Courtroom Drama Over Crist’s Everglades Land Deal

The months-long legal fight over Gov. Charlie Crist’s blockbuster Everglades land deal finally delivered a “Law & Order” moment Thursday during a tense courtroom standoff between South Florida’s top water official and one of Big Sugar’s toughest attorneys. Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, faced off against Florida Crystals’ attorney Joe Klock in a contentious exchange over the district’s plan to borrow as much as $2.2 billion for Crist’s Everglades restoration plan. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Donald Hafele at one point stopped Klock’s pointed questioning of Wehle and warned the attorney he could be held in contempt of court if he continued to interrupt Wehle’s answers. “Do not interrupt the witness,” Hafele warned Klock in the West Palm Beach courtroom. “It will not be tolerated.” Wehle repeatedly refused to give a direct answer to Klock’s question about the estimated value of the U.S. Sugar land planned for purchase – even though she heads the agency that leads Everglades restoration. Unsatisfied with

Wehle’s answers, Klock kept asking and she kept prefacing her responses with qualifiers such as: “To the best of my recollection …” Crist’s plan calls for the district to spend $536 million to buy 73,000 acres, with an option to buy 107,000 acres more, from U.S. Sugar Corp. The farmland would be used for a multi-billion-dollar effort to build reservoirs and treatment areas intended to restore flows of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar’s main sugar-producing rival, and the Miccosukee Tribe are in court fighting the deal. They question the cost and the value to taxpayers and warn that the deal will take money away from other long-stalled Everglades restoration projects. Testimony during the months of on-again, off-again hearings finally ended Thursday. The two sides return to court Aug. 6 for closing arguments. However Hafele rules, the case is expected to end up before the Florida Supreme Court.

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Courtroom Drama Over Crist’s Everglades Land Deal

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