A jury convicted suspended Deerfield Beach Commissioner Sylvia Poitier today on four misdemeanor counts of falsifying public records.
Poitier, 76, was arrested in April on five charges of falsifying documents -- which were related to a loan to her brother, who was part of a city-tied organization -- although the fifth count was dismissed by the judge during the trial.
Since Deerfield gadfly Chaz Stevens is the one who filed the complaints against her, he wins a free quote: "After four decades in office, her lies finally caught up with her. I came, I saw, I kicked her ass," he tells the Pulp.
The five misdemeanor charges against Poitier weren't a direct result of the
aforementioned loan from her brother but what she allegedly did after
that.
According to her arrest affidavit, in May 2006, Poitier
proposed sending a $30,000 grant to the Westside Deerfield Businessman
Association -- the same agency her brother had loaned $46,000 to -- and
then voted on the proposal without any disclosure of the relationship or
filing of the necessary paperwork.
The trial lasted only three days, and while she was likely to be sentenced today, Poitier's attorney is attempting to appeal the convictions.
Click here for more background on the Poitier case.
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