Salvatori strikes plea deal, gets probation

The reduced charges are a giant step down from the racketeering, racketeering conspiracy and unlawful compensation charges Salvatori had been facing when a jury was seated late Friday.

Under sentencing guidelines, if Salvatori had been convicted of the racketeering charges, he would have spent at most 24 months in prison, said Special Prosecutor Michael Von Zamft. The lower end of the guidelines called for a sentence similar to that which Salvatori agreed to Monday, Von Zamft said.

Under the plea deal, Senior Circuit Judge Stephen Dakan sentenced Salvatori to two years' probation and ordered him to pay a total $50,000 in fines to the agencies involved in the case: $25,000 to the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami; $10,000 to Collier County government; $10,000 to the 20th Judicial Circuit and $5,000 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The deal puts a sudden end to the trial, which began with three days of jury selection last week and was expected to last through Dec. 5.

The crimes to which Salvatori pleaded guilty took place in September 1997 when he took and stored in a safe deposit box $300,000 in cash from Stadium Naples money-man David Mobley, who is serving a 171/2-year federal sentence for bilking hedge-fund investors out of $120 million. Salvatori also pleaded guilty to handing over the $300,000 to developer Bob Hardy, Paul Hardy's father. Both transactions should have been reported to the state.

Salvatori was not charged until October 2001 in the case that has seen numerous twists and turns including three sitting judges, prosecutors from two circuits and orders from Gov. Jeb Bush assigning and expanding the special prosecutor's authority.

Salvatori is the eighth of 10 defendants to plead to reduced or related charges in the public corruption case that included three sitting commissioners, the former county manager, three developers, the founder of ESPN sports network and Mobley. Only former Commissioner Tim Constantine has served jail time. Constantine pleaded no contest to a racketeering conspiracy charge in September 2001 and was sentenced to 364 days in the Collier County jail. He completed his sentence earlier this month.

While the developers of the ill-fated Stadium Naples spectator golf arena, Paul Hardy, Mobley and Renee Tolson, were involved in the $300,000 cash transactions, failing to report the cash is not directly related to the Stadium Naples charges. In April, Tolson entered a plea deal to reduced misdemeanor charges of failing to report the cash.

Dakan followed the recommendations of the prosecutors when he handed out Salvatori's sentence Monday, which he was not required to do.

Critics suggested prosecutors agreed to the reduced charges because they could not prove their case.

"The truth is becoming self-evident," said Paul Hardy, who is facing a Jan. 5 trial in Sarasota, along with former Collier County Commissioner John Norris.

Assistant State Attorney Angelica Zayas bristled at the allegation.

"The suggestion that the plea agreement demonstrates that the state could not prove the charges ... is not well founded," Zayas said. "If the critics were correct, Mr. Salvatori would have gone to trial and been acquitted. Instead, Mr. Salvatori voluntarily agreed to receive an adjudication to two offenses related to his practice of law."

The Florida Bar is expected to investigate Salvatori's case, making its own ruling as to whether to impose sanctions, lead defense attorney Bill Richey said.

After explaining to the three-man, three-woman jury and two alternate jurors what had happened in the case, Dakan stepped down from the bench to shake hands with the defense attorneys. Dakan complimented them on their professionalism and said that when he took over the case in January, he was not certain what he was getting into.

But Dakan said they were a pleasure to deal with.

"It makes my job so much easier," Dakan said.

Turning toward the prosecution, Dakan quipped: "I will probably be seeing them again, so I won't be nice to them."

Under terms of the plea deal, Salvatori is to report to the Collier County probation office for six months, at which time Dakan will decide whether Salvatori must continue to report to a probation officer during the remaining 18 months of his sentence. If he violates probation, he could serve two consecutive jail sentences of 364 days or a $250,000 fine.

Richey was tight-lipped about the outcome of the case, refusing to comment on why he approached prosecutors seeking a plea deal late Sunday night.

"We are delighted. It is a practical solution for both sides," he said.

Salvatori and his sister, Bonnie Stout, also would not comment.

Weeks before the trial began, defense attorneys sought a bench trial before Dakan, preferring that the case be heard by a judge. But prosecutors would not agree. Some 150 people were on the combined witness list, including Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock, former Commissioner Pam Mac'Kie, county attorney David Weigel, and Fifth Third Bank President Colleen Kvetko.

Defense attorneys have said all along Salvatori has done nothing wrong and was merely doing what all attorneys do when he prepared the Stadium Naples Ltd. paperwork and was involved in negotiating the $100,000 business loan to former Commissioner Constantine, which was never paid back.

Prosecutors say Salvatori knew, from months of behind-the-scenes work on the Stadium Naples deal, that the terms were a reward for commission votes beneficial to Stadium Naples.

Norris was to receive a no-money down stake in the deal valued at up to $7.5 million and an $80,000 annual consulting fee.

Stadium Naples was to be a spectator golf arena, home to the Senior PGA golf tournament. The plan collapsed in 1997, amid public outcry over Norris' involvement.

Salvatori, who had asked to be tried in Naples, was arrested in October 2001 by prosecutors from the 11th Judicial Circuit. Also arrested at the same time were ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen, former Collier County Manager Neil Dorrill, and The Strand developers Paul Hardy and Tolson.

Constantine, Norris and Paul Hardy's developer father, Bob Hardy, had been arrested in 2000 by the 20th Judicial Circuit. Former Commissioner Tim Hancock was arrested two weeks before Salvatori after the Fort Myers prosecution team was tossed off the case for having a conflict of interest. Then-State Attorney Joe D'Alessandro had purchased stock in a company pitching a renewed Stadium Naples from the offices of now convicted-A.S. Goldman broker Anthony Marchiano while D'Alessandro was investigating the Stadium Naples case.

Salvatori's case had drawn the attention of many in the local legal community, several of whom dropped by the courtroom during the three days of jury selection last week and for opening statements Monday.

"Wow," was all Naples attorney John Cardillo would say upon hearing of the plea deal.

North Naples resident Clifton Perkins, who showed up to hear opening statements Monday, was not pleased with the plea.

"I think it was an awful lot of fanfare to result in a couple of misdemeanor convictions. They call this justice?" Perkins asked.

County Courtroom 2-B was half full Monday morning and included Norris, Paul Hardy and Tolson.

Hardy's Miami attorney Howard Srebnick of the famed Roy Black law firm, was happy about Salvatori's plea.

Salvatori was Paul Hardy's attorney on the $300,000 cash transaction.

"Paul's lawyer accepts responsibility for failing to fill out the necessary paperwork, which absolves Paul of the responsibility for that," Srebnick said.

Hardy said he will never plead to reduced charges because he has done nothing wrong. He expects the January trial to cost at least $200,000 in attorney fees.

"Someone has to have some principles," Hardy said.

Asked whether Von Zamft intends to offer plea deals to Norris and Hardy, Von Zamft would only say: "We will cross that bridge when we get to it."

Von Zamft said it is important to remember that Salvatori had been saying for two years that he did nothing wrong and he can no longer say that.

"It is very important to understand that this is a lawyer who has said, 'I did something wrong,'" Von Zamft said.