Fla. independent counsel will investigage Sansom
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Former statewide prosecutor Melanie Hines will investigate an ethics complaint against ex-House Speaker Ray Sansom on behalf of a special Florida House committee.
House Speaker Larry Cretul accepted a unanimous recommendation Wednesday from the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to appoint Hines, now in private practice in Tallahassee, as independent counsel. The chamber is controlled by Republicans; Hines has a Democratic background.
“Her reputation speaks for itself,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. “This is not a question of it being Republican or Democrat. I think we look for who is a qualified person and who the committee members would be comfortable with.”
Cretul, R-Ocala, created the panel to consider a citizen complaint that Sansom, R-Destin, eroded public faith and confidence in the House by quietly steering millions of dollars to Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, which then gave him a high-paying job. The complaint also alleges he hosted a meeting of the college’s Board of Trustees that violated the state’s open-meetings “Sunshine” law.
A judge on Monday dismissed key parts of parallel criminal charges against Sansom and two co-defendants, but Galvano said that shouldn’t affect the House inquiry.
Galvano said it would not take a criminal conviction to find Sansom had violated House ethics rules. He also noted the House need not find Sansom guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, as required in court. Instead, the evidence against him must be clear and convincing – a lower standard of proof.
In 1991, then-Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, appointed Hines as statewide prosecutor. She served in that post until 2003. Before that she spent four years as assistant statewide prosecutor after working for then-Gov. Bob Graham, also a Democrat, as assistant legal adviser to the Statewide Grand Jury.
The Miami native also worked as an assistant public defender in Tallahassee after earning a law degree from Florida State.