Former Florida House Speaker, Ray Sansom, is seeking close to $1 million dollars in legal fees from the taxpayers. The legal fees were accumulated when he had to defend himself against corruption charges which were eventually dropped.

His attorney’s are arguing since the charges stemmed from his work as a legislator and they were dismissed, he is entitled to be reimbursed by the public. The amount being sought is $970,187 for 2,700 hours of legal work, expenses and interest.

It was said Sansom was scheming with co-defendant and supporter, Ray Odom as well as the former president of the Northwest Florida State College, Bob Richburg to add $6 million to the state’s budget in order to get an airplane hangar at the Destin airport for their benefit. Contrary to the claims, the defendants argued the hangar was actually an emergency operations facility and training center. They also argued only $309,000 of the money was spent.

Bob Richburg had agreed to pay a third of that amount to testify against the other two. Eventually the case fell apart because the judge ruled Richburg couldn’t testify as a co-conspirator.

It was also argued by lawyers from the state Attorney General’s Office that Sansom had agreed for Odom to pay $206,000 in restitution for both men if the charges were dismissed thus meaning they were never truly exonerated.

The non-jury trial started on Thursday and is expected to continue thru Friday.