Childers begins jail term; lawyer seeks his release
The suspended official starts a 60-day term for Sunshine Law violations - even as his lawyer asks a judge to set him free.
By Associated Press
Published May 14, 2003
PENSACOLA - Suspended Escambia County Commissioner W.D. Childers began a 60-day jail sentence Tuesday for violating the state's open-government Sunshine Law, as the former Florida Senate president's lawyer prepared to seek his release pending appeal.
Okaloosa County Judge T. Patterson Maney refused to grant an appeal bail after sentencing Monday. Defense lawyer Richard Lubin said he will ask the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee to free Childers until it can rule on his appeal.
Childers, 69, is the first elected official to be jailed for violating the open-meetings section of the Sunshine Law, records show. Another Escambia official, Vanette Webb, was the first jailed for violating the public records section. She served about a week of a 30-day sentence in 1999 before being freed by a new judge who took over her case.
A jury last June convicted Childers of discussing redistricting in a telephone call with the county election supervisor while another commissioner listened on a speaker phone. He later pleaded no contest to talking with two other commissioners about county building projects. On both occasions, there was no public notice of the meetings.
Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore said Maney's decision to jail Childers was courageous.
"I'm pleased that the judge imposed a sentence that shows that men of wealth and power and position are not above the law," Elmore said after the sentencing.
Childers appeared in good spirits when he surrendered at the county jail just before 9 a.m. Sheriff's spokeswoman Rhonda Ray said Childers will be held at least temporarily in a single cell in the jail's special housing unit because of his age. If he doesn't have adjustment problems he will be moved into the general population, she said.
Childers could get much more time behind bars when he is sentenced Friday in Crestview for bribery and unlawful compensation for official behavior. He is facing a maximum sentence of 10 years after being convicted in connection with accepting and distributing bribes in exchange for his and another commissioner's votes to purchase a former Pensacola soccer complex for $3.9-million.
Another suspended commissioner, Willie Junior, testified at Childers' trial last month that Childers gave him a cooking pot filled with cash for his vote to purchase the property.
Junior has pleaded no contest to one Sunshine Law violation and 10 felonies including bribery and extortion as part of a plea bargain. He has not yet been sentenced.
Two other commissioners have received penalties for sunshine violations, including fines, court costs and community service, but no jail time.
