Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco
turned herself in to the Broward County Jail Wednesday after state
prosecutors charged her with four counts of public corruption related to
her 2006 mayoral campaign.
Flansbaum-Talabisco, whose bond was set
at $9,000, was charged with unlawful compensation, bribery, official
misconduct and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. She had been
under investigation by the Broward State Attorney’s Office for
allowing developers Bruce and Shawn Chait to contribute $21,000 through
a political action committee to support her 2006 campaign in exchange
for favorable votes involving the development company, Prestige Homes,
which had planned to build more than 700 single-family homes on two
former golf courses.
The charges against Flansbaum-Talabisco
stem from statements given to prosecutors by the Chaits, who have been
cooperating with a state investigation since pleading guilty in August
to charges of unlawful compensation. In exchange for their cooperation,
the Chaits received four years probation and prosecutors dropped charges
of bribery and perjury.
Since then, investigators have been
following their money trail.