"First I want to
thank God," Sansom said afterward, then he thanked
his attorneys. "When I first met with them, they
said 'Ray the truth will set you free' and we saw that
today."
Meggs maintained that wrongdoing
occurred but said he had a "fundamental"
disagreement with the court whether actions that
occurred before the appropriation were relevant. That
evidence was critical to Meggs' case.
The case was proceeding Friday,
but shortly before lunch the jury went out and there was
a disagreement over the next witness, which was to be
Richburg. That brought up the question of the standard
for conspiracy.
They broke for lunch, and
afterward Meggs came back and abruptly announced that
they had an agreement to drop the charges in exchange
for Sansom and Odom agreeing to repay the college.
The men had been charged with
grand theft and conspiracy to commit grand theft as part
of $6 million Sansom put in the state budget for an
airport building. The maximum penalty for each
individual was 30 years in prison.
The trial started Monday and
dozens of witnesses had testified for the prosecution,
leading up to its primary witness, Richburg, who turned
state's evidence March 11 against his co-defendants in
exchange for having charges against himself dropped.
The scandal broke in late 2008
when Sansom, R-Destin, took a six-figure job at the
college on the same day he was sworn in as speaker of
the Florida House. He said he saw no conflict of
interest.
The St. Petersburg Times then
reported a series of stories showing how Sansom used his
powerful position as House budget chief to funnel tens
of millions to the school, including $6 million for the
airport building in 2007.
He and Richburg insisted that it
was for an emergency operations and training center and
that there would be no private use. But records and
other evidence pointed to Odom's plan to use part of the
building to store aircraft for his private jet business,
which he built next door at Destin Airport.
The airport building is what drew
the attention of Meggs, who got a complaint from a
citizen outraged by what he read in the newspaper.
Though Sansom denied it when first
asked, records and interviews indicated that Odom wanted
to use the building for his executive jet business,
Destin Jet.
Odom had known Sansom for years
and became a major ally as Sansom climbed the ranks in
the state GOP. Over the years, Odom contributed nearly
$1 million to Republican candidates, Sansom included,
and the state party. Politicians flew around in his
plane.
Odom had the perfect location -
Destin Airport - where he already had a land lease from
Okaloosa County for Destin Jet. In 2007, he got the city
of Destin to approve a resolution asking the state for
$6 million to pay for his building, saying he would turn
it over to emergency officials for use as a staging area
in a major storm. The request went nowhere.
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