Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Grand Jury Indicts Sansom for Perjury, Odom for 'Official Misconduct'

The grand jury in Tallahassee that previously indicted Northwest Florida state rep Ray Sansom met again today and added a new charge for Sansom to defend: "felony perjury."

Along with that, the grand jury threw Destin developer Jay Odom into the dock for the first time. He's charged with "official misconduct" as a principal behind the scheme to have the legislature appropriate $6 million for an airplane hangar and claim it was for student use.

The gravamen of the new charges is that Odom finagled the appropriation and the lease, and Sansom lied to the grand jury about it when he claimed he "was unaware developer Jay Odom planned to use the airport building to store corporate aircraft." Explains the Miami Herald:
The new charges are based on documents State Attorney Willie Meggs obtained from the college after it fired Richburg. The documents include a lease showing Odom planned to use the college building at Destin Airport, Meggs said.
Sansom's attorney, Steve Dobson, told the Miami Herald that he's "confident that after all the facts are heard that Ray Sansom will be completely exonerated." Good thing the lawyer didn't have to repeat that statement under oath.

Meanwhile, ex-college president Bob Richburg is demanding the board of trustees reconsidered his firing. The Daily News reports, "The trustees voted 5-2 to pursue mediation."

They might want to wait on that mediation until the jury verdict. Richburg could have a hard time of it, running a college from inside a prison cell.

1 comment:

Duralee said...

I will have to follow up on this story. Thank you for this great and interesting information!