FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER SANSOM SEEKS $800K LEGAL FEES
Former Florida House Speaker Ray Sansom is asking a judge to award him $800,000 in taxpayer money for legal fees from his successful defense against a 2009 indictment for official misconduct. A bench trial in Sansom’s lawsuit against the state seeking the fees is scheduled for Thursday in Leon County Circuit Court.
NO SUNSHINE LAW CHARGES IN MAITLAND CASE
A prosecutor says he won’t file formal charges against officials in the Orlando suburb of Maitland who were accused of violating the state’s open meetings and public records laws. State Attorney Jeff Ashton said Wednesday that no laws were violated when the Maitland’s city attorney talked privately with individual council members about the impact of seeking an opinion from the state Attorney General.
SEN. NELSON ASKS FEDS TO INVESTIGATE REFORM SCHOOL DEATHS
Sen. Bill Nelson has asked the Department of Justice to look into the deaths and burials of boys at a now-closed reform school in the Panhandle town of Marianna. In letters sent Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder and to President Obama’s nominee to replace Holder, Loretta Lynch, Nelson asked the feds to include the reformatory deaths in its ongoing probe of inmate deaths at Florida prisons.
PROTESTERS WANT POLICE TO RELEASE DASH-CAM VIDEO OF SHOOTING
Frustrated protesters went to Miami Gardens City Hall to express their anger over the fatal police shooting of a mentally ill man. They asked city council members to release the dash-cam video from the night 25-year-old Lavall Hall was shot in mid-February. The Miami Herald reports officers Peter Ehrlich and Eddo Trimino fired stun guns at Hall after he hit them with the metal end of a broomstick. Hall continued to charge the officers, and Trimino fired his gun five times. Hall was hit twice, with one bullet to the chest.
MAN ACCUSED OF CALLING 911 TO CHECK POLICE RESPONSE TIME
Authorities say a Florida man is accused of calling 911 and reporting a fake crime to check police response time. Police arrested 19-year-old Christopher Smith, saying he called 911 on Tuesday night to report a shooting. Responding officers found no signs of a shooting. But Smith approached an officer to ask why she was there. The Palm Beach Post reports Smith hung up while the dispatcher was trying to get more information.
