www.esryle.comLOCAL NEWS ACROSS THE NATION
Posted on 03/11/2005 6:04:42 AM PST by esryle
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and Orange Circuit Judge Alan Apte are at jail being booked on charges from grand jury indictments, according to Local 6 News.
A grand jury was investigating whether absentee ballots were illegally collected by a worker for the re-election campaign of Mayor Dyer issued four indictments Thursday which were immediately sealed
Special prosecutor Brad King said he couldn't say who was listed in the indictment until they were served with the documents or in custody, which could come as early as Friday. When asked if the Orlando mayor was included, he said, "I can't say anything about who those four names are."
"This grand jury worked diligently to do what they thought was right and just," said King, who was brought in from Marion County for the investigation.
Dyer's attorney, Robert Leventhal, said he didn't have enough information to comment. Dyer didn't answer a call to his cell phone.
The grand jury looked into allegations that Ezzie Thomas, a campaign consultant for Dyer, illegally gathered absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods. Thomas' attorney, Dean Mosley didn't return a phone call.
Thomas was hired by Dyer's campaigns for Florida Attorney General and Orlando mayor to perform get-out-the-vote activities. Thomas also has worked for some of central Florida's most prominent politicians, including now-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, when he was a local county official, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, when she was mayor.
Dyer has said that when he signed checks and approved invoices, worth about $10,000, for Thomas during his campaign, the papers did not state what Thomas was being paid to do and Dyer said he didn't know, either.
Earlier this year, Dyer testified in a separate civil lawsuit deposition that he was not involved in field work with his campaign.
The civil lawsuit was brought by the runner-up in the mayoral race, Ken Mulvaney, who sued to have the election thrown out. Dyer won re-election by nearly 5,000 votes but cleared the threshold that triggers a runoff by only 234.
"I was mayor. I spent most of my time being mayor," Dyer said in the deposition. "I spent very little time actually on the campaign."
Florida law prohibits anyone from being paid for distributing, ordering, collecting or delivering absentee ballots. The law, which makes the crime a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, was passed following the 1998 Miami mayor's race in which widespread voter fraud was cited
Is Dyer a Dem?
Too bad the Republicans in WA couldn't bring in an attorney general from TX or OK to investigate the fraud in their governor's election. To think that Democrat officials would have the integrity to find voter fraud is laughable.
Yes, Dyer is a Dem...
They're just too busy. So much fraud to commit, so little time :(
Gee, funny the article never mentioned that....
What? The story didn't say?
I'm shocked! Shocked I say!
Easy way to tell.....
If a Democrat is indicted, his/her party affiliation is buried deep in the story, if mentioned at all...
If a Republican is indicted, his/her party affiliation is screaming in bold letters from the headline....
Thomas was hired by Dyer's campaigns for Florida Attorney General and Orlando mayor to perform get-out-the-vote activities. Thomas also has worked for some of central Florida's most prominent politicians, including now-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, when he was a local county official, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, when she was mayor.
'Rat corruption. The gift that keeps on giving.
Orange-Osceola Circuit Judge Alan Apte also turned himself in.
----Yes, Dyer is a Dem...
Gee, funny the article never mentioned that....-----
Actually, it's not too relevant at this level. Some of the biggest weasel's in politics around here are Repubs. Local politics is local politics pretty much everywhere. There is very little correlation with party affiliation and the "tax/spend/hands in the till" method of governing here in central Florida.
Remember David Boies, defender of the angry loser Gore? There's a Dyer at Boies, Schiller & Flexner office in FL.
The FEC could find nothing wrong.
Apte is a Republican.
Up here in NYS, too. Sigh.
Let me amend my earlier statement. As far as your garden variety thieving & kickback taking [at the local level here] there is little difference. However, when it comes to election fraud, it's pretty much all Dems.
Based on conversations with my leftist friends, they do not even see election fraud as wrong. They see it as necessary to restore the natural order. When Repubs [rarely] do it, at least they know they are cheating.
Our former state GOP Exec Director is jail-bound for election-day phone-jamming.
That was the first thing that went through my mind, but since his party affiliation wasn't mentioned in the article, I have learned to immediately assume that the 'perp is a DemocRat......
The rule is, if the party affiliation isn't mentioned in the MSM, the perp is a Dem.
He's a Dem. You should have guessed that, although as is normally the case, the media doesn't mention that in the article.
They do, however, mention that Sen. Martinez hired the same guy when he was a local politician, and everyone knows that Martinez is a Republican. They don't mention, though, that the law wasn't passed until after Martinez ran for his local office.
How do you know that Apte is a Republican? A judgeship is nonpartisan, and as far as I know, Apte has never run for any other office.
Yep. They don't mention though that the law was not passed until after Mel was already elected.
I heard alot of them will be going down. Jeb gets to appoint dyer's replacemment. Good news day!
One of the first things Dyer did as Mayor was fire 1/3 of the staff at City Hall, in order to eliminate the City deficit, it was explained. When he did that, I thought, "Hmmmm... Maybe I misjudged this guy. Maybe he isn't a liberal fool afterall."
Then my hopes were dashed a few days later when he gave the remaining employees a City Hall a 1/3 raise.
'I think we should take a look at who instigated this...'
'I don't believe anyone meant to do anything wrong...'
I'm half expecting the always popular, 'It was a mistake', or the other lefty favorite, 'It's just about sex...'. Liberals...
All of the players in this race were liberals. It's so much fun to watch them eat their own.
http://www.wesh.com/news/4277135/detail.html
Latest news, Dyer says he won't step down. I wonder if he'll hire David Boies to represent him? :)-
The headline if Dyer was a republican:
Orlando Republican Mayor Buddy Dyer booked on charges from grand jury indictments
Why can't I find this on DU?
I knew him personally before he ran for judge. He has not been a judge very long. Prior to that, I believe he was a prosecutor.
Dyer, along with the attorneys for his campaign manager and Thomas, have called the indictments politically motivated. Dyer is a Democrat -- one of the few members of his party in Florida to win any significant office last year -- and State Attorney King is a Republican, appointed special prosecutor by the same Republican governor who suspended him Friday.
Of course his party affiliation is only important when the eeeeeeeeeeeeevil republicans are hunting him down.
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