Former Vice Mayor In Court On Corruption Charges
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - A former Vice Mayor of Fort Lauderdale made her first court appearance Wednesday on public corruption charges.
Last January Cindi Hutchinson, 53, was charged with 11 counts stemming from alleged gifts she accepted from contractors which totaled in $14,000 in value.
During her appearance before Broward Circuit Judge John Luzzo, Hutchinson remained silent and did not enter a plea, which preserved her right to dispute any possible defects in the document prosecutors filed against her.
Because of Hutchinson's silence, Judge Luzzo said he would enter a "not guilty" plea on her behalf. He will also turn the case over to another judge because he and the former mayor have known each other for years.
Hutchinson and her attorney, Bruce Udolf, declined to comment after the court hearing. Udolf previously said that the services provided to Hutchinson were personal favors that had nothing to do with her position as vice mayor.
Hutchinson was arrested in January after turning herself into police.
Hutchinson, who lived with her mother, allegedly renovated the home built by her father in the 1950s using developers who received zoning changes from the city while she was a commissioner.
Charges filed against Hutchinson include three counts of Unlawful Compensation, four counts of Official Misconduct, one count of Grand Theft, one count of Petit Theft, one count of Conspiracy to Commit Unlawful Compensation, as well as one count of Perjury following false statements she allegedly gave to BSO detectives.
According to the arrest warrant signed on January 25, 2011 by Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson, Commissioner Hutchinson accepted fences, pavers, fence repair, air conditioning repairs and other work from subcontractors from the La Preserve and Georgian Oaks development projects at the direction of Steven Goldstrom and Glenn Wright.
This allegedly happened after Hutchinson voted on rezoning approval for the Georgian Oaks and La Preserve development projects, which were located in her district. She then failed to list the gifts and services totaling more than $14,000 on state-required gift-disclosure forms.
Source: The Sun Sentinel
