Sentencing Delayed For Deerfield Commissioner In Corruption Case
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – The sentencing hearing for suspended Deerfield Beach Commissioner Sylvia Poitier has been rescheduled for January 11th.
Poitier, who was convicted in early November on four public corruption charges, was set to be sentenced Wednesday. However, her attorney entered a motion for acquittal which was denied by the judge who then reset the sentencing hearing.
Poitier,75, could be fined as much as one thousand dollars and receive a year in jail for each count.
The charges stem from information submitted on conflict of interest forms filed with the city in 2009 concerning her vote for a $30,000 grant to the Westside Deerfield Businessman Association.
According to investigators, the association owed Poitier's brother, Lionel Ferguson, $46,000 plus interest on a loan he had made to the group at Poitier's request.
The grant was not awarded, but Poitier's vote was a potential conflict of interest.
According to prosecutors, Poitier failed to properly disclose that a financial relationship existed between the WDBA and her brother. This disclosure should have taken place, and the proper paperwork filed, each time the WDBA was a topic to be voted on by the city of Deerfield Beach Commission.
