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CRESTVIEW - Former Florida Senate President W.D. Childers was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in state prison todayfor bribing an Escambia County commissioner in order to get a vote needed to purchase a former soccer complex in Pensacola.
A jury last month convicted Childers, once one of Florida's most powerful politicians, of bribery and unlawful compensation for an official act. He was ordered to complete 250 hours of community service and 11/2 years probation after he finishes the sentence.
Prosecutors sought the maximum penalty of 10 years - five years on each count and more than $1 million in restitution. Childers was not ordered to pay restitution.
Childers, 69, was brought to the Okaloosa County Courthouse from the Escambia County Jail in Pensacola, where he has been serving a 60-day sentence since Tuesday for unrelated violations of Florida's open-government "sunshine" law. He will begin serving the 31/2 years once he completes the 60-day jail sentence.
Childers was sentenced by Circuit Judge Jere Tolton, who served in the Legislature with him as a state representative in the 1970s. The judge later ruled that Childers could not be released on bond pending an appeal of Friday's sentence.
Term limits forced the Pensacola Republican from the Senate, where he had spent 30 years, in 2000. He was elected a county commissioner that year and became chairman in 2001 before the panel voted 3-2 to buy the soccer complex from an old friend for $3.9 million.
The combative, 5-foot, 6-inch Childers, known as the "Banty Rooster," was accused of bribing Willie Junior, a Pensacola Democrat, with at least $90,000 in checks. Junior testified Childers handed him the money pot following the vote but that he returned $40,000 in exchange for a cashier's check.
Childers denied giving Junior any cash and testified the checks were loans secured by Junior's equity in a funeral home. He produced two handwritten promissory notes they had signed.
Assistant State Attorney John Simon argued that Childers never filed the notes with the court clerk in order to enforce them, which he had often done with other loans, including those to family members.
Gov. Jeb Bush last May suspended four of Escambia's five commissioners, including Childers and Junior, after they were indicted on various corruption charges.
The bribery trial was moved to Crestview because of heavy news coverage in Pensacola, where Childers was convicted last June on one count of illegally discussing public business in private with another commissioner. He is the first politician jailed for violating the open meetings portion of Florida's sunshine law, one of the nation's toughest.
The Pensacola jurors acquitted him on two other sunshine violation counts and hung on a fourth. Childers eventually pleaded no contest to the latter charge, but he reserved the right to appeal it and the conviction. Childers also plans to appeal his bribery conviction.
Junior last year pleaded no contest to one sunshine violation and 10 felonies, including bribery, racketeering and extortion, and agreed to testify against other defendants. Prosecutors in exchange promised a prison term of no more than 18 months instead of a possible 125 years. His sentencing has not yet been set.
Before Childers' bribery trial, prosecutors tried to take back the sentencing promise, citing Junior's repeated inconsistent statements, but Tolton rejected their motion.
The county bought the soccer complex from Joe and Georgann Elliott, both real estate professionals. Another Okaloosa jury in December acquitted Joe Elliott of bribing Childers and Junior. Prosecutors claimed he gave Childers $200,000 to split between the two commissioners. Georgann Elliott also is facing bribery related charges.
The present commissioners, including three Bush appointees, have agreed to resell the soccer complex for $2,295,000, taking a loss of nearly $1 million, but the deal has not yet closed.
Prosecutors sought restitution from Childers for the difference plus closing costs and a real estate broker's fee, a total of $1,094,693.
The other two suspended commissioners, Mike Bass and Terry Smith, have received non-jail sentences including fines, costs and community service. Bass pleaded no contest to two sunshine violations and prosecutors dropped bribery and other felony counts. Smith was convicted on two sunshine counts.