Sen. Gary Siplin has been charged with grand theft for allegedly forcing three employees to work on his reelection campaign

Mary Ellen Klas:

State Sen. Gary Siplin, the flamboyant former bond lawyer who owes $187,100 to Miami-Dade County for a now-defunct hat shop, was charged Monday with grand theft for requiring his state staff to do campaign work on the state dime.

Siplin, 51, a Democrat and two-term state senator from Orlando, was known in Miami for his flashy fedoras and his close ties to Miami-Dade politicos before he moved back to his hometown and was elected to the Legislature in 2000.

Now, after an eight-month investigation, Orlando State Attorney Lawson Lamar has charged Siplin with one felony and one misdemeanor count for allegedly forcing his former chief of staff to work on his 2004 re-election campaign while she was still on the state payroll -- a violation of law.

"This case centers on a person in a position of trust utilizing approximately three months of labor, funded with taxpayer dollars, for his personal political campaign -- not for the job a state employee was being paid to do," said Lamar, the top prosecutor for Orange and Osceola counties. "That amounts to grand larceny from the people of Florida."

Siplin turned himself in to the Polk County Sheriff's office late Monday and posted the $500 bail. Lamar obtained documents from the Florida Senate that showed Siplin requested a leave of absence for his former aide, Naomi Cooper, to work on his campaign for two months. After the leave expired, Lamar said, Siplin forced her to continue to work on the campaign and forced two other members of his Senate staff "to do campaign work while on the public payroll."

"It was not as though he didn't know exactly what he was doing," Lamar said.

The prosecutor began the investigation after Orlando television and newspaper reports raised questions about Siplin's transfer of money from his campaign account to a defunct Miami business he owned.

The investigation also reportedly looked into allegations that he rented office space for his Senate office from a building owned by his wife and paid higher-than-market rates.

Lamar refused to comment on the other allegations but noted that Monday's announcement was "the conclusion" of the investigation.

The charges against Siplin could interfere with his duties as a state senator if he is required to appear in court during the remaining weeks of the legislative session.

Senate President Tom Lee said Monday that Senate rules and the state Constitution do not allow for the automatic removal of a senator from office when he or she has been charged with a crime.

"This is a very unusual circumstance," Lee said in a statement. "These are serious charges, and we will treat the State Attorney's action accordingly. We did not receive any formal notification of this action, nor have we received the specifics on the charges."

A spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush said the office is evaluating whether it has the authority to remove Siplin from office, given the charges.

The last time a sitting senator was charged with a felony was 1997, when then Sen. Al Gutman, a Miami Republican, was charged with Medicare fraud, money-laundering and witness tampering. Gutman was re-elected in 1998 and served another year before he was convicted and forced to resign.

Siplin moved to Miami in 1982 when he was hired as an assistant county attorney. He became the first black president of the Dade County Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section in 1989 and was active in promoting black professionals.

His troubles in Miami began in 1987, when Siplin borrowed $88,000 from a Miami-Dade County program to encourage the creation of minority businesses. He used the money to start a hat shop in Coconut Grove, called Hats in the Belfry, which later failed.

He made sporadic payments on the loan and, in 1999, asked county officials to forgive the loan. They refused, and the principal and interest on the debt now totals $187,100.75.

Despite the outstanding debt, Siplin handled several bond deals for the county, collecting nearly $84,000 in fees from 1993 to 1998, until the county stopped doing business with him.

Siplin wouldn't respond on the record to questions from The Miami Herald when asked about the anticipated allegations last week. He said his only comment would be: "I love you."

He used the same response three dozen times when an Orlando television crew confronted him about the state attorney investigation last year.

Update: State Sen. Siplin charged with misusing public money

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