Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper reinstated after acquittal in corruption case

Almost two years after she was arrested on corruption charges and removed from her post as Hallandale Beach mayor, Joy Cooper was reinstated by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday.

DeSantis signed an executive order putting Cooper back in office through the end of her term in November 2020, the city announced Thursday.

Attorney Larry Davis, who represented Cooper at a trial in which she was acquitted last month, told the Miami Herald on Wednesday that a high-ranking official in the governor’s office told him DeSantis would sign an executive order “soon” to reinstate her.

“She’s looking forward to going back in her position as mayor of Hallandale and continuing to serve the citizens of her city,” Davis said.

Then-governor Rick Scott removed Cooper from office one day after her arrest in January 2018. She was accused of taking part in an illegal scheme to accept campaign cash in excess of the legal limit from a lobbyist and undercover FBI agents posing as developers.

Elected officials in Hallandale Beach serve four-year terms. Because Cooper was last elected in 2016 and her term wasn’t slated to end until November 2020, she can now return to office at least until next November’s election.

Last November, the city elected political newcomer Joy Adams to be mayor over veteran commissioner Keith London. But because the election came in the middle of Cooper’s scheduled term, Cooper was expected to be reinstated if she was acquitted.

That precedent was set in 2015, when the Florida Third District Court of Appeal ruled that former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi could be reinstated after he was found not guilty of bribery charges. The court cited the fact that the city’s vote to replace him was not a regularly scheduled election.

“It’s like what happened with Pizzi,” J.C. Planas, an attorney who argued against Pizzi’s reinstatement at the time on behalf of Miami Lakes, told the Herald of Cooper’s situation. Given the 2015 court ruling, Planas said, an elected official can be reinstated if the election to replace her was in the middle of the scheduled term.

Ben Kuehne, an attorney who frequently represents politicians in South Florida but was not involved in the Cooper case, added that the city will be obligated to pay back salary, benefits, health insurance premiums and any retirement pay Cooper is owed, as well as the costs of her legal defense.

Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Adams, the current Hallandale Beach mayor, declined to comment.

“I have no comment, honey,” Adams said before she was told what the call was about, then hung up.

Cooper could not immediately be reached for comment.

A jury deliberated for about two hours on Nov. 26 and acquitted Cooper on all six counts against her following a one-week trial. Cooper declined to answer a question at the time about whether she wanted to serve out her term.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office claimed that during her 2012 reelection campaign, Cooper agreed to have lobbyist Alan Koslow funnel $5,000 from undercover FBI agents — who were posing as developers pursuing a local project — to her campaign through checks from teachers at a school for Russian families, so that no check would exceed the limit of $500.

But Davis, Cooper’s attorney, told the jury that prosecutors were jumping to conclusions that the evidence didn’t support. The state’s case “begins and ends” with Koslow, he said during closing arguments.

Koslow later wore a wire for the government and was charged with money laundering unrelated to Cooper. He agreed to testify against the mayor as part of a plea deal.

Cooper faced six criminal counts, including three counts of official misconduct — one for each of the campaign treasurer report summaries she submitted in 2012 that listed the Russian teachers as contributors.

She was also charged with campaign contribution violations, conspiracy to commit such violations, and soliciting a campaign contribution in a government building.