Ray Sansom indicted

Former Speaker of the Florida House Ray Sansom (R-Destin) has been indicted by a Leon County grand jury on charges of official misconduct, a third-degree felony.

Northwest Florida State College president Dr. Bob Richburg, the other central figure in the Sansom scandals, has also been indicted for official misconduct as well as perjury.

Gannett’s Bill Cotterell fills us in:

State Attorney Willie Meggs said the official-misconduct felony charges involve $6 million in state money for an airport hangar in Okaloosa County. The project was described in the state’s budget as a training facility for the college, but it was essentially identical to a hangar developer and Republican Party donor Jay Odom had previously sought. An element of the state’s official-misconduct statutes include making a false or fraudulent government document.

“It was creating a false document that it was a multi-use education facility when in fact it was an aircraft hangar,” Meggs said.

Mr. Sansom’s misconduct regarding the airport hangar is only one skeleton in his vast closet of inappropriate behaviour. Gotta take what you can get someone on, though.