Former Plantation Mayor Lynn Stoner turned herself in to the Broward jail Tuesday morning to face charges of official misconduct, falsifying a record and influencing a building official, according to Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor.
Her attorney, Larry Davis, said Stoner, 70, will plead not guilty to charges stemming from allegations there was a falsified letter at her bequest that a code enforcement violation had been satisfied.
Davis said his client was only doing her job. “Plantation is one of only two cities (in Broward) that have a strong mayor form of government,” he said Tuesday morning. “Mayor Stoner was exercising her administrative authority pursuant to the city’s charter.”
As Stoner was being booked through the jail system Tuesday, she had a medical emergency that delayed the process, the prosecutors’ office said. “Stoner had a medical issue during booking and was transferred to hospital,” said Paula McMahon, spokeswoman for the State Attorney’s Office. “The booking process will continue when she returns to the jail.”
Part of being added into the jail system involves being photographed and getting fingerprints. Then Stoner is expected to be released on her own recognizance.
Stoner served on the Plantation City Council from 2011 to 2017 before being elected mayor in 2018. She lost her reelection campaign in November.
The charges are one count of official misconduct, a third-degree felony, one count of falsifying records, a misdemeanor, and two counts of influencing a building official, both misdemeanors. The charges carry a maximum possible punishment of up to eight years in prison.
The alleged incident happened between April and September of 2020, when Stoner took a number of illegal actions to benefit a developer and his companies and projects in the city, prosecutors said.
Those actions included Stoner issuing a letter from the office of the Plantation mayor that falsely stated that Strata Group LLC had successfully cleared up code violations and fines on one of its projects. This was false and the goal was to help the developer obtain a loan, according to court records. This action involved official misconduct and falsification of records by Stoner, prosecutors said.
The two counts of influencing a building official relate to incidents in April of 2020 and between July and September of 2020.
In April 2020, Stoner “attempted to coerce, trick, persuade, or otherwise influence” a Plantation building official to “do her a favor” and write an official letter stating that Strata Group’s building code violations and fines had been resolved and/or to eliminate those violations. When the building official refused, Stoner issued the letter herself, resulting in the official misconduct charge, prosecutor’s said.
Between July and September of that year, Stoner “threatened, coerced, tricked, persuaded, or otherwise influenced” the same city building official to try to get him to allow the developer to do construction work without a proper permit on a project known as Pixl.
Other allegations of misconduct by Stoner are still under review by prosecutors, McMahon said.
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Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash