Lawyer jailed for bribery scheme involving former Lake City State Attorney Jeff Siegmeister
A former defense attorney in rural North Florida will serve a six-month term behind bars for being part of a bribery scheme prosecutors said involved former Lake City State Attorney Jeff Siegmeister.
Ernest Maloney Page IV took a plea deal in September 2020 and agreed to help prosecutors, who asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to show lenience when he was sentenced this week.
Page, 46, had been hired by the manager of a Live Oak tractor dealership facing two DUI cases when he set up a 2017 meeting with "a high-ranking agent of the State Attorney's Office" named J.S., according to his plea agreement. Prosecutors later said J.S. was Siegmeister.
Siegmeister, who farmed besides being the elected prosecutor for the state’s Third Judicial Circuit, told Page he was interested in buying a tractor, and Page told him to visit his client’s dealership, the agreement said.
After Siegmeister’s wife visited and asked about a tractor and accessories worth $60,000, Siegmeister told Page he’d reduce both DUI charges in return for a $20,000 discount, the agreement said. Page’s client ended up being charged with misdemeanors and sentenced to probation that ended early.
“The actions taken by Ernest Page put lives at risk,” FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Sherri Onks said in a statement released after the sentencing. “As an officer of the court, he facilitated corruption within the judicial system … These crimes will not be tolerated by the FBI.”
Page’s law license was revoked in December 2020. After he's released from custody, he'll have 18 months of supervised release.
Siegmeister, who was state attorney for a seven-county area from 2013 to 2019, was indicted last year on a bundle of corruption charges. He took a plea deal in February admitting some of the charges, but not any involving Page.
Siegmeister is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 12 along with Dixie County defense attorney Marion Michael O’Steen, who a jury convicted in June of extortion.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bribe for Lake City's ex-prosecutor gets defense lawyer 6 months in jail
