‘Utter shock.’ Suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel should be reinstated, report finds

Former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel — suspended in January by Florida’s governor and blamed for last year’s school shooting in Parkland — should be reinstated, an independent arbitrator has ruled.

Calling the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a “culmination of individual failures,” a Naples attorney appointed by the state to consider Israel’s challenge of his suspension wrote in a report Tuesday that the Florida Senate should return Israel to his elected position atop the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

“Sheriff Israel and the BSO are not blameless for the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas,” wrote Naples lawyer Dudley Goodlette, appointed by the Senate to review the case and make a recommendation. “That said, the evidence offered has not demonstrated that Sheriff Israel should be removed from office based on this incident.”

Goodlette’s findings, however, are not binding. They will be presented to the Florida Senate during a four-hour special meeting scheduled for Oct. 23, during which the upper chamber of the Florida Legislature will decide whether to permanently remove Israel or reinstate Israel.