Judge Denies Final Injunction Against Janelle Sarauw, Saying Recent Violence or Imminent Danger Was Not Proven

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County judge on Friday denied a petition for a final injunction for protection against domestic violence filed against former Virgin Islands senator and current Delegate to Congress candidate Janelle K. Sarauw, ruling after a two-day bench trial that petitioner Zikeyraw Veretta Guishard had not met Florida’s legal standard for a final protective order. The case was heard before Judge Michael G. Kaplan in the Circuit Court of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in and for Broward County, Florida. Sarauw served in the Virgin Islands Legislature from July 2017 to January 2023 and is now running for the territory’s Delegate to Congress seat in the August 1 Democratic primary. She changed her voter registration to Democrat as she launched her campaign. Friday’s ruling followed sharply conflicting testimony over two days about a relationship both sides described as toxic, cyclical and emotionally volatile. Guishard alleged that Sarauw repeatedly assaulted, i...