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POMPANO BEACH — Delvin King’s turbulent campaign for the Pompano Beach City Commission may be over before voters ever get a chance to decide his fate.
A Broward County judge has ordered King removed from the November ballot in the District 5 commission race, finding that he failed to satisfy Pompano Beach’s residency requirement for candidates. The ruling is the latest, and potentially fatal development in a candidacy before surrounded by pending felony charges, disputes with city officials and extraordinary legal troubles involving the private school King operated.
Broward Circuit Judge Hunter Davis ruled in favor of District 5 Commissioner Darlene Smith, who challenged King's eligibility to run against her in the November election. Following a lengthy hearing, Davis concluded that King had not lived within District 5 for the consecutive period required by the city's charter. Reporting on the ruling said the judge considered discrepancies between addresses King had provided on official documents, including his driver's license and voter registration, particularly damaging to his case.
Pompano Beach's charter is explicit: a commission candidate must have been a resident of the district he or she seeks to represent for at least one year immediately preceding the election and must be registered to vote in the city. The November municipal election is scheduled for Nov. 3.
The consequence of the ruling is enormous. What had been a contested District 5 race between King and Smith is now poised to proceed without King on the ballot, absent a successful appeal or other court intervention.
The residency fight did not occur in a vacuum.
King entered the 2026 election while facing unresolved felony charges stemming from a 2023 criminal case involving allegations surrounding hundreds of thousands of dollars in computer equipment. According to published reports citing court and investigative records, prosecutors accused King of obtaining approximately $437,000 in computers and other electronics from Kyocera using allegedly fraudulent documents that purported to show schools he operated had received federal Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools funding.
The allegations involve 125 MacBook Pros, 20 iPads, five iMacs, 50 Lenovo ThinkPads, two 3D printers and several large televisions, according to reporting based on investigative records. King faces charges including first-degree grand theft, criminal use of personal identification and dealing in stolen property. Those charges remain accusations, and King is entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty.
King has pushed back aggressively against coverage of the case. He has characterized the criminal matter as stemming from a business dispute involving his school and argued that the renewed attention surrounding it during his campaign was politically motivated. In comments reported by REDBROWARD, King clarified that he was not accusing prosecutors or the judge overseeing his criminal case of political retaliation. Instead, he said he believed political opponents, city officials and media coverage were using the unresolved case to damage his candidacy.
“My concern is with what I believe is the political use and public amplification of an unresolved case,” King said. The charges date to 2023. King did not file to run for District 5 until January 2026.
Another extraordinary development surfaced just days before King's removal from the ballot. A private school associated with King, Youth Under Construction of Broward County, was found liable for $61.5 million of a judgment arising from the beating of a student by a security guard. According to court records, the January 2021 incident occurred inside King's office while he was the school's principal. A security guard allegedly shoved the student repeatedly, pushed him to the floor and grabbed him by the neck. The incident was captured on video.
The security guard was subsequently arrested and pleaded no contest. The student's mother later sued the school and security company. Neither defendant responded to the lawsuit, resulting in a default judgment, after which a jury determined damages. The jury awarded the student and his mother $123 million, with Youth Under Construction responsible for half — $61.5 million — according to the final judgment reported earlier this month.
That judgment is against the school entity, not King personally.
King's relationship with Pompano Beach government has also been openly contentious.
At an April City Commission meeting, King accused city officials of unfairly scrutinizing his background and questioned why information about his legal and financial history had been circulated among city officials. King argued that his financial difficulties resulted from the city's 2020 denial of a zoning certificate for his school and accused officials of harboring a personal vendetta against him. The confrontation became heated enough that King used profanity toward officials and was ultimately escorted from the meeting by the Broward Sheriff's Office, according to the city's own meeting minutes.
Commissioner Beverly Perkins criticized City Attorney Mark Berman for discussing King's legal history after King had been removed and was no longer present to respond. Vice Mayor Alison Fournier similarly questioned whether King's background had been subjected to a level of scrutiny that the city routinely applies to other people doing business with Pompano Beach.
The person who brought the challenge was also the person with the most immediately at stake: incumbent District 5 Commissioner Darlene Smith.
King had qualified to challenge Smith in the Nov. 3 election and filed campaign finance reports with the city. His campaign had reported only about $1,000 in monetary contributions through the end of June, including money King loaned to his own campaign.
But qualifying paperwork alone does not establish that a candidate satisfies every substantive eligibility requirement. Pompano Beach requires commission candidates to reside in the district for the year immediately preceding the election. The court was asked to examine whether King's actual residency matched what was necessary to qualify.
It didn't, according to Davis.
King's candidacy ultimately became about considerably more than whatever policy differences existed between him and Smith. Within a matter of weeks, voters learned more about his pending felony prosecution. Questions resurfaced about his previous interactions with the criminal justice system. A staggering civil judgment involving his school received renewed attention. His long-running feud with Pompano Beach officials spilled into public meetings.
And now a judge has concluded that King did not meet the basic residency requirement necessary to seek the office at all.
King has every right to defend himself against the criminal charges pending against him. He also has every right to criticize Pompano Beach officials, challenge media coverage and pursue whatever appellate remedies may be available to him following the residency ruling.
King wants District 5 voters to decide whether he deserve their trust. Unless the latest court ruling is overturned, he won't be on the ballot for them to make that decision. For now, Smith has won the most consequential battle of the District 5 campaign without a single Election Day vote being cast.
