Broward Clerk of Court Brenda Forman is under criminal investigation for statements she made under oath in a feud with an attorney and “additional complaints,” the governor’s office confirmed Friday.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office began investigating when attorney Bill Gelin provided prosecutors with copies of sworn statements the clerk made against him late last year, accusing him of stalking her through the courthouse hallways and placing her in fear for her life.
Gelin also provided prosecutors with video of the encounters.
Forman complained to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, applied for a restraining order with the court, and filed a grievance with the Florida Bar.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office reviewed the case and asked the governor to appoint an independent prosecutor because Forman used to work for the office.
Gov. DeSantis appointed the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office to handle “the investigation and prosecution of this case and all related matters.”
The order was signed Friday.
Forman could not be reached for comment Friday despite calls to her office and cellphone.
The feud between Forman and Gelin began last October, when Gelin approached the clerk about an issue he was having with one of his clients.
According to documents both provided to the Florida Bar, Forman told Gelin to discuss it with her employees.
When he asked if he should say “Brenda sent me,” Forman insisted on being referred to as “Madam Clerk or Mrs. Forman.”
Gelin, who maintains and writes for the courthouse news and gossip site JAABlog, said he was taken aback by her insistence on formality and decided to write an article.
When Gelin tried to take her picture, Forman balked.
Gelin’s “constant harassment towards me in my place of business has become annoying, frustrating and threatening my life,” Forman wrote in one of her formal complaints. “Mr. Gelin has gotten into my face on several occasions trying to intimidate me and provoke me into violence. He has no respect for anyone.”
In one encounter, recorded on Gelin’s cellphone, Forman storms off when she sees him and asks a court deputy to step in.
The deputy does nothing to stop Gelin from continuing to record Forman as she walks away.
Forman dropped the stalking complaint after it was assigned to a Miami judge, accusing Gelin of trying to make a spectacle of the proceeding by passing out embossed invitations to his friends and colleagues.
“It was my intention to draw as much attention and as many people as possible to the hearing so the people of Broward County could watch one of their elected officials testify under oath in open court to events directly contradicted by video evidence,” Gelin said Friday. “No one was surprised when she canceled the hearing. Apparently she does have some boundaries.”
Gelin added that the sworn statements by Forman’s employees “should be part of the investigation. If there was any pressure put on these employees, or collusion, that would be even more disturbing.”
No details were given regarding the “additional complaints” cited in the governor’s order appointing an independent prosecutor.
Earlier this year, Forman applied to serve as a non-lawyer member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors, the same body that could decide the outcome of her Bar complaint against Gelin.
In that application, Forman said she had not been a plaintiff or a defendant in a lawsuit. Records show she was the defendant in a foreclosure suit in 2014 and a “respondent,” the legal equivalent of a defendant, in her 2017 divorce from her political predecessor Howard Forman.
Howard Forman is coming out of retirement to run against his ex-wife for his old job. Also in the race is Michael Francis, a courthouse deputy who filled out one of the reports Brenda Forman filed against Gelin.
rolmeda@SunSentinel.com, 954-356-4457, Twitter @SSCourts and @rolmeda