TAVARES, FL : Ex-Apopka official gets probation in hit-and-run crash on April, Tuesday 11th 2017

A former Apopka official will not serve time in prison over a hit-and-run crash after officials couldn’t prove he was the driver.

Richard Anderson, 62, did enter a plea of no contest during a sentencing hearing Tuesday morning to leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury, which garnered him a three-year term of felony probation imposed by Circuit Judge Lawrence Semento.

Prosecutors eventually dropped the reckless driving charges against him.

Michael Falcon was driving near Sorrento on his way to work in Sanford when he was struck head-on by Anderson’s Dodge Ram.

Anderson, a former chief administrative officer for Apopka, apparently left the scene before speaking with Florida Highway Patrol officers.

According to a memo by Emily Curington, an assistant state attorney, the truck was traced back to Anderson as the registered owner. A phone was discovered inside the truck that had been used to make several phone calls to lawyers minutes after the crash.

The memo adds two witnesses identified Anderson through a photo line-up as being at the scene of State Road 46 crash on April 5, 2016. A third witness described a man at the scene who resembled Colonel Sanders, the KFC pitchman, but he was not shown a photo line-up.

But the memo adds none of the three saw the crash or could place Anderson behind the wheel. Also, an FHP investigator listed by the defense as an expert witness, testified during a deposition that both front seats of the truck were occupied at the time of the crash.

Source :
Ex-Apopka official gets probation in hit-and-run crash