Orlando Mayor Suspended After Indictment

Page: City Will Continue To Operate In Stable Fashion

ORLANDO, Fla.- Suspended Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said the charges that he and three others violated state law are without merit and are politically motivated. Dyer, Circuit Judge Alan Apte, Dyer's campaign manager Patti Sharp and campaign consultant Ezzie Thomas are charged with violating a law enacted after Miami's 1998 mayoral election was thrown out because of fraud committed in the collection of absentee ballots. A grand jury indicted them Thursday. Dyer held a press conference Friday and said he was notified Thursday that he was the subject of an indictment charging him with "pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection." " In other words, my campaign employed a campaign worker who allegedly violated the law by encouraging older African-American voters to participate in the election process by absentee ballot and I'm being held to account for that," Dyer said. Dyer emphasized there was no charge of vote buying, vote brokering or vote manipulation at the press conference. "I do not believe any employee of any of my campaigns intentionally violated any campaign law while conducting the business of the campaign," Dyer said. "I believe the charges that have been leveled against my campaign and me are without merit and totally politically motivated. I intend to fight these charges with every ounce of strength I have." Orlando City attorney Dykes Everett said that Dyer's suspension leaves a temporary vacancy for the position of mayor that begins Friday and ends when the suspension in revoked or Dyer is permanently removed from office. According to state law and city of Orlando charter, the temporary vacancy will be filled by a special election. City Council will meet within 10 days and establish a time for the special election as well as a candidate qualification period, Everett said. The primary vote in the election should occur in the next two months. Until the position is filled, the mayor pro tem will take over the duties of mayor. Orlando Mayor Pro Tem Ernest Page assumed the duties of city mayor Friday. "Today, our city was faced with a unique challenge, and we have faced that challenge in an orderly manner," Page said. "I want to assure everyone that our city will continue to operate in a sound and stable fashion." Page met with department heads of the city Friday afternoon. Dyer, Apte and Sharp all declined comment earlier Friday as they left the Orange County Jail after being booked on one count of providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection. Thomas was charged with accepting pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection. Both are third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison. But Sharp's attorney, Bill Sheaffer, said the defendants committed no crimes. He said the indictment "is the result of a number of circumstances that have created an imperfect storm. The circumstances being powerful political operatives, witnesses who have not told the truth and a rogue grand jury that does not have the ability to discern the truth." Dean Mosley, Thomas' attorney, said that just because his client was indicted doesn't necessarily mean he will be prosecuted. Thomas and his attorney said they were surprised by the indictment. "You have to have intent to commit a crime," Mosley said. "My client never had any intent to commit any crime." The grand jury had been investigating whether absentee ballots were illegally collected by Thomas for the campaigns of Dyer and Apte before last year's election. Special prosecutor Brad King, who was brought in from Marion County, declined comment Friday, an aide said. Later Friday, Gov. Jeb Bush suspended Dyer from office. The grand jury looked into allegations that Thomas illegally gathered absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods. Thomas was hired by Dyer's campaigns for Florida attorney general and Orlando mayor to perform get-out-the-vote activities. Thomas also has worked for some of central Florida's most prominent politicians, including now-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, when he was a local county official, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, when she was mayor. Dyer, a former state senator, was first elected mayor in a February 2003, filling in the remainder of Hood's term after she was appointed to state office. Dyer has said that he signed checks and approved invoices, worth about $10,000, for Thomas during his 2004 re-election campaign. But the documents did not say what Thomas was being paid to do and Dyer has said he didn't know, either. Earlier this year, Dyer testified in a separate civil lawsuit deposition that he was not involved in field work with his campaign. The civil lawsuit was brought by the runner-up in the mayoral race, Ken Mulvaney, who sued to have the election thrown out. Dyer won re-election by nearly 5,000 votes but cleared the threshold that triggers a runoff by only 234. "I was mayor. I spent most of my time being mayor," Dyer said in the deposition. "I spent very little time actually on the campaign."

(Local 6 article here)