Tamarac

Judge defers ruling on Tamarac’s Flansbaum-Talabisco’s motion to dismiss corruption charges

 

Suspended Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco will have to wait until March 1 to learn if her case on felony corruption charges moves forward or gets dismissed.

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dchang@MiamiHerald.com

Tamarac’s suspended mayor, Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco, will have to wait for another day in court to learn her fate, after a Broward judge on Thursday deferred ruling on a motion to dismiss the four felony charges against the embattled politician.

Broward Circuit Judge Cynthia Imperato heard arguments on the motion, and then set a hearing for March 1, when she will decide whether the case moves forward or gets dismissed. It was Flansbaum-Talabisco’s second request for dismissal of charges that she sold her vote to developers in exchange for campaign help to win the Tamarac mayoral seat in 2006.

Larry Davis, Flansbaum-Talabisco’s defense attorney, argued that his client never asked for the developers’ campaign help, which included paying $7,700 for a poll of voters, and another $19,500 deposited into an Electioneering Communications Organization or independent political group that smeared Flansbaum-Talabisco’s opponents.

Davis said Flansbaum-Talabisco also never received payment or other personal benefit from the developers before voting to approve their controversial housing plan weeks after winning the election.

“Beth Talabisco received no money at all in her pocket,’’ Davis argued. “This is a very material fact ... that has never been disputed by the state.’’

But prosecutor Catherine Maus said that Flansbaum-Talabisco did receive a benefit, even if it wasn’t financial. The suspended mayor benefited from the poll and the political group that smeared her opponents, Maus told the judge.

“But for those benefits, she would not have been elected,’’ she said. “She would not have been able to vote on those projects.’’

The developers, Bruce and Shawn Chait, are cooperating witnesses in a wide-reaching public corruption investigation. They are on probation after pleading guilty to bribing numerous public officials — including imprisoned Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion and two Tamarac commissioners — to win approval for their project to build nearly 800 homes on the defunct Monterrey and Sabal Palm golf courses near Florida’s Turnpike, which was strongly opposed by area residents.

Flansbaum-Talabisco’s first motion to dismiss the charges was declined by Imperato. But the judge then said she would reconsider if Flansbaum-Talabisco submitted a sworn statement that she had never received payment, financial benefit or anything of value from the Chaits.

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