Court Overturns Sen. Siplin Conviction

[The Straight Story]

Court Overturns Sen. Siplin Conviction


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A state appeals court on Friday overturned a theft conviction against state Sen. Gary Siplin, saying a jury wrongly convicted him of having an employee do campaign work on state time.

A three-judge panel of Florida's 5th District Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that an Orlando jury wrongly convicted Siplin of felony grand theft because it ignored the possibility that he had no idea his office employee was being paid by the state while working on his 2004 re-election campaign.

The court also threw out a misdemeanor conviction for using state workers to further his campaign, saying the jury wasn't properly told that Siplin had to have knowledge of his employee working for the campaign on state time.

http://www.local6.com/news/14938394/detail.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. Siplin was a Democrat

Was the Florida AG a Republican doing Jeb's bidding and trying to build a permanent Republican majority?