Salesman Gets His Day in Court

Corrupt Broward pols Beverly Gallagher and Josephus Eggelletion had their day in court and now former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman will have his.

He's hoping things go better for him than they did for Gallagher and Eggelletion.

The trial for Salesman, who along with Gallagher and Eggelletion were picked up in a FBI sting targeting corrupt politicians last September, is expected to begin today.

Salesman, 53, is facing a maximum of 100 years in prison if convicted on the six charges he faces, which include two charges of bribery, extortion and fraud.

Prosecutors claim Salesman took thousands of dollars in bribes from undercover FBI agents posing as construction business owners seeking work in Miramar.

Gallagher pled guilty to similar charges last week, and will be sentenced in June. Eggelletion was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars after he plead guilty to money laundering conspiracy and tax charges.

Defending himself is nothing new for Salesman, who had just got out of jail when he was picked up in the FBI sting. He'd been serving a 30-day sentence for pulling a gun on a teen during a heated argument in a Winn-Dixie in 2007.

Salesman, who has a knack for avoiding hard time, beat the felony charge of aggravated assault with a firearm.
 
Salesman was also nabbed for disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer in a 1998 incident in a Miami bar, though he escaped prosecution. In 2005, he was busted for a DUI and felony fleeing and eluding the police, but a jury acquitted him.

Salesman's lawyers claimed Friday that the Feds were only targeting black politicians, and that Salesman was entrapped by the agents.

"This case is not about black or white," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Kaplan, according to the Miami Herald. "It is about another color: GREEN. It is about a corrupt public official, the defendant, who used his influence and sold his office."

Also, as U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn mentioned at last week's pre-trial hearing, Gallagher is white.

Salesman's trial is expected to last two weeks.