Francisco Alvarado

Even after facing two felony changes related to her fundraising activities, founder of the Fallen Officers nonprofit, Rosemary Zore, is trying to convince state officials that Robert L. Zore Foundation charity deserves to be registered as a tax-exempt organization in Florida. Zore faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted and her husband faces up to five years in prison if convicted of felony charges stemming from their mismanagement of the charity.

On Tuesday, June 21, Rosemary Zore, President of the Robert L. Zore Foundation, was charged with embezzling from the non-profit she formed in 2018A husband-and-wife team steering a Naples-based non-profit organization formed to benefit the families of fallen police officers has been hit with felony criminal charges related to the charity.The state Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement (OALE) also charged Zore with failing to properly register the foundation with the state. Her husband, Michael Randall, faces a single felony charge of failing to register as a professional solicitor after he took a cut of the proceeds from donations he raised while serving as vice president for the charity, which is also known as Fallen Officers.The OALE investigation was launched after inquiries about the charity from the Florida Center for Government Accountability and WGCU Public Media, which published a joint report in April revealing that Fallen Officers had not registered with the state as required by law and had failed to meet federal and state requirements for tax exempt status.

A Naples-based charity aimed at supporting the families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty is making strides toward its mission. The Robert. L Zore Foundation holds football tournament fundraisers and a regular concert series. They give out educational scholarships and say they’ve raised $100,000 toward the construction of a fallen officers’ memorial in Collier County. But the organization has failed to meet state and federal requirements to solicit donations and to maintain its tax-exempt status. Now the state has opened an investigation.