Anderson's next court appearance set

The criminal case against Richard Anderson hits its next benchmark August 8^th with a sentencing hearing according to Lake County State Attorney Division Supervisor Walter Forgie. In the unlikely event Anderson pleads guilty, he will be sentenced on the four counts the State Attorney charged him with - leaving the scene of a crash with serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of a crash with property damage, reckless driving with serious bodily injury, and reckless driving with property damage. The State Attorney dropped a fifth charge of tampering with evidence.

Richard Anderson

“We filed what we believe to be the appropriate charges,” said Forgie. “But I won’t get into specifics.”

The State Attorney formally filed charges earlier this month, and a trial date has not been scheduled.

Earlier last month, Anderson’s criminal attorney Joerg Jaeger was found dead at his Orlando law office. He was 68. One of Jaeger's specialties was defending police officers and elected officials accused of wrongdoing. Another partner at Jaegar’s law firm Jaeger, Ali & Blankner of Orlando will handle the case according to Forgie, and he does not anticipate the change in legal counsel to slow down the process. Assistant State Attorney Emily Curington is the lead prosecutor.

Anderson is the former City Administrator (until 2014), who was most recently a Lobbyist/Consultant for the City of Apopka until the City Council voted to terminate his contract on June 1st.

On April 5th, Anderson was involved in a head-on collision on SR 46 in Lake County according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A Dodge Ram pickup he owned crossed the centerline and crashed head-on into a Toyota driven by Michael Falcon. Falcon was seriously injured and airlifted to ORMC. Falcon later filed a lawsuit against Anderson on April 19th for the collision, and the Florida Highway Patrol issued an arrest warrant for Anderson on May 31st.