MBI vs. OW - All charges officially dropped.

Breaking: The MBI has dropped its racketeering charges against the Orlando Weekly, as well as misdemeanor and felony charges it filed against three Weekly employees last October for selling ads to prostitutes. As it turns out, the MBI brain-trust hit a small hitch - there's not really anything illegal about that.

Per the settlement, the three employees will enter into what's called pre-trial diversion - the same thing that happened to Buddy Dyer when the state dropped charges against him in 2005. The paper also agreed to stop running the Adult Services ads, and reimbursed the MBI $10,000 for its investigation.

We will have much more on this very shortly, so watch this space.

Posted by Jeff Billman on 2/27/2008 1:53:07 PM Permalink | Comments: 3

Comments on this story:

rachel said:
neato.
:)

posted on: 2/27/2008 2:06:38 PM

Chris Sexson, Publisher said:
Great to hear! Keep up the good work!

posted on: 2/27/2008 4:05:11 PM

Lamar said:
I'm glad this ugly business is over. It's too bad that Big Brother MBI is taking away perfectly legitimate revenues from the Weekly. It's too bad no local politician has the cojones to put an end to what is basically a worthless agency.

posted on: 2/28/2008 10:08:49 AM