Charge Dropped In Deerfield Commissioner's Corruption Trial
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) – One of five misdemeanor corruption charges against suspended Deerfield Beach Commissioner Sylvia Poiter has been dismissed by the judge.
Poitier, 75, was charged with five misdemeanor corruption charges for allegedly failing to disclose a conflict of interest she had with a non-profit association that handles low-income housing funds for the city.
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 thousand 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.
On Tuesday, during the second day of the trial, Broward County Judge Melinda Brown dismissed the 'falsifying records' charge pertaining to the October 2010 commission meeting, according to the Sun-Sentinel. Brown ruled that Poitier's comment that she had already disclosed the loan her brother had given to the WDBA was false but it was not material to the commission meeting discussion.
If convicted, Poitier could be fined up to $1,000 and a year in jail for each count.
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