Extortion, bribery case against former state attorney now set for January 2022.
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Siegmeister
JACKSONVILLE — The former State Attorney’s extortion and bribery case won’t go to trial until next year, if it does at all.
A U.S. District Court judge for the Middle District of Florida granted a continuance in the trial Thursday that Jeff Siegmeister requested earlier this week. In seeking the delay, Siegmeister, through his attorney Waffa Hanania, said negotiations on a plea deal are underway.
“Additional time is needed to work our the details associated with a plea in this case, as well as corollary matters related to forfeiture,” Hanania wrote in the motion to continue the proceedings.
The trial is now set for January 2022 with a status conference scheduled for Dec. 20.
The case was previously slated to begin in November.
Hanania, an assistant federal defender, also said that he had “reviewed most of the voluminous discovery provided” in the case.
The continuance was also granted to Siegmeister’s co-defendeant Marion Michael O’Steen since the two are joined for trial.
In April, Siegmeister pled not guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion, aiding and abetting extortion, federal program bribery, conspiracy to commit federal program bribery, conspiracy to use a facility of commerce for unlawful activity, wire fraud and filing false tax returns, which combine for a maximum sentence of 129 years.
Siegmeister remains in custody after a federal judge in Arizona denied bond and labeled him a flight risk during a March 4 hearing due to him fleeing Florida as well as his history of substance abuse and knowledge of the legal system that could aid him in not being found. He was arrested in Arizona in February.
According to court documents, O’Steen requested favorable disposition of charges against various clients in return for bribes solicited by Siegmeister, including the purchase of a bull from his farm or campaign donations.
Siegmeister was charged with bribery for reducing a pair of driving under the influence changes in return for a discount on a tractor purchase in a separate case, involving Earnest Maloney Page IV, a Madison County attorney, who pled guilty in September 2020.
The federal indictment against Siegmeister claims while serving as legal guardian for an elderly Columbia County man from January 2010 to April 2016, he defrauded the man of nearly $1 million in property and Coca-Cola stock, transferring the assets to himself and making his own family member the man’s beneficiary.
Siegmeister was also charged with filing false tax returns for 2015, 2016 and 2017.
If convicted, the federal government is seeking to seize property obtained from those proceeds.
Siegmeister, who took office in 2013, resigned as state attorney in December 2019, citing an impending divorce as his reason for leaving office. At the time, Siegmeister’s then-wife disputed the explanation her husband gave, calling it “false” and an “insult.”
His license was suspended in March by the Florida Supreme Court after Siegmeister failed to respond to a Florida Bar inquiry about a grievance filed against him in October 2020.
FORMER SUWANNEE COUNTY PROPERTY SAFE
The federal government was looking to seize Siegmeister’s former house and land in Suwannee County as part of the forfeiture action against Siegmeister.
However, earlier in September, the U.S. District Court dismissed that case without prejudice.
Jamie Dykes, Siegmeister’s ex-wife, claimed ownership of the property, on which she lives, last December. In court documents, Dykes claimed Seigmeister “abandoned the home, allowed it to fall into a state of disrepair and failed to make mortgage, insurance and tax payments.”
So Dykes moved back into the house and asserted her homestead rights, the documents state, paying the taxes, insurance and mortgage payments.