Ray Sansom

March 28, 2011, Prosecutors dropped all charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom and Odem. The abrupt decision to abandon the case followed a statement by Circuit Judge Terry Lewis that he didn’t believe prosecutors had made any progress in their attempt to prove a conspiracy.

After losing the appeal on the first round of charges, on January 6, 2010, the Leon County State Attorney Willie Meggs charged the trio with grand theft and conspiracy. Attorneys for Sansom and his co-defendants in the criminal trial - former college President Bob Richburg and developer Jay Odom - wanted Meggs removed from the case for "prosecutorial misconduct".

On January 6, 2009, at the urging of Republican leaders, Sansom resigned from his post as vice president of development at Northwest Florida State College amidst statewide criticism.

On January 10, 2009, Rep. Sansom wrote an open letter, published in his district's newspaper, the Northwest Florida Daily News, to clarify his position.

In April 2009, a grand jury indicted Speaker of the House Ray Samson, president of Northwest Florida State College Bob Richburg and businessman and political campaign contributor Jay Odom. They were charged with official misconduct, a third-degree felony which could result in a five-year prison sentence.

A circuit judge dismissed most of the charges in October and an appellate court reaffirmed the judge's ruling on the last day of 2009.

Sansom was elected Speaker of the Florida House on November 18, 2008. He temporarily stepped down on January 30, 2009, following a scandal over accepting an unadvertised job. He was formally charged with third-degree felony grand theft and conspiracy. Eventually, all charges would be dropped.

In 2008, Sansom was one of the driving forces pushing to create an "oversight board for community colleges that emphasizes undergraduate education". This proposal received resistance from some community college presidents who were not for the change and also from private colleges who offered 4-year degrees on these community college campuses.

Also in 2008, Sansom was appointed Vice President for Development and Planning at NWF State College - his former alma mater from his hometown. The college's Board of Trustees appointed Sansom to this position. This was the same week Sansom was sworn in as the Florida Speaker of the House.

In December 2008, an unnamed resident of Clearwater, Florida, filed a complaint against now Speaker of the House Sansom asserting that over a period of two years he had secured about $35 million in extra or accelerated funding for Northwest Florida State College in spite or other statewide budget cuts. The college then rewarded Sansom with a $110,000 a year job as vice president of development.

Prior to his election to the Florida House of Representatives, Sansom served on the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners from 1992 to 2000. He received the Okaloosa County Management Association's Presidents Award in 1999.

Sansom received his bachelor's degree in political science from the Florida State University in 1984 and his master's degree in education from the University of West Florida in 1993. Prior to his election to the Florida House of Representatives, he served on the Okaloosa County Board of Commissioners from 1992 to 2000. He received the Okaloosa County Management Association's Presidents Award in 1999 and the Association of Counties, Freshman of the Year award in 2003.

Ray Sansom (born July 11, 1962) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives, representing portions of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties from 2002 to February 21, 2010.