Former Plantation, Florida Mayor Lynn Stoner is expected to be arraigned on corruption charges Monday after it was found that she allegedly falsified records to clear up a business’s code violations during her tenure as Mayor.
Major news publications in Florida that have covered the story left out an important detail, however.
While major Florida-based news publications such as Florida Politics and the Sun Sentinel covered the story, both conveniently left out Stoner’s political affiliation, which was nowhere to be found in articles covering the criminal charges against her.
Stoner, a Democrat, faces charges of official misconduct, a third-degree felony, one count of falsification of records, a first-degree misdemeanor, and two counts of influencing a building official, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Ex-Plantation Mayor Lynn Stoner arrested for falsifying records that helped developer obtain a loan #BecauseFlorida https://t.co/iTpgBu7pwR
— Because Miami (@BecauseMiami) May 31, 2023
Stoner, who received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from developers, falsified a document claiming that Strata Group, LLC had cleared up code violations in order to help them secure a loan.
“Between April and September of 2020, Stoner took a number of illegal actions to benefit a developer and his companies and projects in the city, the investigation found,” a news release from the Broward County State Attorney’s Office says. “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.”
Notably, Florida Politics only made mention of the scandal once on their Twitter while attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis numerous times throughout the entire day when the story broke on May 30th.
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Just before their article about Stoner, they posted an article accusing DeSantis of ‘running afoul of campaign finance law’ that repeatedly mentioned the political affiliation of people involved.
Watchdog group @CampaignLegal says @RonDeSantis is already running afoul of campaign finance law
Reporting by @JacobOgleshttps://t.co/setaXtKiRN#FlaPol
— Florida Politics (@Fla_Pol) May 30, 2023
In the article attacking DeSantis, they defer to the judgment of the Campaign Legal Center, an organization funded by left-wing dark money, where the CLC says DeSantis ‘violated the law.’
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When discussing Stoner’s campaign finance violations which she was previously fined for, Florida Politics ran her comments saying that it was a result of ‘sloppy bookkeeping’ and that she had no ‘intent’ to do anything wrong.
Stoner was plagued by endless complaints of ethics violations during her tenure as Mayor of Plantation, Florida.
In addition to campaign finance violations, she also repeatedly violated Florida’s open meetings and public records laws.
Plantation Mayor Lynn Stoner violated Florida’s open government and campaign finance laws, Broward’s Inspector General said Thursday https://t.co/PkGWXEm0tP
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) November 5, 2020
Stoner initially tried to persuade a city official to write a letter clearing the developer company of code violations, but when they refused to do so, she wrote the letter herself.
Stoner “attempted to coerce, trick, persuade, or otherwise influence” a Plantation city official to “do her a favor” that would clear Strata Group of code violations and claim that fines they were told to pay had been resolved, according to a press release from the State Attorney’s Office.
Stoner faces up to eight years in prison if she is convicted.
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