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Sansom May Face Grand Jury Hearing

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The Associated Press

Published: January 9, 2009

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

State Attorney Willie Meggs of Tallahassee said 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 Wednesday.

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 into 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 lawyer 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.

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.

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