U.S. Supreme Court Turns Down W.D. Childers Appeal

March 25, 2014

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up an appeal by former Escambia County Commissioner and Florida Senate President W.D. Childers in a bribery case that has bounced around the legal system for years. Justices did not give any explanation for the decision.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November ruled against Childers on a question about whether he received a fair trial before getting convicted on bribery and unlawful compensation charges.

Childers, who represented the Pensacola area in the Senate for three decades, was convicted in 2003 for actions while serving on the Escambia County Commission after leaving the Legislature.

The appeals-court decision stemmed from arguments that Childers was not able to fully cross-examine a key witness in the case — another county commissioner — and whether Florida courts properly dealt with claims that Childers’ constitutional rights had been violated. Childers, 80, who was in the Senate from 1970 to 2000, has already served a prison term.

Childers  was convicted of bribery and accepting unlawful compensation for official acts in connection with a Highway 29 soccer complex scandal in 2002 while he served as an Escambia County Commissioner.

The soccer complex scandal eventually resulted in charges against four Escambia Commissioners  — Childers, Willie Junior, Terry Smith and Mike Bass. Junior was later found dead under a house, committing suicide the day before he was to be sentenced.

Childers, once known as “The Banty Rooster” for bringing home the bacon for Northwest Florida, was released from state prison on June 17, 2009, having served almost three years of a 42-month sentence on the charges related to the $3.9 million soccer complex purchase. Junior testified that he received a collard green pot full of cash in exchange for his vote to purchase the soccer complex.

Childers was also the first man in Florida jailed for violating the open-meeting portion of the Sunshine Law for a phone call he and Smith made to then Supervisor of Elections Bonnie Jones. Childers served about a month in jail before being released.

Most notably for North Escambia, Childers was the man responsible for securing the funding to four-lane Highway 29 to the Alabama state line.

Comments

3 Responses to “U.S. Supreme Court Turns Down W.D. Childers Appeal”

  1. Tim Howard on December 13th, 2014 10:56 pm

    W.D. was one of the few true “men” that I have known in politics over the past 30 years. He was the most important person responsible for a minimum of $27 billion going to the State of Florida and $250 billion to states around the nation to treat patients with smoking-related diseases. He was independent and could not be bribed nor intimidated! We need leaders like W.D. to stand up to the lobbyists who control the legislature and who are backed by tyrannical, immortal and unlimited wealthy corporations! He was a man that stood alone and knew who was authentic and who was in it for themselves!

  2. 429SCJ on March 27th, 2014 6:43 am

    This is pure vanity. WD is concerned as to how his name will be remembered in a hundred years, when the reality is that all his contemporaries will be gone and no one will remember the banty rooster, nor will they care.

    Spend your last few days living WD, not brooding.

  3. not w.d. on March 25th, 2014 8:31 pm

    You

    Me

    & WD

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News