Miami Herald, The (FL)-March 21, 2000
Author: FRANCES ROBLES, frobles@herald.com
Former County Commission candidate Billy Hardemon - exonerated last year in a federal bribery case - has agreed to a year of probation for breaking campaign finance laws.
Hardemon had been dogged by grand theft charges from 1997 alleging that he stole nearly $10,000 from his own District 3 campaign fund. That case fell apart when a key witness died and another recanted.
The sanitation worker and one-time aide to former commissioner James Burke still faced 16 misdemeanor charges for accepting contributions over the state's $500 limit and other campaign finance reporting irregularities. Hardemon said he pleaded guilty because he grew weary of paying six-figure lawyer bills.
"There's an old saying: 'You're innocent until proven that you can no longer afford an attorney,'" Hardemon said. "It started to get very, very expensive to maintain my defense. I didn't want to mortgage my children's future any further."
Hardemon was represented by Jose Quinon, who did not return a call seeking comment.
Hardemon and Burke were tried last year in federal court for allegedly accepting a bribe in exchange for pushing through a county bond deal. After a federal judge threw out most of the charges against him, a jury acquitted Hardemon of the remaining counts.
From the start of the state's campaign finance case, Hardemon maintained that the charges were a ploy to pressure him to testify against Burke in federal court. Assistant Miami-Dade State Attorney Joseph Centorino said the two cases were completely unrelated.
"The whole thing was a mess," Centorino said of Hardemon's campaign finance reports.
"Anybody looking at it could tell there were major problems."
Centorino said the case began with allegations that Hardemon issued checks to two phantom campaign workers - who did no work and gave the money back to Hardemon. But one of the workers died of cancer and the other recanted, leaving no witnesses, Centorino said.
That left prosecutors with a slew of lesser charges, such as misreported donations to
Hardemon's unsuccessful $200,000 1996 commission race in which he acted as his own campaign treasurer. On two occasions, what were listed as $500 contributions were actually illegal $1,000 donations, prosecutors said.
Centorino objected to the part of the plea offered by County Judge Jeffrey Swartz which allows Hardemon's record to remain clear of convictions. With adjudication withheld, Hardemon can honestly say he has never been convicted of a crime, and can have the court record sealed.
Hardemon also agreed to a year of probation, a $2,500 fine and 150 hours of community service. The plea stipulates that he can't run for office, be a campaign treasurer or fund-raiser while he's on probation.
"On these campaigns, I would guesstimate that 90 percent, a vast majority, of all candidates make technical violations of campaign finance laws,'' Hardemon said. "Technical violations - they happen. Theft or anything like that, absolutely not."
Edition: Final
Section: Local
Page: 1B
Index Terms: HARDEMON SENTENCE
Record Number: 0003220214
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
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