Courtesy photo. Steve Sather, candidate for Zone 2 city commissioner of New Smyrna Beach, pleaded no contest 17 years ago to sale and delivery of cocaine, for which adjudication of guilt was withheld. Sather said he believes his past was brought to light to weaken his campaign.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Zone 2 City Commissioner candidate Steve Sather said he regrets to this day that he bought an ounce of cocaine for $2,000 from a man who turned out to be an undercover cop, for which he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to community control and then probation.
Because it was his first offense, adjudication of guilt was withheld for the then-41-year-old New Smyrna Beach resident. Fast forward to 17 years later and Sather, now 58, is having to come to grips with his past all over again.
"I made a mistake 17 years ago," Sather said Monday. "My family already knows. Everybody knows. This is not news. I had a lot of stuff going on... I got involved in the party scene."
Sather added, "I bought for the undercover cop. It was a three-year investigation into drugs in New Smyrna Beach and I was nailed in an undercover bust."
Sather's file is sealed because of the withhold of adjudication by Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson, who accepted his negotiated plea with the state. By pleading no contest, a defendant neither admits or denies guilt, but concedes the state has enough evidence to result in a guilty verdict at trial.
The New Smyrna Beach police charging affidavit is sealed in the court record, though Sather's no contest plea to "unlawful sale or delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine), a lesser included offense, is part of the public record. Sather's no contest plea was accepted by Judge Hutcheson on Nov. 6, 1992.
Sather was sentenced to two years of community control, followed by two years of probation, but because sentencing guidelines were less strict then than they are now, Sather community control ended on Oct. 25, 1993, and his probation began at that point, and on Nov. 18, 1994, his probation was ended and his record sealed.
Because he's not a convicted felon, Sather was able to run for public office and finally did last month when he qualified to run for the Zone 2 City Commission seat held by first-term incumbent Jack Grasty.
Asked for comment on Sather's legal troubles in the past, Grasty said he was aware of the situation and wasn't surprised it got out. "All I'm going to say is the record speaks for itself," Grasty said.
Grasty's other opponent, Palmer Wilson, could not be reached for comment.
Sather's drug past was publicized by Nahum Litt, a retired federal judge who goes by "The Shadow" on his own political Web site, pointing out Sather's past one week before the start of early voting that begins Sept. 14.
Not only did Litt highlight Sather's past, but added in part: He (Sather) states that he is reformed and has changed his life and life style. He further states that the issues he stands for is what the voters should review. He points to his web site (see below) as his plans for the City."
The link by the Shadow, however, does not take the viewer to the Sather's political platform, but rather to three separate court documents highlighting Sather's troubled past.
The Shadow has eliminated postings critical of Wilson on his Web site, while being critical of Grasty and Sather, claiming that Sather in particular, supports police and fire unions at the expense of the taxpayers.
This prompted Sather to deny the allegations in a response to the Shadow: "The first responsibility a commissioner has to the taxpayer is budget. I have never taken a position for or against the unions. My position is that the city must always spend only within its means. How to balance the budget without reducing services or sacrificing public safety is the most important issue."
With early voting looming in advance of the Sept. 22 primary, unless a candidate emerges with 50 percent of the vote plus one, then the top two vote getters will face off in the November elections.
Grasty said he's not surprised by the sudden ugly turn of the campaign. Litt could not be reached for comment and has refused to comment in the past on his repeated published criticisms of certain public officials, but the retired judge wrote on his Web site: Steve Sather, who is a candidate for Commissioner from District 2, pleaded Nolo Contendere (similar to a guilty plea) in 1992 to a charge of 'unlawful sale or distribution of cocaine.' This was posted a few times on the BLOG and was removed for several reasons: first the postings included unsubstantiated allegations against another candidate and the Shadow believed that Mr. Sather should have an opportunity to state why, in his opinion, this was not relevant today."
The other candidate Litt refers to presumably is Wilson since he is the only other challenger to Grasty.
Sather said Litt knew about his past because they have known each other for years. Sather said he has lived an exemplary life since 1992 and two years after that was appointed to the city's planning and zoning board, serving for nine years. Sather also was the P&Z's "citizen representative" for two of those years on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which administers federal funding for transportation.
Sather also served as a citizen volunteer and board member for five years in the early development of the Marine Discovery Center, two years of which he was the board's vice chairman.
Sather said he and his wife, Debbie, longtime operations manager at J.B's Fish Camp, have been members of Christ Community Church in New Smyrna Beach for 17 years. The Sathers have four children and live on the beachside.
"What I did was wrong -- I knew I was going to have to face this," Sather said. "I am proud of who I am today. I'm proud of my last 17 years of life. All I want to do is serve."