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Case Against Ray Samsom Dropped

.Prosecutors dropped all charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom and a political contributor Friday, ending a four-year saga that toppled one of the state’s most powerful figures and prompted renewed calls for increased transparency at the Capitol.

The abrupt decision to abandon the case against Sansom, a Destin Republican who rose to the top House post after the 2008 elections, followed a statement by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis that he didn’t believe prosecutors had made any progress in their attempt to prove a conspiracy by Sansom and political contributor Jay Odom to steal taxpayer money.

That complicated efforts by the prosecution to call former Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg, who had already struck a plea deal with the state, as a co-conspirator. Without him, the prosecution would have trouble moving forward.

The case stemmed from a 2007 appropriation that was supposed to be for an emergency operations center in Sansom’s district. But Prosecutor Willie Meggs argued that it was really a thinly-disguised effort to build a taxpayer-funded hangar for Odom.

Speaking to reporters after Meggs’ decision was announced, Sansom thanked God and also said he was grateful for his family and attorneys for standing by him.

“Christ has been very faithful to me and my family,” Sansom said. “He’s carried us through these last two years. … The truth mattered and the judge saw it.”

While he said he wasn’t bitter, Sansom slammed Meggs and the St. Petersburg Times, which first raised questions about the facility, for their part in the scandal that led to Sansom’s resignation from the speakership before the 2009 regular session. Weeks later, Meggs indicted him.

“I hope that Mr. Meggs understands what he does to families when he does this,” Sansom said.

Meggs shied away from commenting about what the case says about the political process or how the Legislature goes about crafting the annual state spending plan.

“There’s a lot I could say,” Meggs said. “I don’t know that I gain a whole lot, especially in budget times.”

But Meggs also quickly swatted away a question about whether he agreed there was no wrongdoing in the case.

“Oh, no, no,” he said. “I agree that the state was not able to carry its burden of establishing a conspiracy.”

As part of an agreement with Meggs to drop the prosecution, Sansom and Odom agreed to pay $103,000 each in restitution to the college to help cover $310,000 the school spent on the facility before being asked to return to the state $6 million appropriated for the building.

Richburg, whose plea deal will also be dropped, will also pay his share of the money, Meggs said.

But Sansom attorney Stephen Dobson was adamant that the payment was not an admission of guilt on Sansom’s part.

“Ray Sansom is absolutely innocent, he was and I knew that from the day he walked in and we talked about this case,” Dobson said.

At the Capitol, where Sansom was once a rising star in the dominant Republican Party, the fallout was not certain. Former Gov. Charlie Crist said earlier this week that he would have vetoed the facility if he had known its true purpose, and called the budget item “wholly inappropriate.” Legislative leaders have taken pains since Sansom’s indictment to argue that they are making the budget process more transparent.

After Friday’s decision, Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith argued that the case showed the need for strengthening the state’s ethics laws.

“While the facts of the case clearly showed the actions of Sansom and others were wrong and unethical, perhaps the most serious thing the Sansom case showed is that Florida’s prosecutors don’t have the legal tools necessary to crack down on such corruption,” Smith said.

For his part, Sansom said he wouldn’t have done anything differently when it came to the relatively small slice of the state budget that cost him the speaker’s gavel, his seat in the Legislature and a $110,000-a-year job at the college. He argued that the project is still needed.

“My concern is that in the future, that someone’s going to get really hurt because that building’s not there,” he said.

And Sansom did not rule out a return to the political arena.

“You know what?” he said. “I’m not concerned about any political future. …. My future’s in God’s hands and I will follow His lead.”

By Brandon Larrabee
The News Service of Florida