Court Clears Ex-Margate Official In Bribery Case

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - A federal appeals court has upheld the acquittal of a former Margate city commissioner who was charged in 2013 with accepting bribes.

Prosecutors took the case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a federal district judge acquitted David McLean on two bribery counts. The charges involved allegations that McLean received $5,000 from the owner of a building where McLean ran a bar.

The appeals-court opinion said the landlord in 2011 had taken concerns about McLean to the FBI and began recording conversations in early 2012.

In late 2012 and early 2013 the landlord paid $5,000 as part of a scheme that involved a fraudulent application for grant money through a city property-improvement program, according to the allegations.

But the appeals court said prosecutors did not meet a requirement needed for pursuing bribery charges under federal law. Under that requirement, the local property-improvement program would have needed to receive more than $10,000 in federal money --- something the appeals court said was not proven.

"The phrase 'public service for private gain' encapsulated the government's case so well that it began opening statements and closing argument with variations of it,'' said the 43-page ruling, written by Judge Harvey Schlesinger. "Ad hominem attacks, irrespective of how effective they may be, cannot obfuscate the requirement that the government must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. While this court … might have concurred with the government's characterization of McLean, in order to obtain a conviction the government must present evidence as to each element of an offense --- and that is precisely what it failed to do here."

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report