Manuel informants named

Manuel informants named

Prominent local attorney, Jacksonville developer expected to testify

By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 12/03/08


JACKSONVILLE -- Two confidential informants who will be expected to testify in the coming bribery trial of former St. Johns County Commission Chairman Tom Manuel were named Tuesday at a hearing in U.S. District Court.

Manuel's defense attorney, William Sheppard of Jacksonville, said in open court that the two informants are attorney George McClure of McClure Bloodworth, St. Augustine, and Atlantic Beach developer Bruce Robbins of Falcon Development Group, Jacksonville.

Neither man could be reached Tuesday for confirmation of that charge, but prosecutors did not challenge Sheppard's statement.

At the hearing, Sheppard said Manuel, 63, was set up. But he left unsaid whether the sting was initiated by the informants or the FBI, and he wondered aloud what McClure and Robbins got out of their informant actions.

"Everybody has a price, including a lawyer and his client," Sheppard said. "We're entitled to know what that price was."

McClure is a well-respected land use attorney in St. Johns County who is active in charitable causes, has represented many developers and is a former board attorney for St. Augustine Airport Authority.

His client, Robbins and the Falcon Group, won approval in 2005 to build the 5,000-home Twin Creeks project on 3,000 acres in St. Johns County, with part of the project spilling over into Duval County. That property was once part of 5,460 acres purchased from the Cummer Land Trust.

To gain approval by the County Commission, the Falcon Group promised to pay for substantial improvements to congested County Road 210 and Interstate 95 before structures were erected. Those improvements were not made because the project began foundering.

Manuel was elected to the County Commission in 2006.

In April 2007, Manuel and fellow commissioners voted 5-0 to purchase documents, permits, plans and engineering studies for $2.15 million that had already been completed by Falcon over the course of a year. Adding in property the county wanted, and the cost rose to $3.5 million, county engineers said Tuesday.

But federal prosecutors say that only weeks before that vote, Manuel had accepted $60,000 -- $10,000 in one case, $50,000 in another -- "to influence county business."

Sheppard said he needs the printed transcripts of all Manuel's recorded conversations. If he doesn't get them, he won't be able to give a proper defense, and the trial might need to be delayed again, he said.

"I don't know how anybody can analyze a year-plus of surveillance without having (the words) in print first," Sheppard said.

Manuel's trial has already been continued once -- from December to January.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Howard Snyder said, if the trial date must change again, it probably will be set for March.

Sheppard said the FBI began recording Manuel's conversations in April 2007. It was 14 months later, in June 2008, when news leaked that the FBI was investigating his financial dealings.

He pleaded not guilty on Oct. 17 this year and immediately took a leave of absence from his commission post. Later that day, Gov. Charlie Crist suspended him from office.

Manuel has continued to declare his innocence.

Former St. Johns County Commissioner Ben Rich, who encouraged Manuel to run against incumbent Bruce Maguire in District 4 and voted with him on the board to control growth, told the Florida Times-Union that he believes the informants have "low moral strength, poor reputation and questionable ethics. However, as a retired federal agent, I know that snitches are not generally recruited from the student body of Notre Dame and Holy Cross."

County sources said, if Manuel is acquitted, he may be able to collect full back pay and benefits. But if convicted, he could be sentenced to serve up to 20 years in federal prison.

Sheppard said there were 47 taped conversations given to him, but only 14 written transcripts were offered.

"This is the only (federal) district in Florida that doesn't require the government to turn over disclosure materials," he complained to the judge. "(I) was given a stack of compact discs three to four inches high, more than my kids have for their CD players."

Paying to transcribe them all would "bankrupt the defense," he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie H. Savell said Sheppard has all the evidence she has, but she offered to open her evidence list to Sheppard to let him see first hand that he has everything.

"I'm not hiding anything. I'll provide whatever I have," Savell said. "The FBI transcribed some of (recordings) and parts of others. We're under no obligation to provide transcripts for Mr. Sheppard."

Contributing: Paul Pinkham and Deidre Conner of The Florida Times-Union


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