A project prosecutors say was a thinly veiled attempt to get a state-funded hangar for one of former House Speaker Ray Sansoms supporters would have drawn a veto if the proposal were honestly explained to him, former Gov. Charlie Crist testified Wednesday.
Speaking at the theft trial of Sansom and Jay Odom, a political ally, Crist told jurors he would have nixed the line item for the $6 million project, billed as an emergency operations center, if he had been aware that it was aimed at getting a hangar for Odom, as prosecutors argue. Crist made similar comments at a proffer hearing earlier in the morning, when Circuit Judge Terry Lewis ruled that the former governors testimony could be heard by the jury.
I would have vetoed it if I had know what the real facts were, Crist said in the earlier session.
Crist and former Senate Budget Chairwoman Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, testified about their knowledge of how the project at Northwest Florida State College, then called Okaloosa Walton Community College, came to be included in the budget passed by the Legislature in 2007.
Reports that Sansom, as House budget chief, funneled money to the college and then took a $110,000-a-year job at the school around the same time he became speaker, eventually forced him from the speakership before the start of the regular legislative session in 2009.
In their cross-examination, defense lawyers tried to make the point that Crist had little knowledge of whether the project at the college was actually in line with what the state expected, and that he based his later statements that he would have vetoed the project -- and his decision to ask the college to return the money -- on little more than newspaper accounts.
Crist said he also got some information about the emerging questions surrounding the project from Budget Director Jerry McDaniel.
But you dont know who he talked to either, though, do you? asked James Judkins, Odoms attorney.
No, I dont, Crist responded.
He might have just read the paper too, Judkins said.
Thats not a terrible thing, Crist replied.
Defense attorneys also appeared to be trying to lay the groundwork for saying that the project really was justified by the need for better emergency preparations in Destin.
We had just had a lot of hurricanes the past couple of years prior to that, Crist conceded under cross-examination.
Much of Crists testimony came over the objections of defense lawyers, who said it couldnt shed any light on whether Sansom and Odom are guilty of theft and conspiracy by getting the project inserted into the budget.
Why he didnt veto [the item] is of no moment in this case. ... He could have signed the bill at the beach, for all the world cares, Judkins told Lewis.
Talking to reporters after his testimony, Crist avoided saying whether he thought Sansom was guilty of wrongdoing. But Crist, now a lawyer in private practice at personal injury firm Morgan & Morgan in Orlando, did say he thought the project was wholly inappropriate. He said he would have used his line-item veto on the measure if Sansom and Odom had told him up front the real intent of the project.
I mean, if theyre going to describe to the governors office and the budget office that its going to be used for a certain purpose, and in fact its going to be used for something else, thats the first clue that maybe its inappropriate, Crist said. But the fact that, as we have later learned, that was the case, it was clear to me that had we known that beforehand, it would have been vetoed first.
Carlton testified about the large surplus of PECO dollars the school construction fund -- that the state had and how several projects were added to the budget following a revenue estimating conference that showed the extra money.
Prosecutors are expected to wrap up their case by the end of the week. It is not clear yet whether Sansom will testify in his own defense.
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