Broward’s state attorney stepped aside after disclosing that the alleged victim is related to a former employee of his office.
DAVIE, Fla. — Florida has brought in an outside prosecutor to handle the case of a Davie landlord accused of beating and choking his tenant, after Broward County’s state attorney disclosed a connection between the alleged victim and a former employee of his office.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 26-178 on Aug. 21 assigning State Attorney Alexcia Cox of the 15th Judicial Circuit to take over the investigation and prosecution of matters involving Lennie Dufrene. The order says Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor voluntarily disqualified himself to avoid a conflict of interest or the appearance of impropriety because the alleged victim is related to a former employee of the Broward state attorney’s office. The assignment is the clearest official development since Dufrene’s arrest on a felony battery charge.
The executive order does not accuse the former employee or the alleged victim of wrongdoing, and it does not say the relationship affected any earlier decision in the case. Instead, it records Pryor’s decision to step away and his request that another state attorney be assigned. Cox, whose circuit includes Palm Beach County, agreed to take the matter. Her authority under the order extends to the investigation, prosecution and related matters concerning Dufrene in Broward County’s 17th Judicial Circuit.
The order gives the assignment a one-year term ending Aug. 21, 2027. It also permits Cox to use designated assistant state attorneys and investigators and directs public officials in the 17th Judicial Circuit to cooperate with the assigned prosecution team. If the matter requires more time, the order calls for Cox to notify the governor by July 21, 2027. Nothing in the document determines whether Dufrene committed the offense alleged by police; it changes which prosecutor’s office will handle the case.
Dufrene, 58, was arrested after Davie police said an earlier landlord-tenant dispute escalated into an attack that left his tenant with facial fractures. According to reports based on the probable cause affidavit, Dufrene himself initially called police to report that the tenant was damaging his property. Officers went to the residence, spoke with both men and eventually had the tenant taken to a medical facility for an involuntary mental health examination under Florida’s Baker Act.
The available reporting does not say that the tenant was arrested or charged with damaging the property. It also does not disclose enough facts to determine why officers concluded that an involuntary examination was appropriate. The Baker Act is part of Florida’s mental health law and allows qualifying people to be taken to a receiving facility for evaluation under specified circumstances. It is not, by itself, a finding that a person has committed a crime.
Police say the encounter took a more serious turn before officers left the residence. Dufrene allegedly told them that he would kill the tenant when the man returned from the hospital. According to the warrant account reported by Local 10, officers warned Dufrene that he would go to prison if he did so. Investigators said Dufrene then replied that he would beat the tenant instead, prompting officers to tell him that carrying out that threat would result in jail.
Those alleged remarks would later become part of the chronology behind the criminal case. Police said the tenant was released from the medical facility at about 2:30 p.m. and returned to the residence. When he arrived, he found that the code used to enter the property had been changed. The reports reviewed for this article do not establish whether a formal eviction proceeding existed, whether changing the code was the subject of a separate civil complaint or what rights either party claimed under a lease.
What happened next is the central allegation in the felony case. The tenant told investigators that Dufrene came outside and punched him repeatedly in the face until he lost consciousness. When the tenant awoke, he said, he was face down and Dufrene was on top of him, hitting him in the back of the head. The tenant further alleged that Dufrene choked him until he lost consciousness again.
The account remains an accusation rather than an established finding. Public reporting reviewed for this story does not include video of the encounter, and no trial determination was located. The warrant describes what the tenant told investigators and the evidence police relied on in deciding there was probable cause to seek Dufrene’s arrest. Dufrene retains the right to challenge the allegations, the evidence and the state’s legal theory in court.
After leaving the residence, the tenant wandered through the area, police said. He later told investigators that he believed Dufrene had been trying to kill him and that he could not return to the home because he was locked out. The next day, employees at a Wawa at 2500 Davie Road contacted police about a man who had been at the store for an extended period and appeared badly injured.
Officers who responded recognized the man as the same tenant involved in the earlier call, according to the probable cause account. That recognition gave police a direct link between the earlier dispute and the injuries they were now seeing. The tenant provided a sworn statement before being transported to HCA Florida University Hospital, where medical personnel diagnosed a fracture to the floor of his left eye socket and multiple nasal fractures.
Investigators relied on the tenant’s statement, the injuries and the preceding police encounter in concluding that probable cause existed for a felony battery charge. Florida’s 2026 felony battery statute says a person commits the offense by intentionally touching or striking someone against that person’s will while causing great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement. The offense under Section 784.041 is a third-degree felony.
The warrant also contains the tenant’s allegation that he was choked, but the publicly reported criminal count is felony battery. Florida law separately addresses domestic battery by strangulation under specified relationship circumstances. The records reviewed for this story do not report that Dufrene was charged with that offense, and they describe the men as landlord and tenant. The choking allegation therefore remains part of the factual narrative without being presented as an additional filed count.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Dufrene at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after authorities obtained the warrant. Local 10 reported that a judge found probable cause and set bond at $15,000. Dufrene was no longer listed in the Broward jail records checked by the station on the morning of July 29. A bond ruling concerns pretrial custody; it does not amount to a guilty finding or a dismissal of the charge.
The prosecutor reassignment adds an institutional issue that was not public when the arrest was first reported. Executive Order 26-178 says Pryor told the governor both that Dufrene had been arrested for felony battery and that the victim is related to a former employee of Pryor’s office. Pryor then voluntarily disqualified himself. DeSantis wrote that assigning Cox was in the state’s interest and would serve the ends of justice, citing Florida law governing executive assignments of state attorneys.
Because the reason for the reassignment is now stated in the order, it can be distinguished from speculation about the underlying criminal case. The document does not say that the relationship created actual misconduct, bias or improper handling. It says the purpose of Pryor’s disqualification was to avoid a conflict or even the appearance of impropriety. That distinction matters because recusal can be used to protect the integrity of a proceeding without implying that wrongdoing has occurred inside the office stepping aside.
The published chronology contains one unresolved issue. Local 10 reported on July 29 that police said the attack had occurred the previous Wednesday, while Law&Crime later stated that the probable cause affidavit placed the first police response on June 22. The discrepancy affects the exact date but not the broad sequence reported by both organizations. Without the complete underlying record resolving the conflict, this article does not choose one date over the other.
The case now moves forward under Cox’s authority unless the assignment is changed or the matter ends before the order expires. The verified public record reviewed here does not show a conviction or final disposition. The outside prosecutor will inherit a case built around the tenant’s sworn account, medical findings, police observations and alleged threats that officers say they heard before the reported attack.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.