Judges exonerate DeSantis-ousted commissioner who 'lost everything' serving 75 days in jail: report

A Florida county commissioner ousted by governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, was exonerated Thursday after being sentenced to three years of probation and community service, and serving 75 days in jail, The Intercept reports.

"He lost everything," Oren Miller's wife Angie Fox said, according to the report. "They took his job away. He had to go to jail. He had to pay for all the expenses and everything. Where we go from here, I don't know. Right now we're just trying to settle down from the news."

The Sumter County commissioner, along with "fellow commissioner, Gary Search, who was similarly prosecuted," but took a plea deal, The Intercept reports, "ran for office pledging to roll back a property tax increase that had been foisted on residents to fund future development in The Villages. They argued that if the developer, which also owned the local newspaper and radio station, wanted to expand the size of the retirement community, they should do so with their own money."

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The news outlet adds, "Shortly after Miller and Search were sworn in, the local prosecutor launched an investigation into whether they had violated Florida 'sunshine laws' around transparency and open government. They were never charged with doing so, but as part of the investigation, the state's attorney interrogated both Miller and Search about phone calls they had after the election."

The report notes that "Commissioners are barred from talking about commission business outside of open meetings, and the investigators wanted to know about calls between the two that had happened earlier in the year."

Miller's "repeatedly hazy" reply to questions about when his calls with Search stopped is what resulted in his perjury charge and jailtime.

A panel of judges pointed out "the absurdity" of Miller's charge, and furthermore, The Intercept notes, "The case is shot through with ironies, principally that the prosecutors used an anti-corruption law to prosecute a commissioner who was challenging corruption. In a further irony, the prosecution made obviously false statements while accusing Miller of perjury."

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The ruling read: "Reviewing the entirety of the sworn statement made by Miller to investigating authorities, it cannot be said he in fact definitively claimed that there were no phone calls with Commissioner Search after January 2021. Indeed, quite the contrary."

According to the report, "The court took the unusual step of not just vacating the previous conviction, but also instructing the lower court to insert a new verdict of 'not guilty.'"

The Intercept's full report is available at this link.