Dave Aronberg (born May 4, 1971) is the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida and a former member of the Florida Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 2002, as its youngest member and served for eight years. He is a Democrat.
Prior to serving in the Senate, Aronberg worked as a lawyer in both the public and private sectors for over a decade. He was serving as the Florida Attorney General's "Drug Czar" in 2012 when he announced his candidacy for Palm Beach County State Attorney. He was first elected to the office in November 2012 and re-elected without opposition on May 6, 2016.
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Early life and career
Aronberg was born in Miami. He attended North Miami Senior High School, and graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Government in 1993. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he received a Juris Doctor degree with honors in 1996.
After graduation, Aronberg worked for three years in the litigation department of the law firm, Steel Hector & Davis LLP, in Miami and West Palm Beach.
Holocaust Victims Insurance Relief
Aronberg took a leave of absence from the law firm for three months in 1998 to work for U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who at the time was serving as Florida's Insurance Commissioner. Nelson and Aronberg worked together to investigate European insurance companies that refused to honor World War II era policies sold to victims of the Holocaust. Aronberg referred to it as "the largest consumer fraud case in the world." Working with members of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the investigation led to the establishment of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC) and the enactment of Florida's Holocaust Victims Assistance Act to ensure that insurance claims of Holocaust victims were expeditiously identified and properly paid, compensated, or returned.
Florida Assistant Attorney General - Economic Crimes
Aronberg worked as an Assistant Attorney General in the Economic Crime Division of the Florida Attorney General's Office on two separate occasions. In 2000, President Bill Clinton selected Aronberg to be a White House Fellow. After the Fellowship was completed in September 2001, Aronberg returned to the Economic Crime Division.
Consumer Scams
In his first year as Assistant Attorney General, Aronberg worked to protect consumers from financial exploitation, including loan scams and pyramid schemes, leading Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth to call Aronberg's efforts "relentless".
Prescription Drug Companies
In 2001, Aronberg led one of the nation's first public investigations into the marketing practices of Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the prescription drug OxyContin.
Phone-Scam Psychic "Miss Cleo"
Aronberg received national attention for his investigation of "Miss Cleo" and the Psychic Readers Network for deceptive marketing practices. In addition to a large settlement with the State of Florida, the company was ultimately fined $5 million by the Federal Trade Commission and forced to cancel $500 million in customer bills.
White House Fellowship
In 2000, Aronberg was selected to be one of 15 White House Fellows from across the country. In this non-partisan position, he served in two presidential administrations as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury Department for international money laundering, including the laundering of terrorist assets.
He was part of a U.S. delegation to an international summit on money laundering at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2001.
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Florida Senate
Aronberg was elected to the Florida Senate in 2002 as its youngest member. During his tenure in the Senate, Aronberg earned a reputation of bipartisanship, and was one of the only Democrats who chaired legislative committees. He served as the Chair of the Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee, and also chaired the Everglades Restoration Committee, where he advocated for additional state and federal funds to protect and restore the "River of Grass."
Domestic Security
As Chairman of the Florida Senate's Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee, Aronberg led a rewrite of Florida's port security law to better protect Floridians from terrorist threats. Prior to the 2009 legislative session, Florida was the only state that had an extra, duplicative layer of security that often conflicted with federal standards, saddling port workers with excessive fees and creating unnecessary barriers to work. Aronberg's bill, signed into law by Florida Governor Charlie Crist at a bill signing ceremony at Fort Lauderdale's Port Everglades, matched Florida security law to the federal requirements. The bill received unanimous support from labor unions and maritime businesses, leading the Associated Industries of Florida's Maritime Council to name Aronberg as "Legislative of the Year" for his work to improve port security while expanding Florida's global position as a leading exporter.
Public Safety & Criminal Justice
Fighting Opiate Abuse as a State Senator
When Aronberg was elected to the Florida Senate in 2002, he followed up on his investigation of Purdue Pharma by calling attention to the growing opioid crisis. He co-sponsored a bill to create a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to deter over-prescribing and "doctor shopping." As the number of pill mills grew throughout the State, Aronberg warned a skeptical legislature that there "were now more pain clinics in Broward County than there are McDonald's in Broward County." In 2010, the Florida legislature finally enacted legislation co-sponsored by Aronberg to regulate the pain clinic industry and to limit the dispensing of narcotics such as oxycodone.
Anti-Looting
After Florida experienced a rash of hurricanes, Aronberg learned that the State had no anti-looting law on the books. In 2007, he was successful in passing an anti-looing law that increased penalties for specific thefts and burglaries committed after the governor has declared a state of emergency.
Gang Violence
During 2008 and 2009, Aronberg helped pass anti-gang legislation. The legislation restricts felons and certain others from possessing bulletproof vests. The bills also increased penalties for habitual offenders convicted of gang-related crimes and better witness protection programs.
Sexual Violence
Aronberg sponsored a bill to eliminate the statute of limitations for child victims of sexual abuse. His bill, SB 870, passed both the House and Senate unanimously and was signed into law by Governor Crist. Aronberg's legislation also ensure that people who commit sex crimes against children will no longer go free if the child took more than 3 years to report the crime. The Florida Coalition Against Sexual Violence named Aronberg it's "Legislator of Year" of 2010.
Consumer Protection
Regulating the Credit Counseling Industry
In 2004, Aronberg sponsored Florida's Credit Counseling Services Bill (SB 2682), which limited the fees credit counseling and debt repair companies could charge consumers. The bill also gave consumers more transparency on fees and required the companies to disburse consumer debt payments to creditors within 30 days. The bill was in response to a flood of consumer complaints about deceptive marketing and hidden costs and fees in the industry.
Chinese Drywall
In 2009, many Southwest Florida homeowners were forced out of their homes by defective Chinese drywall, which corroded their houses and caused health problems. Aronberg, whose Senate district covered Lee and Charlotte counties, met with affected homeowners and called on Florida Governor Charlie Crist to order a special legislative session to respond to the problem. Aronberg also introduced a bill to create a state task force on the issue.
Privacy Rights
Video Voyeurism
In 2004, Aronberg passed a bill to make video voyeurism a crime in Florida, which included the taking as well as the dissemination of the images.
Florida Attorney General Candidacy
In 2010, Aronberg made a bid for the office of Attorney General of Florida. Aronberg was unsuccessful in the primary.
Fighting Opiate Abuse
Aronberg has focused much of his career on fighting opiate abuse, beginning in 2001 when he was among the first in the country to investigate Purdue Pharma. After the Florida Attorney General's Office settled with Purdue Pharma, Aronberg helped to lead a decade-long effort to establish the State's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to stop doctor shopping and close "pill mills" that were overprescribing opiates such as oxycodone. In his final year in the Senate, Aronberg was able to help convince the legislature to enact much-needed oversight of the pain clinic industry to stem the unregulated, unlimited distribution of opiates throughout the State.
In early 2011, based on Aronberg's work on opiate abuse, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi reached across party lines to appoint Aronberg to be Special Prosecutor for Prescription Drug Trafficking (a/k/a "Drug Czar"). By 2012, with new laws, stronger enforcement, and with an active Prescription Drug Monitoring Database, Florida experienced a substantial decrease in the number of pain clinics and deaths from prescription drug abuse. Despite this success, Aronberg and Bondi repeatedly warned that many opiate users would eventually turn to a cheaper, more powerful substitute: heroin.
Palm Beach County State Attorney
In January 2012, Aronberg announced his candidacy for Palm Beach County State Attorney. Aronberg won the office with 58% of the vote in the November 6, 2012 election and was re-elected without opposition on May 6, 2016. In 2016, Aronberg was elected as an officer of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) and subsequently re-elected in 2017. In November 2016, Aronberg traveled to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base as a representative of the NDAA to observe the prosecution of accused Al-Qaida terrorist Abdul al Hadi al Iraqi. In 2016, Florida Bar President Bill Schifino appointed Aronberg to the Florida Bar Board of Governors to represent government lawyers throughout the State. In 2017, Aronberg was reappointed for a second term by Florida Bar President Michael Higer.
As State Attorney, Aronberg leads a team of 120 prosecutors and 220 professional staff in five offices throughout Palm Beach County. Aronberg's leadership has led to a significant increase in conviction rates for both felonies and misdemeanors, a decrease in the number of juveniles direct filed into adult court, and a greatly improved working relationship with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Balancing the need for punishment and rehabilitation, Aronberg has expanded Palm Beach County's drug and veterans courts, which focus on rehabilitation rather than incarceration, and has created innovative diversion programs for first-time DUI and domestic violence offenders.
Task Forces
As State Attorney, Aronberg has led various task forces to bring together law enforcement investigators and prosecutors to better identify, arrest and prosecute criminals who target the county's most vulnerable populations. In early 2016, he launched a task force to protect seniors from scams, and a task force in the Palm Beach Gardens satellite office to combat the scourge of Human Trafficking.
Sober Homes Task Force
Aronberg's most notable task force is his Sober Homes Task Force, which has helped to clean up the fraud and abuse in the drug recovery industry in Palm Beach County. His Task Force has received national attention for its work to combat the opioid epidemic, including a feature story on Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly on June 25, 2017. The Task Force, which now features three separate groups totaling around 75 people, was funded with a special appropriation from the Florida Legislature. In addition to making more than 30 arrests since October 2016, the Sober Homes Task Force drafted legislation that was enacted into law to toughen laws and better regulate the drug treatment industry in Florida.
Personal life
In May 2015, Aronberg married Lynn Martin, a public relations professional, on St. Pete Beach. They divorced in August 2017. Aronberg is often accompanied in public by his basset hound, Cookie, whom he adopted in 2012 from Big Dog Ranch Rescue.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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