FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- A South Florida ophthalmologist, lobbyist and Republican fundraiser pleaded guilty Thursday to paying off a Democratic legislator by hiring her friend.
Dr. Alan Mendelsohn faces a five-year sentence under his plea agreement with federal prosecutors, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. He has agreed to cooperate with an ongoing investigation and provided a lot of information during Thursday's hearing in Fort Lauderdale.
"This is a pretty sorry state of affairs with regards to what goes on in the statehouse," U.S. District Judge William Zloch said after listening to Mendelsohn.
Mendelsohn, a former fundraiser for the Florida Medical Association's political action committee and member of Gov. Charlie Crist's transition team in 2006, said he gave a friend of former state Sen. Mandy Dawson a job and that he knew some of her $82,000 paycheck was going to the senator. He said he got financial advice from Russ Klenet, a lobbyist married to a Broward County commissioner.
Mendelsohn also admitted skimming from political funds and failing to pay taxes on some of his income.
