Ray Sansom case shocker: Ex-college president flips on him, developer

TALLAHASSEE -- The criminal case against former House Speaker Ray Sansom took a dramatic turn Friday as a co-defendant turned state’s evidence and acknowledged that $6 million Sansom put in the state budget was to benefit a developer.

Bob Richburg, former president of the Panhandle college that got the money in 2007, portrayed the idea as one hatched by Sansom and Jay Odom, a friend and political contributor who wanted to use the building for his private jet business.

Asked if he knew at the time whether the building — ostensibly an emergency response and training center — was being placed at Destin Airport so Odom would benefit, Richburg flatly replied: “Yes.”

The surprise turn of events dealt Sansom and Odom a significant setback as their trial is set to begin March 21. All three men had been charged with grand theft.

Now Richburg, 65, could take the witness stand against his associates.

“There’s been quite a change in the landscape for us,” Odom attorney Jimmy Judkins said during Friday’s hearing.

Richburg, who was fired from Northwest Florida State College for his role in the scandal, also acknowledged keeping Odom’s interest in the building from his board of trustees and not being truthful when a reporter asked him about the deal.

“And why was that?” a state investigator asked in an interview made public Friday.

“Because there would have been further uproar over it,” Richburg replied.

Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs expects to drop the charges against Richburg. But Richburg would have to perform 250 hours of community service and give $103,333 to Northwest Florida State College, a third of the $310,000 the college had to reimburse to the state. (That’s how much of the $6 million was spent on planning before the project was canceled amid the controversy.)

Richburg would preserve his state retirement benefits, however, a significant sum after decades in higher education. “He was used,” Meggs said Friday of Richburg. “He didn’t personally gain anything out of it.”

In another development Friday, the state made public an interview with a Fort Walton Beach insurance agent who said he gave Sansom a $7,000-a-month job in 2009 at the request of Odom.

Initially the agent, Gary Paulzak, portrayed it as goodwill toward Sansom, whose life had been “ruined in every way” by the criminal case against him. But later in an interview, Paulzak acknowledged that he owed Odom money.

“I wasn’t forthright,” he told prosecutors, who had asked him earlier about the debt. He said he assumed that by hiring Sansom, the debt would be “lessened.”

Sansom tried to get an insurance license but was denied because he was under indictment. Still, Paulzak continued to pay him.

The scandal broke in late 2008 when Sansom, R-Destin, took a six-figure job at the college on the same day he was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House. He said he saw no conflict of interest.

The Times/Herald then reported a series of stories showing how Sansom used his powerful position as House budget chief to funnel tens of millions to the school, including $6 million for the airport building in 2007.

He and Richburg insisted it was for an emergency operations and training center and that there would be no private use. But records and other evidence pointed to Odom’s plan to use part of the building to store aircraft for his private jet business, which he built next door at Destin Airport.

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