WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., March 31 -- A West Palm Beach lawyer has pleaded guilty to conspiring with two other men to steal the Palm Beach County state attorney's office. Vasco 'Ted' Brabham Jr. confessed to a scheme to split the Democratic party vote in last November's election in order to enable the Republican candidate to win the post.
Brabham, who moved to West Palm Beach from Texas seven years ago, made a meteoric rise as head of the county's Democratic Party, hosting his own local radio talk show and rubbing elbows with two prominent residents who later became his accomplices in the election conspiracy -- Phil Butler and James Baber III. Authorities say Butler wanted to be Palm Beach's top prosecutor and Baber, a member of a wealthy family, wanted a DUI manslaughter charge dropped. Brabham, known as the 'Texas Twister,' confessed that Baber gave Butler and him $680,000 in illegal campaign contributions after being promised that if Butler became State Attorney the charge would disappear. Brabham then planned to run as an independent candidate to split the Democratic party vote while Butler ran as a Republican. The whole scheme unraveled after incumbent Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krisher trounced Butler in the election and began an investigation. Butler will be sentenced next month. Baber faces 17 years in prison and Brabham already has been sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation. ---
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