Suspended Boca mayor to face charges of corruption

Suspended Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie says the public corruption charges she’s facing are “a smorgasbord of unfounded assertions.”

But prosecutors argue they have the evidence to support a full plate of four felony and three misdemeanor counts, and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley on Tuesday denied Haynie’s bid to dismiss the charges.

“The bare bones charging document is sufficient,” Kelley said.

Haynie, 62, faces three counts of official misconduct and single counts of perjury in an official proceeding, misuse of public office, corrupt misuse of public office and failure to disclose a voting conflict. The offenses are punishable by up to 23 years behind bars. A trial has not yet been scheduled.

Defense attorney Bruce Zimet told Kelley that he can’t prepare a proper defense for his client based on sketchy accusations.

“How do you prove something is truthful if you don’t know what the false statement is?” he asked.

Assistant State Attorney Brian Fernandes contends that the prosecution already provided enough reasons for the charges, making the point that Haynie knows how she crossed the line.

“In all candor, such notice is not necessary since she is the one who committed these crimes and actually possesses the most knowledge of her multiple criminal acts,” Fernandes explained in a recent court filing.

When Haynie was arrested in April, she was accused of lying about money she took from developers and hiding more than $335,000 in income, among other violations cited in an arrest report.

Prosecutors say Haynie failed to disclose her income while conducting business through her husband, Neil Haynie's, property management company, Community Reliance, and real estate they owned from 2014 to 2017.

Another allegation is that Haynie voted favorably on issues to benefit local developer James Batmasian through his Investment Limited firm.

“This is about the fact that each one of these counts are tied to the votes that the defendant actually (made) on projects in which she had the direct conflict,” Fernandes explained to the judge.

“She was receiving hunwho dreds of thousands of dollars from the individual developer involved in each one of these votes, to both herself and her husband, and she refused to actually provide any notice to anybody about this conflict,” Fernandes said.

Before her arrest, Haynie agreed to a reprimand and was fined $500 in a case before the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics over her failure to disclose a conflict of interest with Batmasian.

But the criminal charges derailed Haynie’s campaign for an open seat on the Palm Beach County Commission. She had been running for the seat vacated by termlimited Steven Abrams,

also once served Boca Raton mayor.

Haynie was not in the courtroom Tuesday; she is excused from attending all pre-trial hearings in her case. The lawyers are due back in court on Oct. 26. as