- April 25, 2024
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Name: Ed Brodsky
Age: 55
Family: Married to my lovely wife, Kim, for 26 years, and together we have two children, Evan and Alexa, and two pet Weimaraners, Mason and Luke.
Bio:
I am a career-long prosecutor having served the State Attorney’s Office for 28 years, the past eight of which have been as the elected State Attorney. In my youth, I admired and respected the role of law enforcement, and it was my childhood dream to become a police officer. To this end, I attended and graduated from the police academy and served as a reserve police officer and served with the Florida Army National Guard as a military policeman.
While earning my degree in criminology at the University of South Florida, I became interested in attending law school, so I could become a prosecutor to further serve law enforcement and pursue justice. During my studies at the University of South Florida, I worked at the Public Defender’s Office to gain a better understanding of the criminal justice system. But keeping true to my commitment to prosecution, I enrolled in Nova University Law School of Fort Lauderdale, where I earned my law degree in 1991. Upon graduation from law school, I worked for a short time in the 17th Circuit State Attorney’s Office in Broward County before finding my home in Manatee County with State Attorney Earl Moreland 28 years ago.
I began my career in misdemeanors prosecuting domestic batteries, DUIs and countless other charges before being promoted to the felony division. In felonies, I served with distinction bringing justice to the victims of murderers, rapists and child predators.
I was promoted to felony division chief, where I managed the felony attorneys in a felony division while overseeing the cases and issues of my staff. I was again promoted to chief assistant state attorney of the Manatee County office to ensure the success of the entire office before becoming the circuitwide chief assistant state attorney.
As the circuitwide chief assistant state attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit, I was responsible for overseeing all attorneys and staff in all four offices across Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. In addition, I served on the Public Safety Coordination Council and on the Criminal Justice Commission in Sarasota.
I am also board certified by the Florida Bar in Criminal Trial Law. Only 7% of licensed Florida attorneys are board certified. A secondary component of board certification is demonstrated professionalism and ethics, which is blindly evaluated by lawyers and judges we face in court. I am also fluent in both English and Spanish. I have been committed to serving our community with passion and integrity while upholding the highest ethical standards. I became a prosecutor to protect the public and ensure the administration of justice. Because of this, I have committed myself to being responsive to the needs of the community and law enforcement.
I was sworn in as state attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit of Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties on Jan. 8, 2013.
Gov. Rick Scott appointed me to serve on the State Advisory Group for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and I continue to serve in that position under Gov. Ron DeSantis. currently serve as an Adjunct Professor with the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. I also currently serve on the Criminal Justice Commission in Sarasota County, and the Public Safety Coordinating Council in Manatee County.
Since becoming state attorney in 2013, we have modernized the office by becoming paperless and introduced several new units to the office. These are some of the things that I have implemented to help lower crime and make our communities safer:
Additionally, we have proudly worked closely with court administration and our bench, the defense bar, the criminal justice committees locally, the county jails, as well as many nongovernment organizations, such as Selah Freedom, Project 180 and SRQ Veterans, to help create, establish or expand many therapeutic courts and diversionary programs:
As a result, many more offenders are rehabilitated and becoming productive members of the community, recidivism rates are lowered, and the costs to the criminal justice system and our citizens are reduced.
Why are you running for office?
I have been a career-long prosecutor serving the State Attorney’s Office for 28 years, my past eight years as your elected state attorney. I went to law school to become a prosecutor. I love serving my community and serving in law enforcement. We live in an amazing community — one that I am proud to call my home and to live in and raise my family in. We are blessed to have a strong alliance of law enforcement executives in our community overseeing their respective agencies. We all communicate and collaborate well with one another on important matters of criminal justice. I am proud that during my past eight years as state attorney over Sarasota County, we have seen crime go down 47%.
Sarasota has come a long way over the past eight years, and we’ve seen a number of initiatives that I believe has fostered a marked decrease in crime, from a tough-on-crime approach for violent and career criminals to a measured hand to help reform, rehabilitate and give a lifting hand to offenders who deserve an opportunity to walk away from a life of crime. I have been proud to witness the expansion of our drug court program helping lower crime recidivism and helping offenders become clean and able to turn their lives around. We instituted programs to help our military veterans, our homeless and those who suffer from mental illness.
We have modernized our office by becoming paperless, which has improved the work of our attorneys and staff but has also allowed law enforcement agencies to improve their transmission of data to our agency, from reports to audio interviews to video recordings. We have instilled best practices in our offices and promoted an atmosphere where prosecutors work with a commitment to maintain the highest ethical standards. I am proud of the men and women who serve at the State Attorney’s Office and their daily commitment to the pursuit of justice.
Sarasota County is working to approve and introduce new correctional facilities to help offenders with drug addiction and mental health needs. We must continue to move the pendulum forward and build on the programs that have helped foster the reductions in crimes we have witnessed in our region, and I am proud to be a part of that effort. I have the leadership, experience and vision to continue to lead this office in the future, and that is why I am running to retain the position that I am honored to serve in.
What are three priorities you hope to accomplish, if elected?
What is your philosophy on sentencing for misdemeanors and felonies?
Not every misdemeanor and felony offense is alike, nor are the offenders that commit these crimes. As a result, our office has had, and I have, multiple approaches to sentencing recommendations for misdemeanor and felony offenses. Some considerations include whether this is the offender's first offense, whether the offender has any prior criminal record, whether the offense was a crime of violence or was a nonviolent offense. Did the crime involve a victim, or was it a victimless crime? Are there any monetary losses or physical damage caused by the crime? What are the victim’s wishes regarding the charges and recommended sentence? Was the offense committed by a juvenile rather than an adult? In our juvenile, misdemeanor and felony divisions, we offer pretrial intervention programs for first-time offenders who commit a nonviolent offense. This allows eligible offenders an opportunity to comply with all conditions and, upon successful completion, avoid formal charges from being filed. We offer many programs aimed to addressing the underlying reasons the person may have committed the crime, i.e., our drug court program to address those offending due to drug addiction. Our many other specialty courts are also offered to offenders to address military veterans in need of services, or crimes due to being homeless, or from being sexually trafficked or suffering from mental illness. My sentencing philosophy has been that we must be tough on violent or career criminals, drug dealers and those who sexually prey on our children, exploit our elderly or harm animals. Nonviolent offenders otherwise should be afforded the opportunity to become crime-free, drug-free, productive members of our community. With our youth, I support ensuring that we do what we can to help them avoid going deeper into the criminal justice system, and I have supported the use of juvenile civil citation to help our first-time juvenile offenders. We run a number of programs in our juvenile, misdemeanor and felony divisions designed to enhance public safety by implementing smart and sound criminal justice policies.
What is your view on how to sentence people convicted of multiple drug-use crimes?
I have demonstrated my strongly held belief by my full support and utilization of our drug court programs in the 12th Circuit. Today, we run drug courts in all of our offices in Manatee, Sarasota and DeSoto counties. We see a vast number of offenders commit crime fueled by their drug addiction. They commit the crime because they are high at the time or so they can score their next fix. Our drug court programs have proven to lower criminal recidivism by helping offenders become clean. Drug offenders often commit crime and frequently have issues holding steady employment or maintaining adequate housing. I support helping offenders address all of these areas, which in turn allows the offender the opportunity and, more importantly, the ability to walk away from a life of crime.
What frustrations or issues would you address and change 1) to improve the operations of the State Attorney’s Office; and 2) that would markedly improve the state justice system?
I am pleased with the operations of the State Attorney’s Office, and I am grateful for the support from our Florida legislature, our legislators, and our County Commission for the support they have given us to perform our function. If there were an area that I would like to see increased funding that will impact criminal justice, it is in the three critical areas I addressed in my previous response regarding my future priorities. Increased funding in 1) supporting, developing and expanding our therapeutic or specialty courts; 2) improving access to substance abuse and mental health treatment; and 3) viable alternatives to incarceration, would lead to enhanced improvements throughout our criminal justice system, which would in turn benefit the State Attorney’s Office and our community as a whole.
How would you say Sheriff Knight’s treatment programs for drug offenders are working, and how would you improve them?
Sheriff Knight has brought real change to inmates within the Sarasota County Jail by creating an addiction treatment and recovery pod. Inmates who have gone through his program have been revitalized and transformed, and many inmates speak of the life changes it has made for them. The program is remarkable, and its success has led to his expansion of programs within the jail, such as the veterans pod, and by his work helping inmates successfully transition back into society. The programs have shown tremendous promise and results, and if they were able to enhance and expand their programs and offer it to even more inmates, we would continue to build upon the positive results that they have achieved.
What in your opinion is the right relationship and balance between the State Attorney’s Office and local law enforcement agencies? How would you grade the State Attorney’s relationship with local law enforcement agencies? What can be improved?
I would grade the State Attorney’s Office on its relationship with law enforcement an A.
We actively teach new recruits at the police academy and offer in-service training on a variety of legal topics to seasoned law enforcement and corrections officers. We respond and are available to assist at major crime scenes and homicide cases. We provide 24/7 assistance to address any legal concerns during an investigation or to review search warrants or provide other assistance. We have worked very hard to have a good working relationship and maintain good lines of communication with our law enforcement partners.
It’s important that your State Attorney’s Office has a working, professional relationship with its local law enforcement agencies and develop, enhance and support open lines of communication to address and resolve any concerns regarding the respective agencies, their criminal investigations or on any pending matters of concern to the agency, a citizen or the community. Mutual respect requires each agency to understand that we hold each other accountable for providing services with integrity, professionalism, while embodying the highest ethical standards. Our State Attorney’s Office maintains strong lines of communication with each of the law enforcement agencies it serves and offers training and assistance to law enforcement agencies and their officers to enhance the work that they do. It is critical that your law enforcement officers and departments have a strong, positive relationship with their local State Attorney’s Office as public safety depends on it. Here in the 12th Circuit, we are grateful to the men and women in law enforcement and the work they do each and every day to protect our community, and your State Attorney’s Office is always here to serve them in our capacity.
