Fourth South Florida voter fraud case dismissed by Broward judge

Future cases could be affected by legislation signed by DeSantis in February that gives a statewide office clear authority to prosecute

A Broward County j udge decided Friday to dismiss the case against another one of the 20 people arrested last August after investigations by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Office of Election Crimes and Security.

Eugene Suggs, 66, of Lauderhill, is now the fourth South Florida resident whose case has been thrown out of court on the grounds that the Office of Statewide Prosecution does not have jurisdiction to prosecute, his attorney, Lawrence Wolk, said.

Suggs was accused of voting illegally in the 2020 primary and general elections, a probable cause affidavit said. Because Suggs was convicted of second-degree murder in 1990, he was excluded from the constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2018 that restored voting rights for convicted felons.

Suggs and the others arrested across the state by Florida Department of Law Enforcement officers in August were all charged with murder or sex-related offenses, barring them from having their voting rights restored.

Statewide prosecutors have argued that because the voters’ registrations and ballots were sent to Tallahassee, the alleged crimes were committed in multiple counties, thus giving them the jurisdiction to prosecute.

Judge Gary Farmer and three others have ruled that’s not the case. The cases against Terry Hubbard, 63, of Pompano Beach; Ronald Lee Miller, 57, of Miami; and Robert Lee Wood, 56, of Opa-locka, were each previously dismissed.

Wolk said Farmer found “there was no intention” on Suggs’ part to violate the law.

“Mr. Suggs only voted in Broward County. He never brought his voting certificate or voting sheet to Tallahassee to be counted,” Wolk said. “That was automatically transmitted by the voter registration here in Broward

County. So really only one county was involved.”

Wolk said Farmer based the majority of his finding on Judge Milton Hirsch’s decision in the case against Wood in Miami-Dade County.

“‘His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings,’ ” Hirsch wrote in his order in October, quoting Shakespeare. “How much wider even than that does OSP seek to extend its reach? In the case at bar the answer is simple: wider than the enabling statute contemplates, and therefore too wide.”

Wolk wrote in his motion to dismiss that Suggs completed a voter registration application with the help of government officials at a government office and was subsequently issued a voter ID number in March 2020. Wolk argued that Suggs, who believed his voting rights had been restored after the 2018 amendment passed, was entrapped.

“He voted under the authority granted him by the government and now that same body is seeking to incarcerate him for the very act they approved and encouraged him to take,” Wolk wrote.

Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Jeremy Scott wrote in his response that “it is impossible to complete either the act of registering to vote or the act of participating in an election within a single circuit” as the documents were sent to Tallahassee. Suggs “toppled the first domino” in a chain reaction by falsely affirming he was able to vote and then by voting, Scott wrote in his response.

Though four judges have now tossed out voter fraud cases, there could be different outcomes for similar cases going forward. DeSantis signed Senate Bill 4B in February, passed by the Republican-majority Legislature, which expressly grants the Office of Statewide Prosecution the authority to investigate and prosecute these types of voter-fraud related charges.

ACLU Florida in a statement last month called the bill “a solution in search of a problem.”

“The office made arrests, claimed jurisdiction, and is now seeking to change the law after the courts said no. We have grave concerns about the potential for this office targeting returning citizens for honest mistakes about their eligibility to vote in an effort to intimidate communities of color,” the statement said.

“We have grave concerns about the potential for this office targeting returning citizens for honest mistakes about their eligibility to vote.”

— ACLU Florida

Prosecutors in Suggs’ case filed an amended charging document after the legislation passed, citing the new version of the law that expanded the Office of Statewide Prosecution’s authority. Wolk said the law can’t be applied retroactively.

“You can’t go ahead and change a statute after someone’s been charged by information,” Wolk said.

Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson Friday evening that the Office of Statewide Prosecution will appeal the judge’s decision.

In another case filed by the state office, Luis Villaran, 64, of Delray Beach, pleaded guilty to charges of false affirmation and voting as an unqualified elector in February and was sentenced to six months of probation.

Still pending in South Florida courts are cases against Nathaniel Singleton, 71, of Fort Lauderdale; Leo Grant Jr., 55, of South Bay; and Robert Simpson, 64, of Pahokee.