ORLANDO, March 11 -- Mayor Buddy Dyer and Circuit Judge Alan Apte surrendered Friday on a felony charge that they paid a campaign worker to collect absentee ballots, and the mayor was suspended from his post.
Dyer campaign manager Patti Sharp and Ezzie Thomas, a campaign consultant to Dyer and Apte, also were indicted.
Apte has been "unassigned," and his docket has been turned over to another judge, said Karen Levey, a spokeswoman for the 9th Judicial Circuit of Florida. The Judicial Qualifications Commission will probably decide whether Apte stays on the bench.
Dyer, a Democrat, called the charge politically motivated and said he intends to fight it. He could return to his $144,349-a-year job if he is successful. City Council member Ernest Page will take the mayor's place until a special election that is to be held within two months.
The indictments were issued a day earlier by a grand jury looking at whether Thomas illegally collected absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods for Dyer and Apte's campaigns a year ago in this city of 186,000 residents.
Dyer has said he was too busy with his mayoral duties to pay attention to the day-to-day details of the campaign. "My campaign employed a campaign consultant who allegedly violated the law by encouraging older African American voters to participate in the elective process, and I'm being held to account for that," Dyer said.
The mayoral race, in which Dyer avoided a runoff by 234 votes, drew accusations of fraud, and the runner-up has gone to court to try to have the results thrown out.
Dyer has said he signed checks and approved invoices worth about $10,000 for Thomas during his reelection campaign. The documents do not say what Thomas was paid to do.
Thomas, Apte and Sharp declined to talk to reporters as they left the Orange County Jail after booking, but Sharp's attorney, William J. Sheaffer, said the defendants had committed no crime.
All but Thomas were charged with providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection; Thomas was charged with accepting such gain. Both charges are third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.
In Florida, officials charged with a felony are usually suspended by the governor until their case is decided and are removed if convicted.
