I-Team: State ethics commission finds probable cause against Jim Norman

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - He may have escaped indictment by a federal grand jury, but the Florida Commission on Ethics has found probable cause State Senator Jim Norman violated State Ethics Laws.

A July 2010 I-Team investigation uncovered that Norman’s wife, Mearline, received $500,000 from late Tampa businessman Ralph Hughes to purchase a lakefront vacation home in Arkansas (see http://wfts.tv/wgrw9y ).

Norman failed, until recently, to disclose the home on his public disclosure statements.

According to Dover activist George Niemann, who filed the ethics complaint and attended today’s closed-door hearing, the Ethics Commission found probable cause on three of the six counts filed against him.

"They found probable cause on some of the counts because, I think, we all realize that everyone in the public knows what happened. His explanations were not plausible.  They were laughable in my view,” Niemann told the I-Team.

Norman has since amended his disclosures to include the money Hughes gave his wife. But he still faces thousands of dollars in fines if the commission finds he violated state ethics laws by not disclosing it in the first place.

"It's the process.  We made our case and are ready to move forward. It's basically a reporting issue.  All the serious charges were dropped and cleared. I'm very happy about that,” Norman said after today’s hearing.

The question now is whether Norman wants this to go to a full blown public hearing before the commission or negotiate a settlement which could include thousands of dollars in fines.