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Associated PressThe appellate court upheld W.D. Childers' 2002 convictions for violating the Sunshine Law.
PENSACOLA - W.D. Childers lost an appeal Thursday of convictions for violating the state's Sunshine Law by privately discussing government business with a fellow Escambia County commissioner.
A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal affirmed Childers' guilt on two counts without writing an opinion. The same court is to hear oral arguments Nov. 9 in Childers' appeal of a more serious bribery conviction.
A jury in 2002 convicted Childers, 70, a former Florida Senate president, of violating the Sunshine Law by talking about public business in private with Commissioner Terry Smith. Childers was elected a county commissioner in 2000, when term limits forced him out of the Senate after 30 years.
Childers' lawyers argued that his comments did not fit the legal definition of a "discussion" because they were one-way expressions of his opinion, and he neither sought nor obtained responses.
Now other public officials "will know the W.D. Childers' theory is not something they should follow," Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore said.
Childers' defense "made a mockery of the Sunshine Law," Elmore said.
Neither Childers nor his lawyer, Richard Lubin of West Palm Beach, immediately returned messages seeking comment.
Childers could ask for a rehearing or take his case to the Florida Supreme Court. Either option would be difficult because the appellate judges chose not to write an opinion, Elmore said.
Childers served 38 days of a 60-day jail sentence before he was freed on appeal bond, making the Pensacola resident the first public official to serve jail time for violating the open meetings section of the Sunshine Law. An Escambia County School Board member earlier went to jail for violating the public records portion.
Elmore said he will ask that Childers be returned to jail once his appeals are exhausted.
Childers also is free on bail pending appeal of his bribery conviction and a 31/2-year prison term.
A separate jury in that case found him guilty of giving Commissioner Willie Junior a cooking pot filled with cash after Junior voted for the county's purchase of a former soccer complex for $3.9-million.
Gov. Jeb Bush suspended Childers, Junior, Smith and a fourth commissioner, Mike Bass, after they were indicted on various corruption charges in 2002.
A jury convicted Smith, and Bass pleaded no contest to Sunshine Law charges, but neither received jail time.
Junior pleaded no contest to a laundry list of charges and agreed to testify against other defendants. In exchange, he was promised no more than 18 months in prison. Junior is to be sentenced Tuesday.
A married couple who sold the soccer complex to the county were acquitted of bribery.