By Zachary Fagenson
MIAMI Fri Dec 19, 2014 6:18pm EST
MIAMI (Reuters) – A south Florida mayor was sentenced to 22 months in prison on Friday after being found guilty of corruption tied to his lobbying work for a secret consulting job while in office.
Steven Bateman, 59, had sought a more lenient sentence following his conviction for illegally lobbying for a construction deal while he was the mayor of Homestead, a Miami suburb, between 2009 and 2013.
He had been seeking a sentence of no more than six months in prison, spread out over two years, from Florida Circuit Judge Robert Luck, according to his attorney. Batemen was allowed to remain free on bond pending appeal.
In September, a jury found him guilty of two felony counts of illegal compensation, one of which was later overturned by the judge due to insufficient evidence, said Michael Davis, one of the attorneys representing Bateman.
The former mayor also was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of illegal lobbying, which still stands.
Bateman was paid $125 an hour to persuade his city council to speed up the construction of a mental health facility for children, according to prosecutors at a hearing earlier this year. They said the mayor also met with the Miami-Dade County mayor about the deal.
During his weeklong trial, Bateman’s attorneys argued that his client had kept his public and private roles separate.
Bateman is one of nearly a half dozen Miami-area mayors to face charges of wrongdoing in the past two years. Earlier this week, former North Miami Mayor Marie Lucie Tondreau, the city’s first female Haitian-American mayor, was found guilty in a mortgage fraud scheme.
(Editing by Letitia Stein and Jonathan Oatis)
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The post Former Florida mayor sentenced to prison for secret consulting job – Reuters appeared first on Evan Vitale Consulting Blog.
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