Posted on 03/11/2005 10:44:37 PM PST by neverdem
ORLANDO, Fla., March 11 - Mayor Buddy Dyer turned himself in on Friday to face a felony charge of paying someone to collect absentee ballots before his election in a tight race last year. Gov. Jeb Bush swiftly suspended Mr. Dyer, as required by Florida law, in a case that has roiled this city for months and even caused a brief firestorm in the presidential election.
A grand jury handed up sealed indictments on Thursday for Mr. Dyer and three others: Patricia Beatty Phillips, his campaign manager; Ezzie Thomas, who worked for the Dyer campaign as a get-out-the-vote consultant; and Judge Alan Apte of Orange County Circuit Court, who was charged with illegally paying Mr. Thomas to collect absentee ballots before his own 2002 campaign.
The indictments, unsealed on Friday, came after a long investigation that drew criticism from state and national Democrats during the re-election campaign of President Bush, Governor Bush's older brother. Some elderly black residents of Orlando said that agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which conducted the investigation and reports to Governor Bush, had intimidated them during interviews at their homes about the absentee ballots they cast in the mayoral race last March.
Democratic groups then accused Governor Bush's administration of trying to suppress the black vote in Orlando, a coveted swing city, before the presidential election, an accusation that Mr. Bush dismissed as outrageous.
Governor Bush suspended Mr. Dyer hours after the mayor surrendered at the Orange County Jail, where he was released on his own recognizance. Florida law calls for the governor to suspend public officials charged with felonies while their case is pending and to remove them if they are convicted. The charges - for Mr. Dyer, Ms. Phillips and Judge Apte, paying for absentee ballot collection, and for Mr. Thomas, receiving payment for such collection - are third-degree felonies that carry a potential sentence of up to five years.
Brad King, the special prosecutor who conducted the investigation, is a Republican.
"Orlando is obviously a very important government," said Jacob DiPietre, Mr. Bush's spokesman, "and the governor thought it important, for continuity, to act as soon as possible."
Mr. Dyer, who has said all along that his campaign paid Mr. Thomas $10,000 for get-out-the-vote work but that he was not aware of any illegal activity, held a brief news conference Friday to proclaim his innocence. He said the charges were "politically motivated." He then added, "I do not believe any employee of my campaigns intentionally violated any campaign laws while conducting the business of the campaign."
A city attorney said Councilman Ernest Page, the mayor pro tem and a Republican, would take over the mayoralty until a special election was held. He said the Orlando City Council would meet within 10 days to set the date for the election.
Mr. Dyer, a 47-year-old Democrat, vowed to fight the charges and return to his job, which pays $144,349 a year. He first won election to the nonpartisan mayoralty in 2003.
The indictments follow a civil suit filed by Ken Mulvaney, a local businessman who was Mr. Dyer's Republican opponent in last year's mayoral race. Though Mr. Dyer, a former state senator, defeated Mr. Mulvaney by nearly 5,000 votes, he avoided a runoff by only 234 votes. Mr. Mulvaney sued, charging that several thousand absentee ballots should be disqualified as fraudulent. The lawsuit is still pending. Mr. Mulvaney's brother, Brian, filed a criminal complaint with similar allegations.
At issue is whether Mr. Thomas, a retired television repairman and activist in Orlando's black community, mishandled absentee ballots while working for the Dyer campaign. A state law passed in 1998 prohibits providing or accepting "pecuniary gain" for "distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, delivering or otherwise physically possessing absentee ballots." The law was passed after the results of a Miami mayoral race were thrown out because of absentee ballot fraud. No one has been prosecuted under the law until now.
An initial state investigation last May found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reopened the case weeks later, saying it was acting on new information. The Orlando Sentinel has reported that some voters interviewed by the department said Mr. Thomas helped them fill out absentee ballots or collected their ballots while they were still unsealed.
Mr. Thomas's lawyer, Dean Mosley, said on Friday that his client was an "old man" - he is 74 - and was unfairly accused. Mr. Thomas testified Wednesday under limited immunity. He cannot be prosecuted for his own statements but can be based on evidence presented by others.
Politicians from both parties have paid Mr. Thomas to get out the vote, including Glenda Hood when she was running for mayor here and Senator Mel Martinez when he was seeking a county office. Both are Republicans.
Mr. Dyer, one of the state's more prominent Democrats, ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general in 2002 before becoming mayor of this city of 186,000 in 2003. In a deposition earlier this year, he said he had no knowledge of what Mr. Thomas did for his campaign. On Friday, Mr. Dyer said that Mr. Thomas "simply helps older African-Americans participate in the voting process."
Dennis Blank contributed reporting for this article.
I wonder what's the statute of limitations for this felony?
Imagine the headline and the general take of this article had the mayor been a Republican.
This is the worst written piece of crap I can remember reading in a major newspaper. I don't understand a single fact or who's who.
Amazing how long it took the NY Times to mention the fact that the Mayor was a democrat. If this would have been a Republican they would have put it in the first sentence.
If anybody knows how to play dirty, not to mention illegal, fraudulent, felonious, etc.... it's the democrats. In Washington State, they think they've gotten away with it.
The facts are stated correctly without bias (I live in Orlando)....reads like a continuation though.
Somebody needs to start a list of corrupt Rats; where they're from and how they lied, cheated, swindled, stole, raped, pillaged, et al.
We could print up the list(s) and pass it/them out to the hysterical Rats who try to argue that Bush stole two elections.
Haven't they?
Does not count if a diwitt does these kinds of things.
How has that Washington thing turned out anyway? I haven't heard in a while.
No. . .they would have put it in the first sentence AND the headline.
Since it was not mentioned at the beginning of the article, I thought he must be a dim.
No kidding!
"REPULICAN Mayor Buddy Dyer turns himself over to authorities today, accused of VOTOR FRAUD and Various other felonies!!! NY Times Reports"
CNN, MSNBC, Headline News,........ 24/7 until the cows come home.
ratmedia reporting 101: When the crook in a pubbie, it's in the headline. When it's a rat that got caught, do not mention this in the first story, then bury it thereafter so they always can deny charges of bias.
And people wonder why the MSN is on a down hill slide.
Who is wondering?
And people the MSN wonders why the MSN is on a down hill slide.
There.
http://www.martindale.com/xp/Martindale/Lawyer_Locator/Search_Lawyer_Locator/search_detail.xml?pos=3&FN=boies&CN=&CTY=&FSZ=&STS=10&CRY=1&STYPE=F&CP=1&ft=1&lid=EC25568FC8F92A&hp=1&PRV=LL2&RR=3&searchid=200503121800559054292&dpind=N
Karen Dyer works in law firm of David Boies, who worked for Al Gore trying to derail the 2000 election.
I guess you have to be a local.
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