According to the North Country Gazette, Miami political consultant Derek Newton, recently hired by Jamie Bennett to run his mayoral campaign, has reached a tenative plea deal in a three-year long election fraud investigation involving the 2006 campaign for State Representative District 108 when authorities say he tried to sabotage a candidate running against his client.
According to the report: “Detective Joseph Curl of the Public Corruption Unit of the Miami-Dade Police Department confirmed Wednesday that the case in which Newton allegedly created a fictitious candidate in filings made with the Miami-Dade Elections Department and the elections division of the Florida Department of State has been closed by the PCU by way of a plea bargain.”
Read the rest of this story from the North Country Gazette. The investigation centers around the filing of candidate’s statements and other documents in the name of “Kathy Avery” during June and July 2006 in connection with the District 108 campaign.
