A grand jury has indicted a member of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority board after investigating the entire board for allegedly holding secret meetings to vote out the authority's previous director.

State Attorney Jeff Ashton announced Thursday that Richard Scott Batterson was indicted by a 15-member grand jury on three second-degree felony charges:

  • Solicitation for bribery by public servant
  • Solicitation for receiving unlawful compensation
  • Solicitation for exerting influence

Batterson turned himself in Thursday evening in Seminole County. He posted bond, set at $2,800, a short time later.

Batterson is facing these allegations of bribery for “the hiring of, subcontracting with or participation by individuals, firms of other entities suggested by Richard Scott Batterson a/k/a Scott Batterson in a consulting contract or an agreement.”

Gov. Rick Scott immediately suspended Batterson after the indictment. The governor, who appointed Batterson to the Expressway Authority in 2011, released the following statement Thursday:

Today, my office took immediate action to suspend Scott Batterson from the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority.

All public officials must be held to the highest ethical standards — and we support State Attorney Jeff Ashton's efforts to hold public officials accountable.

The indictment is related to Batterson's relationship with a developer, who was set to benefit greatly from the $1.8 billion Wekiva Project.

Meanwhile, Ashton's office is still investigating several other Expressway Authority members as to whether they violated Florida's open-meeting Sunshine law by allegedly meeting in secret to remove Max Crumit from office. Crumit was voted out as the authority's director in September 2013.

"The work of the grand jury is not done," Ashton said. "This is a preliminary indictment covering one issue. I expect the grand jurors to meet again and there may be additional indictments presented at that time."

Ashton said he started looking into the claims last year. Several board members voluntarily testified before the grand jury, including Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs.

Besides serving on the Expressway Authority, Batterson is also a senior project manager at IBI Group, an architecture, planning and engineering firm based in Toronto with an office in Maitland.

If convicted, Batterson faces 15 years in prison.