Update: Court Candidate Lives 450 Miles From Broward
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Drive past the Quik Stop and the St. Paul Primitive Baptist Church. Keep driving past Holy Ghost Court. Then turn right at Dr. MLK Jr. Road and eventually you’ll come to a tiny wood frame house nestled in the North Florida pines.
You will be at the home of Roseanna Bronhard, candidate for the Broward County Court Group 31.
This Broward candidate has both feet, her bed and her homestead planted firmly in the land of y’alls. Not a single fuggedaboutit is heard for miles. And miles.
Bronhard lives about as far away as you can — roughly 450 miles north — and still be in Florida.
The law requires her to live in Broward only when she takes office. When she filed for judge last month, she swore she was a resident of Wakulla County.
“I have only resided in Wakulla County since the early part of 2018, mainly based on State employment in Tallahassee,” Bronhard emailed Browardbeat after this article was posted.
“I resided in Broward County from 1990-1991, 1993-2003, part of 2009 and again between 2017-2018,” she continued. “I have elderly parents that reside in Hallandale Beach (Broward County). Mom is Olga Bronhard (89) and dad is Henry Bronhard (83), both residents of Broward County since 2002. Mom is very ill and was in the hospital, and now home with nursing care, instead of nursing home because of virus concerns.”
In 2016 Bronhard ran for County Court in Holmes County in the Panhandle. But she didn’t live in Holmes County, either. She lived in Fort Pierce, hundreds of miles away.
Bronhard lost that out-of-town campaign, as she did an earlier race for St. Lucie County Court in 2014.
Roseanna Bronhard
She blamed the losses on prejudice.
“I decided on running in Broward County based on proximity to my parents and a large voting population that will be hopefully less likely to discriminate against me being originally born in Brooklyn, N.Y and Staten Island, N.Y.,” she wrote this website. “I am of Polish and Italian descent. The voters in the Panhandle voted for locals that had been in the community with family ties that stretched over generations. I decided against another Panhandle race at the moment. Also, there are no Judge seats on the ballot in Wakulla.”
She said she worked as a judicial staff attorney in Broward from 1993 to 2002 and also worked as a senior attorney for the state’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation
Currently working at the Florida Commission on Human Relations for $39,000 annually, her 1,000-square foot North Florida home with a porch out front is worth $81,500, states her financial disclosure.
Her disclosure also reveals that Bronhard owes a lot of money. A whole lot of money.
Bronhard reported a negative net worth in April of $395,818. She clearly does not have the Broward connections or resources to pay for a professional campaign.
In her email to Browardbeat, Bronhard put a positive spin on her modest finances:
“Based on your comment, that I don’t have the resources or connections to run a campaign in Broward County, it basically refers to someone as being privileged as the only type of candidate worthy of running. Voters in Broward County should have a choice of who they vote for beyond the insider privileged or financially privileged and make their decision. Based on this, I believe I will be the most impartial and make decisions based on the law and not connections.”
Bronhard is one of three lawyers running in Group 31. The others are:
- Sean Conway.
This Fort Lauderdale criminal defense lawyer more than a decade ago was punished by the Florida Supreme Court for “undermining public confidence” in the courts. He called a judge “seemingly mentally ill” and an “EVIL UNFAIR WITCH,” among other things.
His record is clean since then and I heard absolutely nothing questionable about him.
His law firm website notes that he is “not a former prosecutor” in big type, which one lawyer mused might indicate a prejudice against the State in court. Voters can decide that one.
Conway reported earning $90,093 from his law practice last year and has a net worth of $648,951.
- Natasha DePrimo.
DePrimo is the incumbent Broward County Judge in Group 31.
A former Broward prosecutor and Florida Transportation Department senior attorney, DePrimo is eminently qualified and has done a great job as a judge, according to several lawyers.
The first Asian American female appointed in 2018 to the Broward bench by Gov. Rick Scott, she is running in her first election. She currently earns $151,822 annually to hear cases in the West Satellite Courthouse in Plantation.
I heard nothing negative about her from the lawyers I questioned.
So voters for Group 31 are facing an interesting choice. There is:
- Bronhard, a candidate who has been knocking around the state for years looking for County Court job she can win.
- Conway, who has a credible career as a defense attorney. But he stumbled once more than a decade ago and lost it, calling a judge a litany of demeaning juvenile names.
- DePrimo, the incumbent who reportedly is doing a very good job.
It’s up to you.
May 6th, 2020 at 12:19 pm
You forgot to say that DePrimo was appointed by Rick Scott, the worst governor this state has ever had.
FROM BUDDY:
She was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, who was far from the worst governor Florida ever elected. One choice for very bad governor would be Rev. Sidney Catts, who was elected in 1916 on a platform fiercely anti-Catholic and anti-alcohol.Some of his milder statements were that the Catholic organization Knights of Columbus was stockpiling munitions in preparation for a Catholic takeover of Florida. He said priests were educating blacks in parochial schools which would inevitably bring about an end to segregation.And so forth. He was clearly worse than Scott.
May 6th, 2020 at 1:01 pm
Alot of canidates don’t t live in the area that they r interested in.And once they do get elected many still don’t t live in the area they by law r suppose to be in.Its very widely practiced.Come on we all several elected officials who don’t t live in the district etc.they represent.Even when substanchiatiated evidence clearly demonstrates that they don’ t reside where they r suppose to be.So she is not alone.Will it matter come election day,will see…
May 7th, 2020 at 8:54 am
She might win. Her name is listed first on the ballot, a distinct advantage.
May 7th, 2020 at 12:48 pm
This article defines what’s wrong in Broward. Playing the name game in elections is no reason to run for office. There are bad judges, most of which have been reelected without opposition. There are even worse local elected officials to get reelected year in and year out. We legitimately need to take money out of elections in the electorate need to become much more educated. If we can start that process the right people who hold the right positions. I have looked into Natasha Deprimo she handedly has my support, I also attended a public defender forum where sean conway spoke very specifically to why he was running for public defender, so I question his motives. Too many local political consultants push good honest civil minded people in the wrong way and get them to run for the wrong reasons
May 7th, 2020 at 3:50 pm
If Bronhard wins, it’s a good reason to just get rid of Broward County altogether. We already know Broward elections have a history of making the whole country look bad, but in her last election she got fewer than two hundred total votes. It’s ridiculous.
Sean Conway is a nice guy but until two days before filing, for two YEARS, he told the voters he wanted to be the Public Defender of Broward County. That’s hardly the type of person who can assure the public that he wants a non-advocacy role.
Sad to speak of Judge DePrimo last. Hard-working, very bright and seriously one of the kindest people in any Florida courtroom.
Judges certainly know they may have to run for election. But Broward maintains its history of challenging minorities while claiming to be a “progressive” County. As one of my favorite judges often noted, “for one with a law degree, it’s the best job in the world, it’s just that it’s in the worst County.”
May 9th, 2020 at 2:38 pm
So what she lives somewhere else? It would be refreshing to have somebody from the outside who lives in a place that is REAL, rather than the same old Broward glad-hander who is part of the system. I’m voting for her and not Gov. Rick “Medicare Fraud” Scott’s pick.
May 9th, 2020 at 3:33 pm
The fact is she HAS long term Broward connections based on what ‘long term ‘ seems to mean today in Broward County. She is running WITHIN the Law AS WRITTEN. It is for the voters to decide.
May 9th, 2020 at 6:29 pm
Broward: the land of opportunists:
noun
a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans: most burglaries are committed by casual opportunists.
adjective
opportunistic: the calculating and opportunist politician.
May 9th, 2020 at 10:07 pm
@5: Obviously your “favorite judge” has never been to infamously racist Duval County, which until 2014 was still proud of its Nathan B. Forrest High School (named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan).
May 11th, 2020 at 4:09 pm
To #9:
Yeah, I’m sure that’s why they have a female State Attorney and why Governor Scott appointed Lester Bass to the bench. But, you’re right, you can keep living in the past with your head in the sand.
https://floridacountyjudges.com/2018/11/28/county-court-judge-lester-bass-appointment-to-circuit-court-confirmed/
May 15th, 2020 at 10:03 am
The flaw in the system (if it is, indeed, a flaw) is that one only has to be a resident when taking office. Change the law to require a candidate be a resident when they file to run; that will require the office-seeker to have some skin in the game.
May 17th, 2020 at 10:12 am
For Christs sake…we have a crack dealer murderer as a sheriff. So who cares anymore?