A slander suit in Miami-Dade government ends with a settlement and an apology

The former head of Animal Services for Miami-Dade County recently apologized for falsely claiming one of her most vocal critics had worked as a stripper and an escort years ago.

Bronwyn Stanford, ousted from her county job last year by Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, has settled a slander suit filed by Yolanda Berkowitz, a benefactor of the county’s pet shelter and sterilization efforts.

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Berkowitz’s 2023 suit claimed that after taking over as Animal Services director in 2021, Stanford tried to discredit Berkowitz by telling shelter staff made-up stories about Berkowitz’s past.

In court papers, Stanford denied the allegations but in a Jan. 29 affidavit conceded she did in fact say what Berkowitz claimed and that she had “no personal knowledge of any facts or evidence whatsoever that would support any” of her statements.

“I am sorry for this, and sincerely apologize to Yolanda Berkowitz and her family,” Stanford said in the affidavit. “I regret that my actions may have caused her and her family to suffer any distress, anguish, and public ridicule.”

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Berkowitz’s charity work funded placements of county shelter dogs, as well as community pet sterilization efforts.

In a statement released Thursday through lawyer Hank Adorno, Berkowitz said: “This ordeal has been extremely hurtful and damaging to me and my family. I am relieved it is finally over. Now I can now focus my full attention and that of Friends of Miami Animals Foundation on addressing the many issues challenging our most at-risk animals and our community.”

Court records show Stanford, a former prosecutor who worked in Florida’s child-welfare system before Levine Cava named her Animal Services director, agreed to pay Berkowitz $325,000 to settle the case, as well as agree not to work for Animal Services again. Levine Cava suspended Stanford in July, and she resigned two months later.

In a statement to the Miami Herald, Stanford said she was “proud of the work and all the innovations that my team and I were able to accomplish during my time as director.”

“Sometimes difficult compromises are made to put an end to something,” the statement read. “Civil litigation is extremely expensive.”