Levy County Commisioners Sammy Yearty of Gulf Hammock and Anthony “Tony” Parker of Bronson were on top of the world just a little over a year ago. Both had been re-elected — Yearty handily and Parker in an 88-vote squeaker.

The next day, Yearty was in federal court accused in an unsealed federal indictment of soliciting and accepting bribes in return for using his position on behalf of a fictitious company, Gideon Development and the developer, an undercover agent who went by the name “Sean Michaels,” and of lying to federal investigators.

Parker was in court two days later, charged with soliciting and accepting bribes.

Both were suspended from office within hours of the unsealing by Gov. Charlie Crist.

The indictments, returned by a grand jury on Oct. 20, were part of a corruption investigation spurred by a lawsuit and a call to federal officials, according to court documents.

Because federal Magistrate Judge Allen Kornblum barred Yearty, Parker and the attorneys on both sides of the case from talking to the media, they were not interviewed for this story. The order muffling Yearty and Parker is part of the arrangements that have allowed them to remain free while awaiting trial.

The indictment, brought under a law that allows prosecution of officials whose governments have accepted $10,000 or more in federal grants in one year, alleges that between Oct. 23, 2007, and Dec. 18, 2008, the two commissioners had dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Gainesville and accepted money from Michaels. It also accuses Yearty of improperly accepting a $100 gift card.

Prosecuting the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg McMahon, fresh off winning convictions against five present and former Dixie County officials on corruption and fraud.  It was the cases against those officials that sparked the investigation of Levy County officials according to court papers.

Both are represented by attorneys well known in the community as tough opponents: Yearty by former state Sen. Rod Smith and Parker by Gloria Fletcher.

Presiding over the case is Chief Judge Stephan P. Mickle.

The trial is expected to start Monday with juror selection.

Attorneys for both Yearty and Parker have submitted a list of questions they want to ask prospective jurors. Among them are questions asking about involvement of the prospective juror, family members or close friends in Levy County politics, and whether law enforcement officer testimony will be given greater weight than that of private citizens. They could also be asked whether they could determine guilt or innocence based on that person’s intent, not another person’s and that the government’s burden for proving guilt is the same for an elected official as it is for a private individual.

The final question asked jurors could be if they feel there are legal and ethical boundaries for law enforcement agents in an investigation.

But several housekeeping matters have been taken care of in preparation for the trial:

• Yearty has asked to have the charge of lying to federal investigators dismissed. The motion filed by Smith has a 26-page transcript attached of the only interview by agents with Yearty.

In the transcript the agent told Yearty the investigation started after getting calls about former Dixie County Attorney Joey Lander. When the agency started checking,  they found a suit filed against Dixie County’s commission and Lander in Tallahassee alleging improper activity — influence peddling — in connection with a development.  Two other suits involving Lander were also turned up.

After mentioning that Lander was once attorney for the city of Chiefland, the unidentified agent tells Yearty, “ So the county’s getting hammered and what we’re trying to do — what we’re trying to do is to figure out the extent or to which Mr. Lander may have referred developers to other counties or that he may have pushed his way into adjoining counties.“

The agent tells Yearty he wants to “go through the litany of people we have identified by name and/or by company and see if you recognize any of these names or if Mr. Lander had any dealings with you.”

After going through almost a dozen names of people and companies, Yearty only recognizes one Chiefland businessman's name and Gideon Development. He said he has only heard of the businessman and has met Michaels in public meetings, such as those for the Tri-County Hospital.

Yearty said, “Gideon Development has never done any business in Levy County.”

After telling Yearty a story about how Lander solicited a Masseratti , had money wired to him and solicited a golf cart for his children, the agent asks Yearty: “So you know the issue is did any of these people — and of course, there’s only one or two people here — but did anybody ever offer you anything in consideration? Okay, nobody bought you dinner, bought you lunch, nobody promised you anything, made any efforts to try to solicit your cooperation of the board?”

Yearty: “No. I don’t know any of them.”

Agent: “Okay. Well, you got anything?”

Yearty: “No.”

Agent: “Okay. Well that was short and brief. Get you back to the hurricane.”

But the two continue, and after Yearty tells the agent, “I wouldn’t know any of these guys. I wouldn’t know (the businessman) or the guy from Gideon Development. I just remember than name, the development company.”

The agent warns Yearty, “if you took money that would be wrong.”

Yearty then goes on to tell the agent he has heard the agent’s name before from Levy County Sheriff Lt. Evan Sullivan and the two go on to discuss the coming elections before parting.

In other motions:

• Yearty and Parker have requested to use an entrapment defense as part of the attorney’s opening statements to the jury. The prosecutors argued that it should be limited to the closing statements if the defense showed entrapment in the evidence presented at the trial.

• Both asked to exclude from the trial audio and video recordings of conversations that could possibly inflame and prejudice the jury against them.

The filing cites: “Each of the statements amounts solely to Defendant Yearty’s personal opinions on persons, racial groups, or religious sects … they do not relate to any person named as a victim or witness by the government. Neither do they correspond to any motive alleged by the government.”

The transcripts are a who’s who of Chiefland and Levy County political and business circles: Public officials past and present, a public official’s wife, a banker, a Realtor, a landscape tree grower, two city managers, a police chief, and Pam Blair’s work as a law enforcement officer in Marion County. They also cover comments about developers and developments, Scientology, gentlemen’s clubs in New York City and escort services in New York City.

A portion of the transcript has Michaels telling Yearty: “So you take that. That’s $4,000. So you don’t have to pay for the airfare.

    “So that would be one, two, three, four, five, six. Because you’re paying the extra airfare off your card. Pay the extra airfare out of that. Basically pay for everything you fund off of that. And this way you won’t have any worries.”

The card Michaels refers to apparently is not the county-issued credit card Yearty had at the time. A check by the Citizen of county records did not turn up any charges for a trip to NYC during the investigation.

• Both defendants asked that the prosecutor be forced to enter into evidence more than snippets of their conversations with Michaels, in order to put their actions and comments into context.

• Both have asked to enter into evidence about four hours of audio and video recordings that they say in court filings will prove they did not accept bribes.

— One segment would be of Yearty and Parker’s conversation outside the Hilton Hotel and outside the presence of Michaels that were taped by the government.

— Another would be of a conversation between Michaels and developer Darryl Diamond, a member of the Inglis Planning Commission. Diamond recently spoke at a commission meeting saying Yearty’s and Parker’s votes against his proposed retail development in the fall of 2008 was “tainted” because of the subsequent indictment.

— Also a recording of phone calls among Michaels , Dennis Lee and Chiefland Realtor Doug King.

— Plus a recording of a lunch meeting with Michaels and Yearty, and a dinner meeting with Michaels, Yearty and Parker.

The motion also lists five other conversations to be introduced, but the contents are not disclosed.

    The judge has also granted a motion by Parker to deny the introduction of campaign records by the prosecutors. Yearty also joined in the motion.

    Witness lists have been submitted by the prosecuting and defense attorneys, but they have been sealed.