Assistant Broward School Principal Arrested In Coral Springs

Robert Herzog III (BSO)

By Kevin Deutsch

A Broward County Public Schools assistant principal was arrested by Coral Springs Police Friday for criminally obtaining the vehicle registration information of his ex-partner’s new “paramour” after “duping” a Broward Sheriff’s Office school resource officer into getting him the info, police records show.

Robert Herzog III, 38, of Northwest 5th Street in Coral Springs, is charged with criminal use of personal identification information, a felony.

Herzog, an assistant principal at Cooper City High School until BCPS learned of his April 1 arrest, served as an exceptional student education teacher at J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs. He transitioned to the administrative role at Cooper City in 2015.

The veteran educator’s career with the school district has spanned more than 15 years.

“Defendant Herzog used his position as a public servant in a position of authority to obtain confidential and personal identifying information protected by Florida State Statute…with intent to obtain benefit for himself, and to cause harm to another,” police wrote in their court filings.

As part of Herzog’s duties as an assistant principal, he was in charge of monitoring the faculty and student parking lots at Cooper City High School, including during the period in which his crimes allegedly took place, between Nov. 14 and November 28, 2019, according to police.

Also, in 2019, Herzog stalked his former domestic partner in Plantation, leading to his being criminally charged in a domestic stalking case and ordered to wear an ankle monitor.

Prosecutors that year also charged the educator with violating a judge’s restraining order in the stalking case after Herzog illegally contacted his ex-domestic partner, the mother of his son, court papers alleged at the time.

Authorities later declined to move forward with their prosecution of the restraining order violation, records show.

According to the April 1 arrest records, Herzog had identified his ex-partner’s “new paramour” in 2019, apparently by surveilling his ex.

On November 14, 2019, Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Kevin Coleman, the school resource officer at Cooper City High School, used his access as a law enforcement official to request the vehicle registration information for a vehicle tag at Herzog’s request, records show.

The vehicle, authorities later determined, belonged to the new paramour of Herzog’s ex-partner, records show.

Herzog got the identifying information from Coleman and used it to harassingly text and message the new paramour via phone and social media, records show.

“Herzog used his position…to obtain protected information under false pretenses for his own personal benefit, to harass [the victim]” and cause “a law enforcement officer to falsify an official record in order to obtain the privileged information” for use “in a criminal manner,” police wrote.

Coral Springs Police investigators said they took a sworn, recorded statement from Coleman at BSO’s Cooper City headquarters in Feb. 2020. The school resource officer told police he routinely ran vehicle registrations for Herzog, believing they were for legal and legitimate school security purposes, records show.

“Deputy Coleman ran this vehicle registration in his official duties as a law enforcement officer in what he believed was a legitimate request for owner information to protect lives or property,” police wrote. “In actuality, Defendant Herzog duped Deputy Coleman into providing this privileged information to…Herzog for criminal use.”

Records show Herzog was freed from the Broward Main Jail on a $1,000 bond.

“The employee is reassigned away from the school and students to an administrative location pending the outcome of the legal matter,” BCPS said in a written statement Wednesday.

A work history report provided by the district’s human resources department shows Herzog was hired by BCPS in August 2006 and worked as a substitute teacher for several years before his hiring by Taravella in 2010.

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Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning crime journalist and author. A graduate of Florida International University, Kevin has worked on staff at The Miami Herald, New York Daily News, and The Palm Beach Post.