The city of Apopka’s lawsuit against former city admin Richard Anderson was dismissed this week by a circuit court judge, but the city’s attorney said he expects to appeal the the suit to include other claims.
In her order dated Wednesday, February 22, granting Anderson’s motion to dismiss the suit, Circuit Judge Julie H. O’Kane gave no specific reasons for the dismissal, but said the city had 20 days to file an amended complaint.
In addition, a related civil suit against Anderson by Michael and Renee Falcon of Tavares was settled on February 7, but criminal charges remain against Anderson resulting from an April crash in Lake County.
The crash is at the crux of all the legal matters.
The Florida Highway Patrol has charged Anderson with three felonies and two misdemeanors and accuses him of being behind the wheel of his 2014 Dodge Ram pickup truck on April 5, 2016, when it was involved in a head-on collision on State Road 46 with a 2007 Toyota Corolla driven by Michael Scott Falcon of Grand Island, a small community in Lake County. Falcon, who suffered serious injuries in the crash, sued Anderson about two weeks after the wreck.
When area media reported the crash and Falcon’s suit about six weeks after the crash, the city suspended Anderson and then fired him after the Florida Highway Patrol arrested Anderson on May 31, 2016. He was serving as a lobbyist and special-projects manager for the city at $22,000 per month. That contract began in September 2014 immediately after Anderson retired as the city administrator, a position he had held for several years.
The city sued Anderson for $155,000, which is double the amount that Anderson would have been paid had the contract been fulfilled by its completion date of mid-September. The city claimed breach of contract, saying that he damaged the city’s reputation by not telling them about the crash.
Read the full story on page 1A of the Friday, February 24, edition of The Apopka Chief.
