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Florida House Speaker Sansom May Face Grand Jury

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The Associated Press

Published: January 7, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - Embattled House Speaker Ray Sansom could find himself before a grand jury soon.

State Attorney Willie Meggs of Tallahassee said Wednesday he will inform a grand jury about complaints that the Destin Republican received a lucrative college job as payback for channeling more than $25 million to Northwest Florida State College.

Meggs will impanel a new grand jury Jan. 26 at which time he plans to inform them of the complaints. At least 12 of 15 grand jurors would have to decide to accept the case.

"I don't know them and don't know if they'll have any interest in it," Meggs said.

Meggs said he would possibly ask the complainants to appear "and say their pieces." He did not identify who asked him to seek a grand jury indictment.

"We look at the information and sworn testimony and evidence and say 'OK, we're going to charge that person, or we're not going to charge that person,'" Meggs said.

Sansom has also been accused of putting $6 million in the 2007 state budget for an aircraft hangar to benefit a political supporter, Panhandle developer Jay Odom. Both men deny that charge.

A Clearwater man filed an ethics complaint last month against Sansom, who accepted a $110,000 job at the Niceville school on the same day he formally became speaker, Nov. 18.

Sansom hired Tallahassee attorney Richard Coates to help him defend against the ethics complaint. After weeks of heavy editorial criticism from many of Florida's daily newspapers, Sansom said Monday he would resign the college job Jan. 31.

But a prominent Tallahassee Republican took out a full page ad in Tuesday's Tallahassee Democrat calling on Sansom to leave the speaker's post.

Gov. Charlie Crist and most Republican lawmakers have been reluctant to comment on Sansom's situation. Democrats, however, have not.

Sansom, meanwhile, has not been contacted by Meggs.

"If he does, the speaker will respond," said Jill Chamberlin, spokeswoman for the speaker's office.

It's been a rough two months for Sansom, who was also criticized after taking newly elected legislators to the luxurious WaterColor Resort near Seagrove for a three-day retreat in mid-November as the state faces a $2.3 billion budget deficit and its highest unemployment in more than 15 years.

Sansom has served in the Legislature since 2002.

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