himself and saw he was wearing an ID card on a lanyard which “was facing toward his body and unreadable. The victim [Robson] then reached out to turn the ID around to read it, as the defendant was argumentative and refusing commands to identify himself. As the victim took hold of the ID card, the defendant suddenly made a quick movement with his hand and forcefully snatched the ID card back from the victim’s grasp.”
ROBSON PRESSES BATTERY CHARGE
“This action caused the defendant’s hand to forcefully make contact with the victim’s hand, creating an intentional, non-consensual contact with the victim’s hand, which then evolved into a verbal altercation,” the complaint says. “At the time the defendant battered the victim, he stated, ‘don’t fucking touch me.’ The victim then removed his handcuffs to restrain the defendant as his behavior was unusual and for the fact that the victim still had not been able to identify him as an employee.”
That’s what Undersheriff Robson apparently thinks is a “crime” serious enough to send Edwards to prison, label him a felon and possibly cost him his job. We know that because Webb’s complaint says Robson gave a “sworn victim statement advising that he wished to pursue criminal charges against the defendant for intentionally touching/striking him against his will and without his consent.”
Edwards is represented by Fort Lauderdale defense attorney Robert Buschel. He said Edwards has no criminal record, unlike Sheriff Tony himself, whose record includes a juvenile arrest for murder in Philadelphia of which he was acquitted.
“You are arresting an employee and hurting his career just because he was playing patty cake with you after you grabbed him by his lanyard,” said Buschel.
The BSO complaint goes on to say that after removing Edwards’s lanyard he put his handcuffs away “to free up both of his hands because he felt as if he was going to have to physically restrain” Edwards. “The victim then physically restrained the defendant with an armbar and pressed him against the vehicle after verbally giving the defendant a direct order several times to turn around and face his vehicle, which were ignored.” After that, the situation calmed and Robson told Edwards to report to “his work station and await further instructions of contact from command or Internal Affairs.” Edwards was arrested three days later and booked into the Broward County Jail where he apparently spent the night.
At a hearing the next day, Broward Circuit Judge Kenneth Gillespie, a probate judge serving as a magistrate, found probable cause to believe Edwards had battered Robson.
Edwards posted a $2,500 bond and was released on Valentine’s Day.
Meanwhile, Tony offered only this brief, vague note to BSO staff about why he dumped Robson’s predecessor Nichole Anderson:
“When significant decisions are made that impact our agency, it is important to me that you hear about them directly from me. In public safety, change is constant, and it is essential to ensuring we continue delivering the highest level of service to the residents and visitors of Broward County. I am continually evaluating not only what we do, but how we do it, to ensure we remain effective, efficient, and responsive as an organization.
“Working with my executive command staff, I have implemented several structural changes within the agency. As part of this restructuring, Colonel Nichole Anderson has been relieved of duty, and Steve Robson has been appointed as the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s new Undersheriff, effective immediately. I will continue to assess our organizational needs to ensure we are positioned for the greatest level of operational efficiency. Any changes we make are driven by one goal: improving service to our community.”
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