Is Florida Grand Jury on Public Corruption Corrupt Itself - 19th Grand Jury Fails to Clean Up FL

March 26, 2011 - PRLog -- Florida’s Broward County has been coined Corruption County around the world for its notorious pay for play political scandals, particularly in the arena of land development. Florida’s last Governor, Charlie Crist petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a Grand Jury Investigation after several Broward County Commissioners, Broward County School Board Members, and Pompano Beach CRA advisors were found to be involved in bribery and fraud as related to land grabbing and development deals on grand scales. The Pompano Beach CRA was found to have been taking property illegally from citizens, churches, and businesses for over a decade. With this, the 19th Statewide Grand Jury on Public Corruption was born to complete a year of investigation that recently ended in February 2011.

At its start many questioned a Grand Jury that was to focus a keen eye on Broward County being headed up by one of Broward County’s own, Broward County Chief Judge Victor Tobin.  According to a press release from Bill McCollum's office, the State Attorney General at the time, the purpose of the Grand Jury was "to examine a list of specific crimes including bribery, extortion, unlawful compensation for official behavior, corruption by threat against a public servant, official misconduct, falsifying records, and misuse of confidential information." With an interim report published in December making general recommendations to the legislature, and a final report just released with recommendations exclusively regarding the Broward County School Board, popular sentiment is the Grand Jury has failed to meet its mission and be the clean up that the county requires and for which residents hoped.

An example of the impotency was the presentation of the final report to the Broward County School Board, whereby the board dismissingly said they would take it into advisement. A limp conclusion to what in retrospect seems to be yet another bureaucratic form of pass the buck and responsibility avoidance. No indictments have been made based on this year long investigation; the Jury only recommended the general idea that officials who misuse their office should be prosecuted. Florida's new Republican Attorney General Pam Bondi also failed to issue a statement on the Grand Jury's work.

As for the hundreds of Pompano Beach residents who had their property stolen by a rogue Pompano Beach CRA agency for development schemes? It seems the board did not want to address that which could alter the very landscape of Broward County and challenge the power structure, along with the race divisions. As for the legal and judicial corruption in Broward County with more than a dozen judges and attorneys (remember ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein) making unsavory headlines in recent years? No surprise an investigation was not performed of the Broward County Courthouse with its own Judge Tobin at the helm. As for Florida's new Governor, Rick Scott, who was previously forced to resign as the head of healthcare company Columbia/HCA that pled guilty to massive amounts of systematic Medicare fraud, including 14 felonies, leading to a historic $1.7 billion fine and now heads the state as a prime example of the corporate interest that has long infiltrated Florida’s politics? Looks like he will not be pressing for the term of the Grand Jury to be renewed.

A sad state of affairs in the Sunshine State, but as civil unrest grows, so, too, may the tide turn. We need only look to the examples of Egypt, Libya and Bahrain as more Broward County citizens (in the United States of America!) are coming forward and fighting for their rights to be represented in government and earn a fair living, and demanding an end to the political corruption and corporate profiting on the backs of hardworking people.

To visit the official site of the Florida 19th Statewide Grand Jury on Public Corruption and read the Interim and Final Reports, visit:
http://myfloridalegal.com/19thstatewidegrandjury

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's Communications Office may be reached by telephone at
850.245.0150

For more documentation and resources on the Pompano Beach CRA Gate visit:
http://www.wojspubs.com

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