FloridaBulldog.org<\/a><\/p>\nBroward Sheriff Gregory Tony has a new undersheriff and a new headache.<\/p>\n
Col. Steve Robson got the job when Tony abruptly axed his longtime Undersheriff Nichole Anderson, her civilian aide and her driver \u2013 a BSO captain \u2013 Tuesday night after police sources say he heard that Anderson was thinking about running against him in 2028.<\/p>\n
Robson, Florida Bulldog has learned, is the unnamed \u201cvictim\u201d in an odd all-BSO criminal incident that happened Feb. 10 at 8:30 a.m. in the parking garage of BSO\u2019s Research, Development and Training Center at BSO headquarters at 2601 W. Broward Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n
The alleged culprit is Damar Edwards, 44, an accountant who has worked in BSO\u2019s 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 \u2013 Robson. If Edwards is convicted of the third-degree felony, he is punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n
Battery on a law enforcement officer sounds bad, conjuring up images of cops who\u2019ve been bloodied and bruised after taking a beating while arresting a suspect. That\u2019s not what happened to Undersheriff Robson, whose name is blacked out in the sworn complaint affidavit that\u2019s the basis for Edwards\u2019s arrest. In fact, there is no indication in the complaint that Robson suffered any injury at all.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, the situation began \u201ca few days prior\u201d to the arrest when Robson spotted Edwards \u201coperating his vehicle at an unsafe speed\u201d in the parking garage \u201cat which time he verbally counseled him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victim didn\u2019t 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,\u201d says the complaint sworn to by Sgt. Joshua Webb of BSO\u2019s public corruption unit. Why public corruption? It seems that Webb was chosen by Robson, his superior, to file the complaint using Florida\u2019s \u201cfellow officer rule\u201d that allows a deputy to make an arrest based on information received from another officer.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/damar-edwards.png\")
Damar Edwards<\/p>\n
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 \u201cmade contact\u201d with Edwards as he was getting out of his car. Robson told Edwards he\u2019d 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 \u201cwas 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\u2019s grasp.\u201d<\/p>\n
ROBSON PRESSES BATTERY CHARGE<\/p>\n
\u201cThis action caused the defendant\u2019s hand to forcefully make contact with the victim\u2019s hand, creating an intentional, non-consensual contact with the victim\u2019s hand, which then evolved into a verbal altercation,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cAt the time the defendant battered the victim, he stated, \u2018don\u2019t fucking touch me.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Undersheriff Robson apparently thinks is a \u201ccrime\u201d serious enough to send Edwards to prison, label him a felon and possibly cost him his job. We know that because Webb\u2019s complaint says Robson gave a \u201csworn 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are arresting an employee and hurting his career just because he was playing patty cake with you after you grabbed him by his lanyard,\u201d said Buschel.<\/p>\n
The BSO complaint goes on to say that after removing Edwards\u2019s lanyard he put his handcuffs away \u201cto free up both of his hands because he felt as if he was going to have to physically restrain\u201d Edwards. \u201cThe 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.\u201d After that, the situation calmed and Robson told Edwards to report to \u201chis work station and await further instructions of contact from command or Internal Affairs.\u201d Edwards was arrested three days later and booked into the Broward County Jail where he apparently spent the night.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Edwards posted a $2,500 bond and was released on Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Tony offered only this brief, vague note to BSO staff about why he dumped Robson\u2019s predecessor Nichole Anderson:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with my executive command staff, I have implemented several structural changes within the agency. As part of this restructuring,\u00a0Colonel Nichole Anderson has been relieved of duty, and\u00a0Steve Robson has been appointed as the Broward Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, left, with his new Undersheriff Steve Robson. UPDATE 10:20 a.m. Friday \u2014 The bloodletting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[81780,249,251,250,74648,81781,80619,81782,81783,81784],"class_list":["post-171994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-damar-edwards","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-gregory-tony","tag-kenneth-gillespie","tag-nichole-anderson","tag-patty-cake","tag-robert-buschel","tag-steve-robson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"robson\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tonyrobson.png\")
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony, left, with his new Undersheriff Steve Robson. <\/p>\n